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Madness

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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Madness by Roald Dahl, read by Juliet Stevenson, Cilllian Murphy, Adrian Scarborough, Tamsin Greig, Stephanie Beacham and Andrew Scott.

'There is a pleasure sure in being mad, which none but madmen know'

Our greatest fear is of losing control - of our lives, but, most of all, of ourselves. In these ten unsettling tales of unexpected madness, master storyteller Roald Dahl explores what happens when we let go our sanity.

Collected together for the first time, stories include Edward the Conqueror, Katina, The Sound Machine, An African Story, The Landlady, Pig, The Boy Who Talked with Animals, Dip in the Pool, William and Mary and The Way Up to Heaven.

 Anthologies & Short Stories Contemporary Contemporary Romance Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Short Stories Women's Fiction Comedy

Critic reviews

From Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected book of his darkest stories
One of the most widely read and influential writers
The absolute master of the twist in the tale
All stars
Most relevant
Some of these short stories are absolutely brilliant. Work of a expert to weave such a world you can get lost in, in just a few short words.
I'll not spoil and say which I liked the best.

Mix of Short stories, some okay, others brilliant

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Great stories but I'm dissapointed that I bought this as I've seen them all as Tales of the Unexpected episodes in the last year or so, on Netflix. They're really early on stories, from the 1970's... Roald Dahl introduces them, sat in a big chair by a fire... I've also heard a couple in another audible book of Dahl short stories that I own.
If you haven't watched the first couple of Tales of the Unexpected series, or you don't have other Dahl books of short stories then definitely go for this as they are good tales with nice little twists in each one.
Narration is great, as you'd expect with the actors involved.

Tales of the Unexpected c.1970s

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Incredible story telling with a sting in the tail. Beautifully narrated and performed. My only criticism (which does not detract) is the lack of space between each story- a production issue. Some short atmospheric music would have given the reader time to adjust, reflect and prepare for the next tale.
Otherwise perfect- great for dog walking!.

Incredible, macabre, great performances

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Beautifully and intelligently rendered. Top quality. If all audio books were this good I'd be ecstatic!

Excellent!

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Too bad that Cillian Murphy has such a boring voice for audiobooks. He may be a great actor but his narration is pretty bad.

More great Ronald Dahl stories

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