An 'Orrible Lot (The Twits - Roald Dahl)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	The Twits - Roald Dahl
Date:	18/06/09 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters

Disadvantages: May not appeal to some

Now I'm not the world's greatest Roald Dahl fan but I do really like some of his short stories, although I have seen a lot of the longer ones on film when I was little. I first read the book I am going to review today, The Twits, when I was about nine or so and really enjoyed it. For nostalgia reasons I decided the other that I would re-read the story and after plucking it from my brothers book shelf I settled down to read it on the sofa.

The book is like most of Roald Dahl's offerings rather simple and easy to read. The story is rather vibrant and entertaining and the covers of the book can merely contain the colourful characters bursting to get out. The book itself was first published in 1980 and is not a very long read, coming in at 87 pages long in my copy, which is a Puffin edition published in 2001.

Despite saying that this book is 87 pages long not all of these pages contain writing and some contain only a minimal amount, as the story is accompanied by some superb sketches by Quentin Blake that lift the words off the page and bring the entire tale to life. They allow the adventure being depicted to take on its own life and give the characters minds and actions of their very own that fly right into your memory.

The Story itself is about Mr and Mrs Twits who are introduced to us hairy, smelly ugly people that have ugly and despicable thoughts. The Twits love playing tricks on one another and the tricks that they play are really horrid and more often than not revolting. Mrs Twit for example has a glass eye and loves to hide it in her husbands drinks or food, with the warning that she is always watching him.

It isn't just the tricks that they play on each other however that are despicable but also what they do to others. The Twits trap birds using Hugtight glue and cook them into Bird Pie. They also hate children and grow prickly plants to keep them away. On top of this they keep the Muggle-Wump family of monkeys locked in a cage at the bottom of their garden. Luckily however the Muggle-Wump family have a friend in the Roly-Poly bird and between them they may just be able to conduct a brilliant trick themselves.

Like I said before the story is very simple and so can easily be understand by children as young as five. The story at the same time however is engaging enough to keep much older children and adults entertained for it's duration. Like a lot of Dahl's books this one seems to cross the children, adult literature boundary. Now I don't mean by that, that contained within this innocent story is a complex sub-plot understood only by adults or that an adult reader takes away a wonderfully guiding message but merely that the simplicity and innocence of this marvellous tale has an appeal to both a child and adult reader. At the same time however the Twits are a horrible duo, which may (and I say this lightly) not appeal to some.

Personally however I see the book as a harmless piece of literature that should be read by or to all children. It is in my opinion a Roald Dahl classic and because it isn't too long, one that is easy to read and cherish.

Summary: A Roald Dahl classic