The Witches (novel)

***The Witches*** is a 1983 British children's dark fantasy novel written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was published by Jonathon Cape in London. The book received mainly positive reviews from critics and was adapted into a stage production, radio drama and two feature-length films.

## Plot

The story is narrated from the perspective of an unnamed seven-year-old English boy, who goes to live with his Norwegian grandmother after his parents are killed in a tragic car accident. The boy loves all his grandmother's stories, but he is especially enthralled by the stories about real-life witches who she says are horrific female demons who seek to kill human children. She tells him a real witch looks exactly like an ordinary woman, but there are ways of telling whether she is a witch, such as real witches have claws instead of fingernails, which they hide by wearing gloves; are bald, which they hide by wearing wigs that make them break out in rashes; have square-ended feet with no toes which they hide by wearing small, pointy shoes that cause them discomfort; have eyes with pupils that change colours; have blue spit which they use for ink and have large nostrils which they use to sniff out children, who, to a witch, smell of dog's droppings; the dirtier the child, the less likely a witch can smell them.

The narrator and his grandmother return to England. However, the grandmother warns the boy to be on his guard, since English witches are known to be among the most vicious in the world, notorious for turning children into loathsome creatures so that unsuspecting adults will kill them. She also tells him about the mysterious Grand High Witch of All the World, the feared and diabolical leader of all of the world's witches, who visits their councils in every country, each year.

Shortly after arriving back in England, while the boy is working on the roof of his treehouse, he sees a strange woman in black staring up at him with an eerie smile and quickly registers that she is a witch. She tries to offer him a snake but he refuses and she eventually leaves. For his birthday, the grandmother gives the boy two pet mice: William and Mary. The grandmother eventually falls ill and is told by the doctor to take a seaside break. The grandmother and the boy go a hotel, where he meets a boy named Bruno Jenkins.

Later, while the boy is training his pet mice in the hotel ballroom, the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" the witches show up for their annual meeting. When one of them reaches underneath her hair to scratch at her scalp with a gloved hand, the boy realizes that this is the yearly gathering of England's witches, but he is trapped in the room. A young woman goes on stage and removes her entire face, which is a mask. The narrator realizes that this is none other than the Grand High Witch herself. She expresses her displeasure at the English witches' failure to eliminate enough children. The Grand High Witch unveils her master plan: all of England's witches are to purchase sweet shops (with counterfeited money printed by her from a magical money-making machine) and give away free sweets and chocolates laced with a drop of her latest creation: "Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker", a magic potion which turns the consumer into a mouse at a specified time set by the potion-maker. The intent is for the children's teachers and parents to unwittingly kill the transformed children.

To demonstrate the formula's effectiveness, the Grand High Witch brings in Bruno Jenkins, a rich and often greedy boy lured to the convention hall with the promise of free chocolate. She reveals that she had tricked Bruno into eating a chocolate bar laced with the formula the day before, and had set the "alarm" to go off during the meeting. The potion takes effect, transforming Bruno into a mouse before the assembled witches. Shortly after, the witches detect the narrator's presence and corner him. The Grand High Witch then pours an entire bottle of Formula 86 down his throat, and the overdose instantly turns him into a mouse. However, the transformed child retains his mentality, personality and even his voice - refusing to be lured into a mouse-trap. After tracking down Bruno, the transformed boy returns to his grandmother's hotel room and tells her what he has learned. He suggests turning the tables on the witches by slipping the potion into their evening meal. With some difficulty, he manages to get his hands on a bottle of the potion from the Grand High Witch's room.

After an attempt to return Bruno to his parents fails spectacularly (mainly due to his mother's fear of mice), the grandmother takes Bruno and the narrator to the dining hall. The narrator enters the kitchen, where he pours the potion into the green pea soup intended for the witches' dinner. On the way back from the kitchen, a cook spots the narrator and chops off part of his tail with a carving knife, before he manages to escape back to his grandmother. The witches all turn into mice within a few minutes, having had massive overdoses just like the narrator. The hotel staff and the guests all panic and unknowingly end up killing the Grand High Witch and all of England's witches.

Having returned home, the boy and his grandmother devise a plan to rid the world of witches. Impersonating the chief of police of Norway on the telephone, she discovers that the Grand High Witch was living in a castle in that country. They will travel to the Grand High Witch's Norwegian castle, and use the potion to change her successor and assistants into mice, then release cats to destroy them. Using the Grand High Witch's money-making machine and information on witches in various countries, they will try to eradicate them everywhere. The grandmother reveals that, as a mouse, the boy will probably only live for about another nine years, but the boy does not mind, as he does not want to outlive his grandmother (she reveals that she is also likely to live for only nine more years), as he would hate to have anyone else look after him.

## Reception

In 2012, *The Witches* was ranked number 81 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by *School Library Journal*, a monthly with primarily US audience. It was the third of four books by Dahl among the Top 100, more than any other writer. In November 2019, the BBC listed *The Witches* on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

The novel received mainly positive reviews in the United States, but with a few warnings due to the more fear inducing parts of it. Ann Waldron of the *Philadelphia Inquirer* wrote in her 1983 review that she would suggest not gifting the book to a child that is more emotional to particularly frightening scenarios. Other mixed receptions were the results of Dahl’s depiction of the witches being monstrous in characterization. Soon after its publication, the novel received compliments for its illustrations done by Quentin Blake.

*The Witches* was criticized for being perceived misogynistic, and banned by some libraries as a result. It appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990 to 1999, at number 22. Questions have also been raised about the ending of the book, with some critics suggesting it might encourage suicide in children by telling them they can avoid growing up by dying.

## Characters

* Boy
* Grandmother
* Grand High Witch
* Mr Stringer
* Mrs Jenkins
* Mr Jenkins
* Woman in Black
* Eunice
* Brenda
* Linda
* Unidentified witch 1
* Unidentified witch 2
* William and Mary