Kiss Kiss (book)

Kiss Kiss

Dust-jacket from the first edition
Author Roald Dahl
Country United States
Language English
Genre Fantasy Science fiction short stories
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date
 1960
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 309 pp

Kiss Kiss is a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl, first published in 1960 by Alfred A. Knopf. Most of the constituent stories had been previously published elsewhere.

It contains the following short stories:

Without becoming horror, these are some of Dahl's most macabre stories. Delicately, the naive punish the wicked, but also the other way around.

Most of the stories are presented as typical narratives, albeit with imaginative characters. The horror of each story is built around implication, and many horrific endings, involving death or unpleasant situations, can only be inferred, since nothing is directly stated.

"The Champion of the World" is a condensed version of the story that would become Dahl's 1977 children's book, Danny the Champion of the World.

Editions

Audiobook

Unabridged recordings have been made of all eleven stories and released by Penguin Audiobooks. These are available individually as audio downloads, or together in a CD collection. The narrators are Stephanie Beacham, Juliet Stevenson, Derek Jacobi, Adrian Scarborough, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig.

Critical response

Lorna Bradbury, Deputy Literary Editor for The Daily Telegraph, listed the collection as one of "25 Classic Novels for Teenagers."[2] Zoe Chace of NPR told interviewer Cara Philbin her reactions during reading the collection as a child: "Kiss Kiss is for grown-ups... It was actually the marriages that I remember feeling the worst about... Reading Kiss Kiss is one of the first times I can remember a real-life truth staring back at me from a book. I hadn't yet thought about the nasty tricks adults play on each other just to hurt each other. Particularly, married adults who aren't in love and who might know the others weakness best. My imagination matured."[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "All works by Roald Dahl." The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Bradbury, Lorna (5 April 2012). "25 classic novels for teenagers". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  3. ↑ Philbin, Cara (July 3, 2012). "Zoe Chace Found An Unwelcome Truth Lurking in Roald Dahl's "Kiss Kiss"". NPR. Retrieved September 28, 2012.

Further reading


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