Home › Books › Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected: A Biography
Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected: A Biography
by
6/99
Critics' Rating Index
10/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
84/99
Volume of Reviews
18/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice From one of our finest literary biographers comes a brilliant biography of Roald the much-loved author and creator of countless iconic literary characters. Roald Dahl was one of the world's greatest storytellers. He conceived his vocation as as that of any fearless explorer and, in his writing for children, he was able to tap into a child's viewpoint throughout his life. He crafted tales that were exotic in scenario, frequently invested with a moral, and filled with vibrant characters that endure in public imagination to the present day. In this brand-new biography, Matthew Dennison re-evaluates the traditional narrative surrounding Dahl—that of school sporting hero, daredevil pilot, and wartime spy-turned-author—and examines surviving primary resources as well as Dahl's extensive literary output to tell the story of a man who identified as a rule-breaker, an iconoclast, and a romantic—both insider and outsider, war hero and child's friend.
Reviews
"Without supplanting either Jeremy Treglown's pioneering Roald Dahl: A Biography (1993) or Donald Sturrock's authorized biography, Storyteller (2010) — both of which I recommend, especially the latter — this succinct new biography provides just enough information for all but the most ardent Dahl devotee."
"This is not a potted biography, but it is a politely pruned one, idealism washing over the ick."
"A Dahl biographer needn't go full frobscottle and snozzcumbers, but this needs a splash more magic in the medicine."
"Dennison's biography has the virtues of clarity and brevity, but despite declaring itself 'unofficial', which might suggest it offers shocking new revelations, it adds little to the very good duo of earlier Dahlographies."
"Dennison is alive to telling detail but pulls a few punches."
"There is something shrouded about Dennison's account, something unspoken ..."
"There's not much in Matthew Dennison's book that you won't find in either of those previous biographies, but that is not to dismiss the volume at hand."
"It is a stylish but curiously pointless biography, the kind that neither uncovers anything new nor casts what was already known in an interesting light…It is worth noting that Dennison is mostly a biographer of grand English ladies…and one cannot help but wonder if his latest is a chummy attempt to redeem a beloved British cultural export now that the royals have proved themselves to be beyond redemption.""
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!