In class
this week we read a short story by Roald Dahl. We got to choose between four
short stories, all by Roald Dahl. I chose the first one, The Landlady. It was
rather interesting and very thrilling to read when I first read some lines.
When I think of Roald Dahl I don’t know why, but I always imagine his books and
stories to be a bit boring, but when I read them they are really good and
thrilling!
As in many
others of Roald Dahl’s books, this story also had an unexpected ending but
quite open too. First the story started quite innocent, and very normal. This
seventeen- year old boy we meet are looking for å place to stay when he is in
Bath, and when he is walking trying to find "The Bell and Dragon" he
finds a "Bed and Breakfast" which looks very cozy and nice. I just
thought it was a normal story at the beginning, but as I read further it just
became more and more strange, especially this old lady which owned the Bed and
Breakfast. The man, Mr. Weaver, seems to get more and more suspicious, because
when he signs the guest book he only sees two names, two familiar names, and
there are about two-three years since they were there. Slowly he remembers the
names; both were mentioned in the newspaper and they both disappeared while
they were out traveling. He finds out that the parrot and the dog he saw inside
in the beginning are not alive at all. They are dead and stuffed. The old lady
says she did it herself, and before this she says that the two young men are
still on the third floor. The old lady says he can meet them, if he drinks his
tea first! Then the tea tastes funny, Mr. Weaver says also. If you did not
understand the ending you should read the novel! It is very good!
The ending
was as you see, quite unexpected! Who would have thought that the old lady with
the nice and cozy house could me that mad? I first became suspicious when he
found out about the names that belonged to two persons who had been there two
and three years ago, and they were both mentioned in a newspaper where both had
disappeared. It just became more and more strange in the end, and I thought it
was much unexpected!
We also saw
a film making of the novel by Hitchcock which was fun to see! It was much the
same with only a few differences. But the main difference I noticed and thought
about was that in the novel it didn’t seem like Mr. Weaver became suspicious
until the very end. In the film he seemed much more suspicious from much earlier!
Here is a
link to the film.
I liked
both the film and the short story very good, I think the novel had of course
better descriptions, but I think it was much clearer what happened to the young
man in the film! It was not that obvious in the short story what happened to
him, but I think both the film and the short story were very good!
