Roald Dahl`s short stories

Today in the English lesson we`ve been reading a short story from Roald Dahl named “The landlady”. This short story is about seventeen years old Billy Weaver who moves to a new city called Bath. Billy is going to a registration office for work and needs a place to stay. A man recommends a boarding home named Bell and the Dragon, but on his way to this boarding home he gets amazed by a tiny and cosy home. A sign over the home says “BED AND BREAKFAST” and this sign cathches his eyes. He goes in and meets a nice and old lady. But he soon discovers that there are some very strange things going on in this house, like two undergraduate students who have been lost for almost two years are in the third floor, probably stuffed out.

This genre is called a unexpected story, because ist kind of “spooky”. It seems like a nice old lady, but suddently she isn`t as nice as he thought. This short story contains all the characteristic of a short story like few persons included, an unexpected end, short time and the story begins in medias res.

I liked this story, because it made me think and it leaves a lot to my own imagination. The English used in this short story is not Advanced and i recommend everyone to read this short story, which is just another example of how dedicated Roald Dahl is!

I have now seen tales of the unexpected by Roald Dahl on YouTube. The shortstory  “The landlady” got televised in the 1970`s. The movie was televised in a good manner and it looked like a quite good movie. The difference between the Movie and the short story is that in the short story, the author doesn`t reveal as much as in the movie. In the book you have to use your own imagination and depict the end of the story, while in the televised Version of “The landlady” you get to see all of the happenings.
I myself prefer the book, so that I can imagine the end myself. The book makes the story even “spookier”, but the televised version has not the same effect.