Henry Sugar, John Cartwright, Imhrat Khan
The opening line of the story are direct and unambiguous in telling us about Henry: he’s forty-one, single, rich, tall, has capped teeth, is a natty dresser, drives a Ferrari, lives in London in the summer but flees to warmer climes come winter and, like all wealthy men, is not satisfied with what he’s got. We also find out that Henry is easily bored and it is this aspect of Henry Sugar’s personality that is the engine driving the story. That’s because it is a story-within-a-story-within-a-story in which boredom leads Henry to read “A Report on an Interview with Imhrat Khan, The Man Who Could See Without His Eyes” by Dr. John Cartwright which begins as Cartwright’s story about meeting Khan before finally telling Khan’s story about seeing without his eyes.
David, “The Boy Who Talked with Animals”
David is introduced in the opening story in this selection as a barefooted little boy screaming hysterically at pretty much everyone on a Jamaican beach. David is upset because the gigantic turtle lying helplessly on its shell is scheduled to be targeted for its delectable meat and the young boy wants his father to do something to save it. Because the overwhelming bulk of adults in stories by Dahl are really just not terribly helpful people when it comes to kids with good intentions, the title of the story winds up becoming quite literal and taking a twist into the domain of magical realism.
“The Hitchhiker”
Neither the title character nor the first-person narrator of this story are named. The narration commences in vanity: the description of his new BMW. Before too long, the hitchhiker has goaded the narrator into seeing just how fast his fancy little toy can go and it is at around 120mph that the police lights show up in the rearview mirror. The hitchhiker turns out to quite proficient in the art of “fingersmithing” which British jargon for being a pickpocket. This turns out to be a talent that essentially undoes the damage done by being pulled over by the coppers.
Gordon Butcher, “The Mildenhall Treasure”
This particular story is prefaced with a note from the author in which he explains that it is based on a true. In fact, the story is not just true, but notorious. Dahl notes that he received more than adequate compensation from the Saturday Evening Post for the story and that he shared half of it with the real Gordon Butcher. The question of “why?” is answered in the story which relates how Butcher played a central role in the most valuable discovery of ancient Roman artifacts ever unearthed on British soil, but through a series of events involving a farmer named Rolfe—and especially a ploughman named Ford—was denied a reward that could potentially have been as much as a million pounds.
The Swan, Ernie, Raymond, Peter Watson
In this story Ernie's father sends him out with a .22 caliber rifle, he got for his birthday, to get them a bit. He meets up with his friend Raymond and invites him to join him. Ernie and Raymond are described as bullies who like to fight and terrorize weaker and smaller kids.
They see Peter Wilson, a "small and frail" boy who they disliked. Peter Wilson is a thirteen-year-old student, who is a senior because he was so good at school. He played the piano and loved music. All these attributes made him an easy and preferred target for Ernie and Raymond.
They proceed to bully and torture Peter in the cruelest ways. They tie him to the railroad tracks and let a train pass over him. Then, Ernie kills a swan, despite Peter's protest. They cut off the dead swan's wings and tie them to Peter. He is ordered to climb a tall tree and show them how he can fly. He jumps off the top and people report seeing a great white swan over the village. Peter crashes on the lawn next to his house, where his mother finds him injured and calls the doctor.
