The Landlady is a brilliant gem of a short story from Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail.
In The Landlady, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a young man in need of room meets a most accommodating landlady...
The Landlady is taken from the short story collection Kiss Kiss, which includes ten other devious and shocking stories, featuring the wife who pawns the mink coat from her lover with unexpected results; the priceless piece of furniture that is the subject of a deceitful bargain; a wronged woman taking revenge on her dead husband, and others.
Roald Dahl was a beloved British author, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot, best known for his enchanting and often darkly humorous children's books that have captivated generations of readers around the world. Born in Llandaff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Dahl led a life marked by adventure, tragedy, creativity, and enduring literary success. His vivid imagination and distinctive storytelling style have made him one of the most celebrated children's authors in modern literature. Before becoming a writer, Dahl lived a life filled with excitement and hardship. He served as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II, surviving a near-fatal crash in the Libyan desert. His wartime experiences and travels deeply influenced his storytelling, often infusing his works with a sense of danger, resilience, and the triumph of the underdog. After the war, he began writing for both adults and children, showing a rare versatility that spanned genres and age groups. Dahl's children's books are known for their playful use of language, unforgettable characters, and a deep sense of justice, often pitting clever children against cruel or foolish adults. Some of his most iconic titles include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Witches. These works are filled with fantastical elements and moral undertones, empowering young readers to challenge authority, think independently, and believe in the impossible. Equally acclaimed for his work for adults, Dahl wrote numerous short stories characterized by their macabre twists and dark humor. His stories were frequently published in magazines such as The New Yorker and later compiled into bestselling collections like Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss. He also wrote screenplays, including the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and the adaptation of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Despite his literary success, Dahl was a complex and sometimes controversial figure, known for his strong opinions and difficult personality. Nonetheless, his books continue to be treasured for their wit, originality, and the sense of wonder they inspire. Many of his stories have been adapted into successful films, stage plays, and television specials, further cementing his legacy. Dahl's impact on children's literature is immeasurable. His ability to connect with young readers through a mix of irreverence, heart, and imagination has made his stories timeless. Even after his death, his books remain in print and continue to be read by millions of children worldwide. His writing not only entertains but also encourages curiosity, courage, and compassion. Roald Dahl's work lives on as a testament to the power of storytelling and the magic of a truly original voice. He remains a towering figure in literature whose creations continue to spark joy, mischief, and inspiration across generations.
It's coming to the wire, I'm feeling like I'm paralyzed / Cleanse me with your fire, open up my eyes (Wake Me Up – The Weeknd).
I’ve been thinking, with all the classics I’ve been reading (like three, but that’s a lot for me!), it probably seems like I’ve recently joined a book club of some sort considering it looks like my reading habits and tastes have completely changed against my will. Like damn, am I just going down some required school reading list or something? Well, maybe that’s not an apt comparison anymore because of all those oppressive “book bans” that are invading the school systems nowadays, but I digress. So yeah, I promise this isn’t one of those “blink twice if you’re in trouble” situations, I’m reading all of these out of my own volition. I like this stuff! Besides, I’m not sure if I’d be a good choice for a book club considering the second someone tries to put a deadline on my reading goals, I completely shut down. Don’t rush me! Also, my contrarian disposition, occasional bouts of self-righteousness, and queer interpretations of Sherlock Holmes books that I treat as gospel probably wouldn't be appreciated in a more stuffy environment. Anyway, here’s a little backstory, apparently my eighth grade Language Arts teacher had a rather macabre taste in literature because I read this lurid tale when I was probably too young, and yet it because of that fact, it has always stuck with me for all of these years. My only problem is that I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was called or who it was by! So after searching “short story where a guy goes to a random hotel at night and finds out that the host has been poisoning and taxidermizing young men who all fit his same description” (no really, that’s what I put in the search bar), here I am with The Landlady by Roald Dahl. And now that I’ve been properly reacquainted with this long-lost indie gem (it’s actually quite famous), it turns out I was pretty close! The story is about a young man looking for a place to rest his head one chilly night and makes the unwise decision to stay at a cozy looking Bed & Breakfast owned by a sweet old lady instead of sticking with the tried-and-true pub down the street. As you can probably guess, the landlady isn’t all that she seems and things only get worse from there. And by "from there," what I mean is that we learn about all the terribleness in a very quick succession that gave me the wildest roller-coaster ride of emotions! What's wonderful about The Landlady is that it doesn't play into genre at all, and because the narrative didn't bother with typical horror tropes like over-tuned suspense or drawn-out scare chords, those who read this story are left with an unwavering sense of malaise and only one thought in mind: "well, that was messed up."
The main difference between the version of The Landlady that I built up in my head over time and the source material is the fact that the actual text is quite a bit more understated than what my memory had been telling me. For one, I strictly remembered a scene where the main character runs upstairs in a drugged haze and is horrified to find the previous guests stuffed and on put on display, but nothing of the sort is found in the story proper. I guess it was just my mind filling in the blanks, and I think that’s honestly what makes The Landlady so impactful. For what this short story skips out on in gruesome detail, it more than makes up for in the uncomfortable implication. It’s able to say so much more in-between the lines. As an aside, one time my friend got mad at me because he was going to stay at an Airbnb hosted by an old lady for a couple weeks (sound familiar?) and I gave him my detailed description of this story, and it freaked him out something awful. So yeah, I was also surprised at how little unease is actually baked into the prose until the gut punch at the zenith. It really is a masterful use of concision and space in how even if you go into this short story knowing full well what’s going to happen, it still manages to imprint an immediate and lasting sense of terror regardless. The reader is less a passerby to the narrative and is more akin to an unwilling witness to the truest depravity. And remember, all of the awfulness is left unsaid because as we all know, there’s no greater horror than what we can conjure up in our imaginations, right? There’s a weightlessness to the writing style and how it informs the overarching narrative, as if this story suddenly appears in your mind like a bad dream and goes away without a trace, only leaving an unmistakable discomfort just out of reach. In that regard, The Landlady is the prime example of perfectly distilled horror. I also enjoyed how it was reminiscent of Twilight Zone in the way the landlady seemingly has an unexplainable and unbreakable hold over any unlucky soul who decides to stay at her Bed & Breakfast. Is she a Grisha, who knows!? It’s fine though, I feel like there are too many horror stories that get bogged down in the logistics of it all when their only goal should be to evoke the kind of sick feeling that sits in the pit of the reader’s stomach. And that’s where The Landlady comes in! As I'm sitting here writing this, I'm still coming down from the residuals of that primal kind of fear you only ever feel when you’re listening to scary tales around a campfire. Otherwise, I tried to figure out where Billy Weaver went wrong, seeing as there were absolutely no red flags surrounding the old lady, but then I remembered there was one important thing about her that Billy should have taken as a sign… she’s a landlord! It’s a given fact that there’s a rot in her soul. I mean, it’s right there in the title, my guy, I’m sorry you couldn’t see it!
“There’s nothing more annoying than a thing like this which remains just outside one’s memory. He hated to give up.”
Cool! We read this during the English lesson back in High school, and I'm surprised that it was so good! I really enjoyed this story; I only wish it was a bit longer. And I think this was my first Roald Dahl.
The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds...
............... Before we started this story, our teacher gave us one question: "Who is the Landlady." And my answer was: "Creepy killer". But I would say this to anything.
Un joven viajero acaba de llegar a destino en medio de la noche. Consultando en la Estación donde hospedarse le recomiendan un hotel cercano, pero de camino ve otro sitio que súbitamente le llama la atención y lo atrae. finalmente decide hospedarse en este sitio y es recibido por una amable mujer que parece haberlo estado esperando. La anfitriona, ademas de increíblemente atenta con su huésped, resulta ser bastante peculiar y excéntrica, entre otras cuestiones se dedica a la taxidermia, con un talento para emplear este arte que fue muy difícil para el viajero percatarse que el loro y el perro de la recepción en realidad no estaban vivos. Pronto el viajero comenzará a hacerse varias preguntas.
Una narrativa sencilla y concisa. Con un notable manejo de lo explicito/ implícito, al punto de prescindir de un final per se, porque las cartas ya están echadas sobre la mesa. Un ejemplo de la habilidad del autor para conectar con el lector juvenil y también con el lector adulto evocando la nostalgia con sus historias y embelleciendo lo siniestro.
Written in the 1950's this short horror story set in England was a home run with my grade 7 &8 students during our short story unit that we've just completed. A young man looks for a place to rest his head for the night and discovers a Bed and Breakfast that no reader will ever forget!
Oooh, this was really good! It's a creepy little short story about, well, a landlady, and her rather unfortunate tenants. This is the best kind of horror- really subtle, just at the fringes, a lingering sense of unease and an open ending that has an implied conclusion but lets you fill in the blanks. Read it here.
wow, just wow! I swear I once watched a horror movie inspired by this story. I had no idea this was a horror story, I just read the title and started reading, and I'm glad I didn't because I'm not fond of scary things. It's unbelievable that it came out of Roal Dahl's pen. I had no idea he could write such creepy stories. Right from pages 1 I could feel my legs weaken, my heart pounding and the chills going up and down my spine. I was terrified, yet I wanted to keep reading.
Everything was just perfect, I could see it happening right in front of my eyes, I could see the parrot, I could see the book, the names, I could taste the sweet almonds flavored tea, I could see Billy realizing what would happen next. I'm wowed, I'm definitely going to need more.
This is my first time reading anything of Roald Dahl's that wasn't a children's book and I have to say that I wasn't a huge fan. This book was so dull and predictable that I didn't really feel the creepiness or scariness that I was supposed to feel from the story.
What a bizarre sense of dread you get from this incredibly brief story!
This is not a supernatural or ghost story. Instead, it's about an elderly lady who appears to be lovely and accommodating, albeit a little senile. She owns a Bed & Breakfast, and Billy Weaver, 17, is in need of a place to stay. Billy feels impelled to stop at the B&B, despite being directed to a tavern for lodging only down the road. Billy knocks on the elderly lady's door, and she promptly invites him in, as if she had been waiting for him. The creepiness multiplies tenfold from this point on!
The story is presented in such a way that it is clear that the lady has done "something" to her former lodgers. You just don't know what it is - and that is what makes the story so good! Dahl instills a real sense of unease. Something is wrong, and you grow concerned that the young man isn't "getting it," and you want him to get out of there! Billy doesn't seem to realize he's in trouble, even after recognizing that his tea "tasted faintly of bitter almonds."
We never learn what the old lady's motivations were. We don't understand why she does what she does, which adds to the unpleasant nature of the plot.
My only criticism is that I wish the story had been a little bit longer! I craved more!
Okay, so the landlady Sometimes it’s dangerous to be cute!
Heh, I found the story cute almost more than I found it disturbing. Sure, the implication is most certainly disturbing, but to me it felt almost like a fairy-tale, and pretty fun to read; especially as, despite some foreboding and foreshadowing from the start, you don’t see the specifics of what’s going on until right at the end, .
I forgot to take a book with me to a coffee shop this morning, so ended up downloading this very short story via my son's school website.
I've read a few adult short stories from Roald Dahl in the past, and this follows a similar vein - mysterious circumstances with an overriding feeling of foreboding and dread for the main character. Dahl seems to take great pleasure in presenting these sweet and innocent old women and having their character be completely at odds with their image. This also reminded me a little of a Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story I read recently about a boarding house.
Okay, this one was weird. And kind of disturbing. And somehow I still remember everything that happened in it with stark detail. Maybe it was because we had to write our own endings for the story and my ending creeped me out...
Brilliant short read, very evocative of its time. Billy Weaver is a smart, young man in his brown suit and brown hat, newly arrived in Bath to take up his first job. He is instructed to find somewhere to stay before reporting in and the draw of the little bed and breakfast he passes immediately warns the reader that this is a bad move! The story is delightfully predictable and very creepy in a way that makes you want to shout - 'Look behind you!' Very enjoyable.
As a lover of horror stories, I am so glad I had to read this for my English Lit class in college. I found the plot to be very curious, which kept me intrigued. Many people may disagree with me when I say that I appreciated the fact that it had an open ending. This way, people get creative by imagining different kinds of endings. It also makes room for people to reflect on the different aspects of the story to find out what the ending could be. Overall, I enjoyed this short story very much, and am looking forward to read more of Dahl’s work.
The detail in The Landlady never ceases to amaze me. It's about an ambitious and naive young man named Billy Weaver, who stumbles across a seemingly perfect B & B, and subsequently meets a little old lady who runs the place. This story flows like clockwork - everything makes sense, and there's no unnecessary detail. The ending will definitely leave you scratching your head. I love how this piece is short, eerie, and leaves you thinking. I recommend this story if you want to read something snappy and thought provoking.
A lack of experience and a lack of intuition, but really lack of experience aids the horror of this story. This young man is so young, just seventeen, that I almost feel that the narrator is laughing a bit at him, thinking him too naive, too green to go out of town to work by himself. . . . And even more disturbing to my reading ego, I feel that the narrator is laughing at me for rooting for such a doomed character. And this is not the first time I have felt like this when reading a Ronald Dahl book/story. And I will come back for more. Oh me. Oh my.
I will give 5 stars impartially to all of his books because he's my favorite and someday I want to write like him, to be honest :p Or maybe copy his style of ending the narrative. Either way, I know he's terrific.
I love Roald Dahl! I stole this several years ago, yes I admit, I stole it from the teachers’ resource library. I had every intention of using it in my teaching but went with Lamb to Lamb to the Slaughter instead and simply “forgot” to return it.
If you have a few minutes to spare and want to read a subtle horror story about a welcoming landlady, then this is the story for you.
Story 1 The landlady I have to say I never read books from Roald Dahl for grownups. I do like this story, but it should have been a few pages longer to get a better idea of what was going on. It lacked the punch. Maybe he wanted us to use our fantasy, maybe that is the clue.