Someone Like You (short story collection)

Someone Like You
Dust-jacket from the first edition
Author	Roald Dahl
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Mystery, horror, science fiction
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	1953
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	359 pp

Someone Like You is a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl. It was published in 1953 by Alfred Knopf.

Contents[edit]

It contains eighteen short stories. The final four are grouped under a collective title.^[1]

"Taste"
"Lamb to the Slaughter"
"Man from the South"
"The Soldier"
"My Lady Love, My Dove"
"Dip in the Pool"
"Galloping Foxley"
"Skin"
"Poison"
"The Wish"
"Neck"
"The Sound Machine"
"Nunc Dimittis"
"The Great Automatic Grammatizator" (republished as The Great Automatic Grammatizator anthology)
"Claude's Dog"
- "The Ratcatcher"
- "Rummins"
- "Mr. Feasey"
- "Mr. Hoddy"

Reception & Legacy[edit]

Groff Conklin called Someone Like You "certainly the most distinguished book of short stories of 1953 ... all superb".^[2] Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas praised the collection's "subtly devastating murder stories [as well as] two biting science-fantasties, plus a few unclassifiable gems" and concluded the volume "belong[ed] on your shelves somewhere in the Beerbohm/Collier/Saki section".^[3]

Van Morrison's song Someone Like You is named after this collection.^[4]

Two of the stories in this collection were adapted by Wes Anderson as short films for Netflix.

Awards[edit]

Edgar Award, 1954^[3]

References[edit]

^ "Someone Like You". www.roalddahl.com.
^ Conklin, Groff (May 1954). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 129–133.
^ ^a ^b "Recommended Reading," F&SF, August 1954, p.79.
^ Van Morrison interview with Marty Whelan 4th Nov 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBbNsPbqbKU

Further reading[edit]

Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 125. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.

v t e Roald Dahl
Children's fiction	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)
Children's poetry	Revolting Rhymes (1982) Dirty Beasts (1983) Rhyme Stew (1989)
Adult novels	Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen (1948) My Uncle Oswald (1979)
Short story 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)
Non-fiction	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)
Film adaptations	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)
Film scripts	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)
Television series	'Way Out (1961) Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88) episodes
Musicals and plays	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)
See also	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

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