“Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”
The title story of this collection is also the most unusual in its construction. It is a story about a guy named Henry Sugar who finds a book written by a Dr. John Cartwright about a man named Imhrat Khan that Sugar’s account John Winston told the narrator would make a fascinating story which is the story the reader just read. Keep in mind that Cartwright, Khan, and even Winston the accountant are not exactly just single-mention characters who are referenced, but fleshed out to one degree or another. So, ultimately, it is somewhat ironic that the story—and the collection—is called “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” when his story is really about several people whose stories are told by other people.
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“The Boy Who Talked with Animals” is a young boy named David, son of a more than financially secure father. David loves animals and becomes hysterical at the sight of the largest sea turtle ever caught on that island struggling for life after being caught by fishermen who plan to slice and dice him for a delectable meal. The boy’s reaction is absolutely insanely hysterical and though his father “was embarrassed by his son…he was not ashamed of him.” He secretly arranges to buy the turtle’s freedom for as long as he and his son are on the island. After that, the beast is fair game again. The animal rights activist winds up winning this one long-term, however, as the next morning everybody wakes up to realize David has gone missing. He is later spotted headed out to the sea riding on the shell of the turtle, ironically making his dad as well as the fishermen a victim of environmental protest.
“The Swan”
Three brain-dead bullies kill a swan, cut off its wings, tie it to the arms of a young, weaker boy, force to climb a tree and begin shooting at him with a .22 when he won’t follow their orders to jump. It is a horrific tale of bullying taken to an extreme featuring one of the most put-upon characters in the long list of Dahl’s put-upon characters. But it ends remarkably well with the irony of the bullied young boy putting those wings tied to his arms to good use and flying gracefully (or maybe not so much) like a swan to freedom that otherwise would have been denied and impossible.
The Treasure of Mildenhall Irony
Though told in the form of a fictionalized short story, “The Mildenhall Treasure” is an absolute true and astounding story about two English men who discovered the greatest treasure trove of buried ancient Roman artifacts on British soil. The almost unbelievable details making the story worth telling drives at full speed toward an ending that is either going to be memorably ironic or completely forgettable. And it delivers:
“As a gesture, the Museum rewarded the co-finders with one thousand pounds each. Butcher, the true finder, was happy and surprised to receive so much money. He did not realize that had he been allowed to take the treasure home originally, he would almost certainly have revealed its existence and would thus have become eligible to receive one hundred percent of its value, which could have been anything between half a million and a million pounds.”
The Ironic C.S. Forester
The story of how Dahl became a published writer and subsequently a successful author is filled with unintentional ironies, but all of them together are encapsulated in a statement of intended irony by the famous writer who proved to be of valuable assistance. The backstory of the writing of “A Piece of Cake” is that Forester wanted to write the story and asked Dahl for background notes, but Dahl wound up sending a completely narrative, prompting the very famous writer to end his written reply with a question that is rhetorical precisely because it is ironic:
“Did you know you were a writer?”
