Switch Bitch
0-14-004179-6
Switch Bitch (1974) is a book of adult short stories by British writer Roald Dahl. Four stories, originally published in Playboy between 1965 and 1974,[1] are collected. They are linked by themes of rape by deception: in each one, some major act of cunning, cruelty, or hedonism underpins the sexuality.
The book is notable for its introduction of the Uncle Oswald character, a wealthy hobbyist and gadabout who stars in both the first and last stories. (Although the first story seemingly presages his imminent decline and death.) He later appeared in Dahl's comic novel for adults, My Uncle Oswald. Oswald is a male fantasy figure described as "the greatest fornicator of all time", his adventures recounted by a nephew who inherits his diaries and decides to edit them for publication. Despite the stories in Switch Bitch being dark and cynical in tone, the Oswald tales are also humorous and satirical, resembling crude comic anecdotes.
Contents and introductions
"The Visitor"
Wealthy gadabout Oswald Hendryks Cornelius is stranded in Cairo when a Syrian businessman picks him up by the side of the road and offers him a room for the night in his desert mansion. While there Oswald meets the man's wife and daughter, both of whom are extremely beautiful. A midnight liaison occurs and Oswald wonders whom it was he spent the night with, when the businessman reveals to him new information that could be fatal.
"The Great Switcheroo"
Two middle-class suburban men at a neighbourhood party devise a ruse whereby each can sleep with the other's wife, without either wife realising the deception. They compare sexual techniques beforehand, and one receives a rude awakening the morning after.
"The Last Act"
After being widowed a woman reconnects with the man she left for her late husband years ago. The man is a gynaecologist, recently separated, and unbeknownst to the woman still harbours a grudge for her breaking off their relationship. He begins to seduce her, and a terrible revenge ensues.
"Bitch"
Oswald Cornelius becomes entangled with a Belgian olfactory expert who claims to have discovered an eighth smell-related nerve that, when stimulated, unlocks certain aspects of human sexual experience. The expert develops a perfume to stimulate the nerve, causing chaos when it is exposed during a high society dinner for an American women's movement that Oswald is attending.
Reception
The stories have been criticised for their cruel and misogynistic elements. The central conceit of "The Last Act", in particular, has been described by Jeremy Treglown, Dahl's biographer, as having "no purpose as a mechanism other than to lead to a crudely sensationalist conclusion",[2] and by British novelist Zoe Heller as describing "in obscene detail the rape of a menopausal woman by a gynecologist."[3] In the same article for The New Republic she commented generally on Dahl's later adult stories: "the sexual sadism is at its crudest and the 'wit' at its most vestigial... [they] are almost unbearable to read."
Despite this negative reception, the stories have also been praised. Alfred Hitchcock, for whose television programme Dahl's story "Man from the South" was adapted, was fond of "The Visitor" and in later life recounted its plot on American talk shows as a dark joke.[4][5]
See also
- Kiss Kiss
- Someone like You
- Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying
References
- ^ Roald Dahl (1976). Switch Bitch.
These stories were originally published by Playboy magazine. Published in Great Britain in book form by Michael Joseph 1974. Published in Penguin Books 1976.
- ^ Treglown, Jeremy (9 September 2006). "The height of fancy". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- ^ Heller, Zoë (20 October 2010). "The Miserabilist". The New Republic.
- ^ The Tomorrow Show (hosted by Tom Snyder). Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2022 – via YouTube.
- ^ Skerry, Philip J. (29 August 2013). Dark Energy: Hitchcock's Absolute Camera and the Physics of Cinematic Spacetime. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781623568696.
- v
- t
- e
- The Gremlins (1943)
- James and the Giant Peach (1961)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
- The Magic Finger (1966)
- Fantastic Mr Fox (1970)
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
- Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
- The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
- The Twits (1980)
- George's Marvellous Medicine (1981)
- The BFG (1982)
- The Witches (1983)
- The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985)
- Matilda (1988)
- Esio Trot (1990)
- The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991)
- The Minpins (1991)
- Revolting Rhymes (1982)
- Dirty Beasts (1983)
- Rhyme Stew (1989)
- Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen (1948)
- My Uncle Oswald (1979)
collections
- Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)
- Someone Like You (1953)
- Kiss Kiss (1960)
- Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl (1969)
- Switch Bitch (1974)
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977)
- The Best of Roald Dahl (1978)
- Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
- More Tales of the Unexpected (1980)
- The Roald Dahl Omnibus (1986)
- Two Fables (1986)
- Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989)
- The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl (1991)
- The Roald Dahl Treasury (1997)
- The Great Automatic Grammatizator (1998)
- Skin and Other Stories (2000)
- Roald Dahl: Collected Stories (2006)
- The Mildenhall Treasure (1946)
- Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984)
- Going Solo (1986)
- Measles: A Dangerous Illness (1986)
- Memories with Food at Gipsy House (1991)
- Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety (1991)
- My Year (1993)
- 36 Hours (1964)
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
- Danny, the Champion of the World (1989)
- The BFG (1989)
- Breaking Point (1989)
- The Witches (1990)
- Four Rooms (1995)
- James and the Giant Peach (1996)
- Matilda (1996)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
- Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (2015)
- The BFG (2016)
- Revolting Rhymes (2016)
- Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017)
- The Witches (2020)
- Matilda the Musical (2022)
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
- Wonka (2023)
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024)
- The Twits (2025)
- The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling (1966, unfinished)
- You Only Live Twice (1967)
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
- The Night Digger (1971)
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
- The Honeys (1955)
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (1998)
- Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka (2004)
- The Witches (2008)
- The Golden Ticket (2010)
- James and the Giant Peach (2010)
- Matilda (2010)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013)
- Fantastic Mr Fox (2016)
- The Witches (2023)
- Bibliography
- Short stories bibliography
- Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories (1983)
- Gipsy House
- Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre
- Roald Dahl Children's Gallery
- Patricia Neal (wife)
- Olivia Dahl (daughter)
- Tessa Dahl (daughter)
- Ophelia Dahl (daughter)
- Lucy Dahl (daughter)
- Sophie Dahl (granddaughter)
- Phoebe Dahl (granddaughter)
- Felicity Dahl (second wife)
- Quentin Blake
- Wade-Dahl-Till valve
- Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (2020)
- To Olivia (2021)
- Revision controversy