Kiss Kiss (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This title contains stories including: "The Landlady", "William and Mary", "The Way up to Heaven", "Parson's Pleasures", "Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat", "Royal Jelly", "Gregory Progy", "Genesis and Catastrophe", "Edwards the Conqueror", "Pig", and "The Champion of the World". --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

From the publication of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the 1960s to his death in 1990, Roald Dahl became the most successful children's author in the world. Nearly twenty years later, a fresh generation of children seek out his work with instinctive fanaticism. His creations endure - through Hollywood movies, theatre adaptations and musical works, but still most potently of all through the pure magic of his writing upon the page. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (June 27, 1959)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394432029
• ISBN-13: 978-0394432021
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #528,313 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dahl-icious, March 29, 2000

By	Joseph W. Smith III (Montoursville, PA United States) - See all my reviews

Too bad Dahl's short story collections are so hard to find; he was one of the best, right up there with Saki and O. Henry. This early collection has a few really delicious tales, particularly "Parson's Pleasure" and "The Landlady," and one about a baby that gets fed some sort of special food and gradually turns into a giant bee -- just the kind of thing only Dahl could pull off. This collection is worth tracking down, especially if you are a Dahl fan.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, April 5, 2006

By	David Blanton (New York, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Kiss Kiss (Folio) (French Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

There's a quiet zaniness that runs through the lot of these stories. Most of them are crisp, surprising and smoothly written at every turn. "The Way up to Heaven," "Parson's Pleasure," "Genesis and Catastrophe" and "Pig" delivered the best twists and overall fun for my tastes. Great literary and psychological foreplay.

5.0 out of 5 stars No wonder Roald Dahl's stories are always macabre..., June 28, 2005

By	Captain Genius - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kiss, Kiss (Transaction Large Print Books) (Hardcover)

It's no wonder "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The BFG" and even "Matilda" are thrillingly outrageous stories, because the short pieces in "Kiss Kiss" also display Roald Dahl's macabre and unexpected thoughts. In this case he weaves them around seemingly real-life situations. "Georgy Porgy" is particularly disturbing as George ends up getting drunk and then going mad when he feels he's conquered his fear of women, while "Royal Jelly" shows Albert Taylor turning his baby daughter into a big human bee like himself. Then there's the birth of Adolf Hitler in "Genesis and Catastrophe" and his mother wanting him to live after the deaths of her three previous children - and the whole world knows what he did during the Second World War - while "Edward the Conqueror" shows Edward obstinately refusing to believe that the cat Louisa discovers is a reincarnation of Franz Liszt...before throwing the creature in the fire. In "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" it is clear that Mr. Bixby found out that the mink coat his wife pawned was given to her (by the Colonel) and he punished her by secretly giving it to Miss Pulteney, while in "Pig", vegetarian Lexington becomes a tragic hero by eating a piece of pork and then meeting a death in the packing-house as horribly cruel as it is for pigs. But my favourite story is "William and Mary". It is unnerving in that Mary is appalled by the idea of William's brain being kept alive, together with one of his eyes, after he dies, but when she goes to the hospital to see the conclusion of this experiment, she likes the sight of William's brain immersed in Ringer's Solution with the eye glaring at her, and is adamant about bringing "him" home with her. The experiment itself is also unnerving, as is the short film that Landy watches showing the Russian dog's head licking away food and watching people that gives him the idea for the experiment. It just goes to show you how imaginative, how remarkable and how successful Dahl was as far as all age groups are concerned during his writing career, and that even his adult stories are as macabre as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" etc. Truly masterful.