Frame from the movie 'Matilda'.
It is almost impossible to conceive the children's literature -and, why not, adult- of the 20th century without Roald Dahl , the mind responsible for children's and youth classics — Matilda either Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , among others—, capable of gathering around its pages multitude of generations in apparent disagreement. Stories, all of them, where crudeness, a rare bird in the gender , coexists with the excessive imagination and the acid mood that he British writer became a house brand.
Just to understand that unmistakable style that distill all his works, it is important to know the history of the pen that hides behind them. Born in wales in a Norwegian family, he lost his sister and his father when only He was a boy . After training in different british centers —Which served as a source of inspiration for some of his works—, he began working for an oil company, with which he ended up in Dar-es-Salaam and where the Second World Cup surprised him. Dahl then became part of the Royal Air Force, until a serious accident ended with his transfer to Washington as a military attache.
The writer Roald Dahl.
It was in USA where, encouraged by the novelist C.S. Forester, he began to write, first some stories for the press and shortly after his first children's book, the gremlins (1943). This was followed by scripts —those of the movie You Only Live Twice from the James Bond saga or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, among others—, some novels for adults and about twenty children's titles, several of which have their own film adaptation, and with which, by the way, he won a more than prominent position in the world literary scene.
The vast majority were conceived in the renamed Gipsy House, the house in the English countryside that he bought with his first wife Patricia Neal in 1954 and that after his death almost 30 years ago, on November 23, 1990, became The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Center . Today we celebrate the 104th anniversary of his birth with a compilation of his children's stories; Well, as Dahl said: "If you think you'll get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books." And yours are essential.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
The story responsible for September 13 being the International Chocolate Day , is the one starring Charlie, a young man from a humble family who has the only dream of visiting the chocolate factory with his grandfather, which they see every day from its inn, run by Willy Wonka.
An opportunity that he will get in extremis when he has the great luck to find one of the five golden bills hidden in their chocolate bars and that guarantee a visit to this secret universe. The rest is the history of literature and, for a few decades, also from the cinema.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
MATILDA
She is only five years old but the little Matilda has a literary culture that many adults would already like, including her mediocre parents who spend all their time in front of to the tv . Although, as she will find out later, Matilda not only has above-average intelligence, but also telekinetic powers. Thus begins one of his most famous works , especially after its successful Film adaptation in the year 1996.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
The second children's book Dahl wrote tells the story of James Henry Trotter, a young orphan who lives with his despicable aunts Sponge and Spiker. One day he receives some mysterious green balls that have the unexpected property of making a peach grow excessively from the tree they have in his garden. He doesn't know it yet, but that giant peach will end up becoming his passport to his new life, full of adventures , away from his aunts and also from his native England.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
THE WITCHES
In today's world, witches do not have the appearance that one would imagine, but that of flesh and blood people. The protagonist of book he checks it out when, while on vacation with his grandmother, he stumbles upon the annual convention of the Witches Association of England. Its objective? Transform all the children in the world into rodents with the help of a mouse. The battle is served. This book features illustrations by the British quentin blake , who worked for more than a decade with Dahl.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
ROALD DAHL'S FAVORITE GHOSTS
The writer himself confessed that he for years he tried to write ghost stories that lived up to his expectations without much success, even working on the adaptation of stories on this theme for a TV series that never saw the light. It seems that Dahl has finally achieved his purpose in this anthology in which he condenses what he calls his fourteen favorite stories.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
STORIES IN VERSE FOR PERVERSE CHILDREN
What if the stories of a lifetime were not as they have always been told to us? in the universe of Roald Dahl Snow White leads a band of dwarfs dedicated to gambling, Little Red Riding Hood she is an avid collector of coats made from wolf skins and Cinderella she is not marrying a prince charming, but a jam maker. These are just three of the six children's stories that the British reinvents with large doses of acid mood that characterizes his work and his funny verses.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
WHAT A GROSS OF BUGS! | THE HUGE CROCODILE
The second approach to the writer's verse was through nine stories with a clear stamp Roald Dahl . All of them are carried out by animals and tell their fight against the human being. Among them, that of A crocodile that, for eat a child , resorts to all kinds of incidents, while all his companions fight to stop him.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
THE WONDERFUL MEDICINE OF JORGE
Jorge wants to change his not at all nice grandmother and to achieve this he creates a medicine. However, things do not go as he expected, as the animals on the farm where he lives also drink this concoction. From this moment on, the fun (and confusion) is served.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
BOY. CHILDHOOD STORIES
The best way to learn about the life, adventures and works of Roald Dahl it is from the hand of his autobiography. A compilation of stories that narrate from his childhood to his time in Africa. One hundred percent Roald Dahl.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
THE GENTLE GIANT
Published in the early 1980s, this story begins when a girl meets a giant, the Good-Looking Giant, and travels with him to the land of giants, where she discovers that not everyone is as good as her friend. Luckily they have the help of the queen of England!
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
THE GIRAFFE, THE PELICAN AND THE MONKEY
What do a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey do together? In the imagination of Roald Dahl they form the best trio of sales cleaners in the world. And here we can read.
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
Roald Dahl classics to return to childhood
*This article was initially published on 09.12.2019