만약 스티븐 킹이 살인적인 간결함으로 글을 쓸 수 있었다면, 그는 기묘하게 재능있는 여주인과 작지만 단골 고객들을 가진 하숙집 이야기 "The Landlady"를 생각해 냈을지도 모른다. 만약 클라이브 바커가 유머 감각이 있었다면, 요리사와 채식주의를 잔인하도록 우스꽝스럽게 바라보는 "Pig"를 썼을지도 모른다. 만약 루이스 보르헤스가 더 피에 굶주렸다면, "Man From the South"에서 망치, 못, 정육칼로 내기를 하는 광적인 도박꾼을 상상했을지도 모른다.

이 모든 이야기는 로알드 달이 써낸 이야기로, 로알드 달의 끔찍하고 괴상한 것에 대한 천재성을 비할 데 없이 완전하게 드러냈다.

If Stephen King could write with murderous concision, he might have come up with "The Landlady," the story of a boarding house with an oddly talented proprietress and a small but permanent clientele. If Clive Barker had a sense of humor, he might have written "Pig," a brutally funny look at cooks and vegetarianism. And a more bloodthirsty Jorge Luis Borges might have imagined the fanatical little gambler in "Man From the South," who does his betting with a hammer, nails, and a butcher knife.

But all these stories in this volume were written by Roald Dahl, whose genius for the horrific and grotesque is unparalleled and entirely his own.

"Dahl has the mastery of plot and characters possessed by great writers of the past, along with a wildness and wryness of his own. One of his trademarks is writing beautifully about the ugly, even the horrible."--Los Angeles Times

"An ingenious imagination, a fascination with odd and ordinary detail, and a lust for its thorough exploitation are the...strengths of Dahl's storytelling."--New York Times Book Review