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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More

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This is a collection of short stories written by Roald Dahl.
The first story is The Boy who talked with animals. This story is about an old turtle that gets caught by a bunch of fishermen. They are about to drag the turtle up the beach when a boy comes running down the beach and hugs the ferocious turtle. He appears to be talking to him. The father of the boy buys the turtle, and the turtle swims away, but the next morning the kid is gone.
The second story is called The Hitchhiker. It is about a man who hitchhikes in a guy's car. The man steals the mans shoelace, his belt, and his wallet without the mans knowing. He gives them back though. He is very quick with his hands and he can take anything he wants without people knowing.
The next story is The Swan. It is about a boy who gets bullied and the bullying kids shoot a swan. They cut off the swan's wings and tie them to the boy's arms. They force him to climb a tree, and forced him to jump, and try to "fly." In a miracle the boy flies back to his house, and to safety.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is about a man named Henry who reads a book that tells you how to see without your eyes. Henry practices this for years until he has mastered it. Henry goes to a casino and he can see through the cards. Henry starts going to different casinos and sending his winnings to orphanages.
Lucky Break is about how he became a writer. He was in the war with Germany and after the war, a writer wanted to write about him in the paper. He wrote out a little story about him in the war and sent it to the writer, and the writer loved it. He published it under Roald's name.
A Piece of Cake is that first story that Roald wrote. It is about him crashing, and having all of these weird dreams that he can't stop running, and that he is drowning.

Lookin for a good book while browsing through the bookstore? Pick up this. I know that you'll read one sentence and then you'll be hooked on it through the entire two hundred something pages. It is a Dahl masterpiece. Dahl is my favorite writer of all time, but this is his best. Dahl is a unboring classical writer, even though he hasn't been elected as one.

I have read all of his books and short stories (except for the out of print ones) and they are the best. Even his adult ones I've read. But this, as I said, is the best. It is my prized posession. The only problem is that my copy is not a hardcover. Seven stories, with the style of a writer who has been wishing at a genie to be the best writer ever. The stories are: THE BOY WHO TALKED WITH ANIMALS, THE HITCHHIKER, THE SWAN, THE MILDENHALL TREASURE, THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, LUCKY BREAK: HOW I BECAME A WRITER, and A PIECE OF CAKE. You must buy a copy of this!

This is probably the best collection of Roald Dahl's short stories in existence.

Although he is best known for writing children's novels, Dahl was a master of the short story, and always wanted to be known for writing something above the level of children.

This book contains all the stories that combine his best elements; they are short stories, some of which have literary aspersions above his most famous novels, and yet they are accessible enough to be read by all ages.

Needless to say, they are intensely, wickedly good.
The collection contains seven stories, which range from 16 to 70 pages in length. The final two are definitely more adult oriented; _Lucky Break_ is a memoir-style account of how he went from being a poor english student to a professional writer, and _A Piece of Cake_ is his first published story, which appears to be based on his wartime experiences without necessarily being 100% accurate in its minor details. For an enthusiastic Dahl fan like myself, getting a glimpse of the man behind the curtain is exciting, and getting to know more about Dahl is a real treat.
Really, all of the stories are just fantastic, so I won't bother repeating how good each one is . But the stories are:
_The Boy Who Talked With Animals_ , which is about a young tourist boy at a beach resort who seeks to free a giant sea turtle which has been captured by the hotel management. This sounds like a children's story, but the characterization and the setting are quite adult.
_The Hitchhiker_ is an amusing tale about a british hitchhiker who reveals himself to be a fingersmith, a master classman of the pickpocketing profession. The interplay between three different levels of british society-the journalist driver, the rough cockney passenger, and a belligerent traffic cop, are very fun.
_The Mildenhall Treasure_ is an oddball story that is different because it's true (and not a firsthand experience). It tells the story of a plowman who comes across a great cache of valuable silver while plowing in the fields one day, and the way that it affects his life.
_The Swan_ is a story about childhood cruelty, in which a weak and inoffensive boy is pushed to the absolute limits of his endurance by two beebeegun-toting bullies who catch him in the woods alone. There is a surprise ending here that I've come to adore over the years.
_The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar_ is about a greedy man (Henry Sugar) who decides to apply himself to learn the powers of an indian yogi. This is a frame story around two interior stories that have the same themes, are fascinating in their own right, and which give weight to Henry's story. He finds that he can indeed learn the powers, but not without changing himself. This story ends with the type of madcap scheming that colors so many of his children's books.

I loved each one of these stories, from the time I was a preteen right through today, twenty years later. They all display Dahl's ability to find the most interesting parts of a story, and to make them even more interesting. Even better, many of these stories have something to say, which gives them some literary merit even as they entertain us.

If you like these stories, you might give his adult short story collections a try (collections I would recommend are The Umbrella Man and Skin).

Let me start off with my story: I hate book reports. I had 1 minute to find a book for a report in my school library. I grabbed the nearest book & checked it out w/o even looking at it until 3 periods later. "oh,yes this looks really interesting!" I thought sarcastically. However, 2 weeks later when I was finished, I decided that that had been the best book I had read in quite awhile. Here it is, in recap: THE BOY WHO TALKED WITH ANIMALS-A restless but animal-loving boy who saves a giant turtle. THE HITCHHIKER-A pickpocket gets a ride from a nameless man. The pickpocket saves their hides when the police find them speeding. THE MILDENHALL TREASURE-A great treasure is found by a farmer. It's worth a fortune, but he doesn't turn it in so he gets nothing. THE SWAN-Two nasty little boys try to kill some small birds when they find classmate of theirs to injure instead. A bit violent. WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR-How a millionaire makes even more by seeing w/o his eyes. He literally throws his money out a window.A must. LUCKY BREAK-How Roald Dahl became a writer A PIECE OF CAKE-Roald Dahl's first story. About his life as a pilot in war.

I read this book as a child and loved it. However, it was hard to tell reality from fiction and I didn't know whether to believe Henry Sugar's powers really existed. In particular, "The Swan" is a VERY disturbing story without the usual comedy found in Roald Dahl's works. I recommend reading this yourself before sharing it with your children. I loved everything else he wrote, but this was frankly disturbing.

This book is the sort that will draw a child into reading. They are mature enough to please a child's sense of adult, and simple enough where they won't get bogged down with the reading comprehension. I have just reread this book at age 31. The last time I read it was about age 15. It was even better the second time around!!

They're all wonderful, all haunting, and all worth reading, at any age. I, like a previous reviewer, read the book around age ten, but my experience was just the opposite: my world view broadened, and I gained new understanding of and appreciation for humanity. It fed my sense of wonder, and stoked my belief in the magic of everyday life.

Dahl's talent for showing our penchant for brutality juxtaposed with our potential for nobility is, in my view, almost unmatched. This is a book for every young person growing up in an cold and uncertain world. There is a true love for the human condition here, and in many of his other works.

Do yourself a favor and get it. The imagery is still with me, more than two decades later, just as clear and vivid as when I first encountered it.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More tells, obviously, seven short stories. The collection includes "The Boy Who Talked with Animals", "The Hitchiker", "The Mildenhall Treasure", "The Swan", "Lucky Break", "A Piece of Cake", and of course "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar." The story of Henry Sugar tells the adventure or a man who learns to see without his eyes and the interesting way he chooses to use his talent. The character of Henry Sugar undergoes a transformation from an egotistiacl socialite to a humanitarian with a twist.
This is definately classic, witty, and slightly twisted (as always) Roald Dahl! It explores the themes of sight, focus, and charity.

In my eyes, Roald Dahl is the greatest children's author that ever lived, and even for adults he is in my top 5. I first read this book when I was 7 years old - at the time I was struck with the wonderful magic that he seems to work into all his stories. Upon reading it again as a young teen, I started to get the feeling that he had a wicked sense of humor, without malignity but wicked nonetheless. Now as an adult, I decided to revisit this wonderful book, and suddenly the subtle social nuances, the author's sarcastic wit, and the fantastical but totally believable characters jump to life. I know someone who IS Henry Sugar, have met him at parties, and wished this story was true. The hitchhiker obviously is exaggerated, and yet I feel as though I could meet him in the pub tomorrow without raising an eyebrow.


Below are some general guidelines to reading this book:

1) If you don't have a sense of humor, do not expect this book to wow you. This is very much high-brow humor, so if your favorite show is Family Guy or the like, you will be disappointed. The humor in Dahl's short stories is found hidden behind the psyche of the characters involved. Whether in the devilish grin of the hitchhiker as the policeman walks up to the car, or in the mysterious man who watches as the lighter is flicked again and again, to gain a true understanding of the characters, you must read what Dahl does not write, but only implies in his description of his inventions.

2) If you have lost your child-like wonder of the world, you may not GET these stories. Dahl himself said that we must rigidly grasp our child-like wonder before it is gone, and I am a firm believer in this. That said, if you loved Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) and have not yet experienced Dahl, BUY THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY. You will fall in love, and your children eventually will too.


Parents - you may or may not want your kids to read this book...I won't spoil any plot lines for you but the themes are sometimes adult, but rarely inappropriate.
Adults - buy this book, set aside an afternoon without your cellphone or laptop, and relish in the fantastical, but very real worlds that Dahl creates.

Because of "the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" and Ramtha, I now can read through a deck of cards, just like Henry Sugar. Shuffled and face down, I can see on the back side what card is on top, turn it over and verify. That's the reason I bought the book to begin with. The other stories are well written and enjoyable, too, but when you begin to grasp what our minds are capable of and the great contributions we can make to humanity, Henry Sugar stands out.

I'm not the only one who can read like Henry Sugar. I was about the 45th person at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment to do this. It started with Kenny Thompson ([...]), who is now able to do telekenesis. [...].

So, when you read his "fiction", know that nothing is impossible!