Switch Bitch

by Roald Dahl

Book Overview

'The Visitor' and 'Bitch' are extracts from the diaries of the notorious Oswald Hendryks Cornelius, hedonist beyond compare. Uncle Oswald's exploits are as extraordinary as they are scandalous, as these two tales of sex and intrigue confirm in vivid and hilarious detail. The delicious thrill of sexual expectation -- and its sometimes maddening effects -- are explored in 'The Great Switcheroo' and 'The Last Act'; here the power of desire is a double-edged...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394494733
• ISBN13: 9780394494739
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

excellent short stories

I rarely read short stories anymore because I think there are very few good writers in this genre. The reason for that, I think, is because good short stories are hard to write. You've got to be able to pack a lot of punch into a small space. And this is exactly what Roald Dahl is able to do. He creates memorably eccentric characters and unexpected plot elements, usually culminating in something deliciously surprising by story's end. I recommend this collection for anyone who appreciates well-crafted short stories. Paul Gehrman, Author, Kaleidoscope

A wonderful collection of my favorite Dahl stories

.. This is easily Dahl's most sfnal work, and is mostly erotic humor, a micro-genre that is in woefully short supply. Here's a sample from "Bitch", my favorite. The protag has been dosed with the world's most potent aphrodosiac: [quote] ...the two of us were millions of miles up in outer space, flying through the universe in a shower of meteorites all red and gold. I was riding her bareback... "Faster!" I shouted, jabbing long spurs into her flanks. "Go faster!" Faster and still faster she flew, spurting and spinning around the rim of the sky, her mane streaming with sun, and snow waving out of her tail. The sense of power I had was overwhelming. I was unassailable, supreme. I was the Lord of the Universe, scattering the planets and catching the stars in the palm of my hand... Oh, ecstasy and ravishment! Oh, Jericho and Tyre and Sidon! The walls came tumbling down and the firmament disintegrated, and out of the smoke and fire of the of the explosion, the sitting-room in the Waldorf Towers came swimming slowly back into my consciousness like a rainy day..." What a pity that Roald Dahl didn't write more adult fiction. Anyway, if you haven't read Switch Bitch, some wonderfully sly, bawdy and remarkably well-written entertainment awaits you. Bon appetit! Happy reading-- Peter D. Tillman

Brisk and bold

An easy read, well-plotted, and often surprising, these four stories should please most readers with a taste for the ironic. The philandering, eccentric character of "Uncle Oswald" is a hedonistic delight, and the two stories involving him are certainly the better half of this small collection. It takes a masterful writer to make such an amoral protagonist work, in any context. The other two tales, involving a wife-swapping and a widow ready to try intimacy again, are less gripping, and a bit anticlimactic with their payoffs.

the most entertaining short story writer

Roald Dahl, perhaps the most entertaining short story writer ever to grace the world with his genius, created a world unto itself in this collection of four short stories, a world in which the characters are eccentrically unforgettable, the plots are sensually graphic, and the endings are climactically uproarious with emotional impact. Dahl is a master of forming stories that ferment over the time it takes the reader to read them and, in his trademark endings, explode with surprise and joy.