Unexpected ending- typical Roald Dahl

In class this week we read a short story by Roald Dahl. We got to choose between four short stories, all by Roald Dahl. I chose the first one, The Landlady. It was rather interesting and very thrilling to read when I first read some lines. When I think of Roald Dahl I don’t know why, but I always imagine his books and stories to be a bit boring, but when I read them they are really good and thrilling!

As in many others of Roald Dahl’s books, this story also had an unexpected ending but quite open too. First the story started quite innocent, and very normal. This seventeen- year old boy we meet are looking for å place to stay when he is in Bath, and when he is walking trying to find "The Bell and Dragon" he finds a "Bed and Breakfast" which looks very cozy and nice. I just thought it was a normal story at the beginning, but as I read further it just became more and more strange, especially this old lady which owned the Bed and Breakfast. The man, Mr. Weaver, seems to get more and more suspicious, because when he signs the guest book he only sees two names, two familiar names, and there are about two-three years since they were there. Slowly he remembers the names; both were mentioned in the newspaper and they both disappeared while they were out traveling. He finds out that the parrot and the dog he saw inside in the beginning are not alive at all. They are dead and stuffed. The old lady says she did it herself, and before this she says that the two young men are still on the third floor. The old lady says he can meet them, if he drinks his tea first! Then the tea tastes funny, Mr. Weaver says also. If you did not understand the ending you should read the novel! It is very good!

The ending was as you see, quite unexpected! Who would have thought that the old lady with the nice and cozy house could me that mad? I first became suspicious when he found out about the names that belonged to two persons who had been there two and three years ago, and they were both mentioned in a newspaper where both had disappeared. It just became more and more strange in the end, and I thought it was much unexpected!

We also saw a film making of the novel by Hitchcock which was fun to see! It was much the same with only a few differences. But the main difference I noticed and thought about was that in the novel it didn’t seem like Mr. Weaver became suspicious until the very end. In the film he seemed much more suspicious from much earlier!

Here is a link to the film.

I liked both the film and the short story very good, I think the novel had of course better descriptions, but I think it was much clearer what happened to the young man in the film! It was not that obvious in the short story what happened to him, but I think both the film and the short story were very good!