Buy new: $12.49
233 m | MONTREAL H3A 2A0
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Paperback – May 1 2000
| Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
|
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — | — |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Library binding
"Please retry" |
—
| $30.31 | $46.74 |
|
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry" | $20.59 | $36.20 |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" | — | $15.73 |
Purchase options and add-ons
Meet the boy who can talk to animals and the man who can see with his eyes closed. And find out about the treasure buried deep underground. A cleaver mix of fact and fiction, this collection also includes how master storyteller Roald Dahl became a writer. With Roald Dahl, you can never be sure where reality ends and fantasy begins.
"All the tales are entrancing inventions." —Publishers Weekly
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPuffin Books
- Publication dateMay 1 2000
- Grade level7 and up
- Dimensions13.03 x 1.57 x 19.69 cm
- ISBN-100141304707
- ISBN-13978-0141304700
- Lexile measure850L
Frequently bought together

Popular titles by this author
From the Publisher
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Matilda Wormwood is only five years old, but she is a genius. Unfortunately, her parents are too stupid to even notice. Worse, her horrible headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, is a bully who makes life difficult—especially for Matilda's teacher, Miss Honey, and her friends. However, what Miss Trunchbull doesn't know is that Matilda is an incredibly clever child and has a trick or two up her sleeve... |
Nobody has seen Willy Wonka—or the inside of his amazing chocolate factory—in years. When Wonka announces his plans to invite the winners of five Golden Tickets to visit his factory, the whole world is after those tickets! Little Charlie Bucket longs to find a Golden Ticket and get the chance to visit the mysterious factory and well, he has just as much chance as anyone else, doesn’t he? |
James Henry Trotter lives with his two horrid aunts, Spiker and Sponge, who never let him have fun or play with other children. He hasn't got a single friend in the whole wide world. That is, not until he meets the Old Green Grasshopper and the rest of the insects aboard a giant, magical peach! |
The Big Friendly Giant, BFG, is unlike other giants. For a start, he’d rather eat repulsant snozzcumbers than chomp on innocent children—lucky for little Sophie, he is far too nice and jumbly. It's not long before the BFG becomes Sophie's very best friend, and the pair are hatching a clever plan to deal with the cruel and nasty giants—with a very exceptional ally. |
Product description
Review
From the Back Cover
About the Author
After establishing himself as a writer for adults, Roald Dahl began writing children’s stories in 1960 while living in England with his family. His first stories were written as entertainment for his own children, to whom many of his books are dedicated.
Roald Dahl is now considered one of the most beloved storytellers of our time. Although he passed away in 1990, his popularity continues to increase as his fantastic novels, including James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, delight an ever-growing legion of fans.
Learn more about Roald Dahl on the official Roald Dahl Web site: www.roalddahl.com
Product details
- Publisher : Puffin Books (May 1 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0141304707
- ISBN-13 : 978-0141304700
- Item weight : 181 g
- Dimensions : 13.03 x 1.57 x 19.69 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #24,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #117 in Short Stories for Children
- #155 in Biographies for Children (Books)
- #836 in Fantasy & Magic for Children (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

The son of Norwegian parents, Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 and educated at Repton. He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War Two, and it was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author.
His fabulously popular children's books are read by children all over the world. Some of his better-known works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG.
He died in November 1990.
Customer reviews
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from Canada
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Was shipped fast and arrived in perfect condition.
The non-fiction pieces here are wonderful. His first story, "A Piece of Cake," is here, along with an account of how Dahl became a writer. Entitled "Lucky Break," this story is really a short autobiography of the writer from his early school days through his war experiences. The sections outlining his years at one of England's public schools should be read by anyone who thinks American places of learning are terrible. English public schools, Dahl writes, are actually very private academies devoted to the total education of their pupils. During the writer's childhood, this meant harsh, rigid discipline of a type usually seen in the military. The brutality exhibited by teachers and elder classmates at the school is shocking: the older students routinely whipped younger pupils with switches, an activity mirrored by the teachers whenever students misbehaved. There are great, tension filled descriptions of the beatings endured by Dahl at the hands of these tormentors. The author advises that wearing thick pajamas and undergarments will protect one's posterior from the brunt of a switching administered by a fellow classmate, but nothing will save you from the headmaster's canes. Yikes! And to think the worst thing that happened to me in school involved losing my locker combination. School wasn't a total loss for the young author, however, as it was the place where he learned to love literature.
The centerpiece story, "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar," is one of the best in the book. It's really two stories in one, about a wealthy but frivolous soul named Henry Sugar and his discovery of an unusual book in a friend's library. The book tells the story about a man in India who has learned to see through objects without the use of his eyes. Sugar gets the sudden inspiration to attain this ability and soon discovers that he is a natural at it, one of the rare people with the amazing gift to learn this art in just a few years. Henry's motivations are highly suspect at first: he wishes to use this newfound talent to cheat at the casino, thereby earning himself a fortune. But something rather odd occurs during his training process when Sugar soon discovers that he has little interest in accumulating money for selfish ends. He decides instead to use his gift to fund orphanages for the world's poor, and over the next several decades bilks casino after casino out of millions of dollars. Sugar soon becomes so well known to the owners of these gambling houses that he must assume disguises to keep the game going. Dahl writes the story in such a way that the reader becomes convinced Henry Sugar was a real, breathing person.
"The Swan" is another gem about a precocious child named Peter Watson who runs into two local tormentors, Ernie and Raymond, while out bird watching. The two goons march Watson around at the point of a gun for no other reason then alleviating their boredom on a weekend. They first tie Peter to the railroad tracks and trick him into believing he will be hit by a train. The final indignity occurs when Raymond and Ernie shoot a beautiful swan, tie its wings to Peter's arms, and force him to climb a tree so they can see him "fly." No spoilers here, but there is something magical and memorable about what happens next as Peter learns that he is one of those precious souls which all the bullies in the world will never triumph over. Along with "The Swan," you get "The Hitchhiker" and the less interesting "The Boy Who Talked With Animals."
"The Mildenhall Treasure" is an incredible story about an amazing discovery. On a cold winter morning, a farmer plowing another man's land stumbled upon the greatest cache of Roman silver ever found in Britain. Regrettably, Gordon Butcher didn't know what he had found because the silver had tarnished during its years in the ground. His boss did know what it was and took the stuff home where hid it for a few years before the authorities discovered it. The crux of the story centers on a British law that says the person who FINDS any treasure receives compensation for the full market value of the items. The Mildenhall plates, bowls, and spoons would have netted Butcher nearly a million pounds. By allowing his boss to walk off with the silver, Butcher received only one thousand pounds. In a way, this book is similar to the Mildenhall Treasure: a great find even if you have little idea of it at first glance. Roald Dahl's works are genius and everyone should read a few of them.
Top reviews from other countries
In this book you will find seven stories by Roald Dahl (1916-1990). And although the illustration on the cover by Quetin Blake suggests this might be a book for children the stories are definitely not. And the reason is not that there are not more illustrations in the book.
In the story „The Swan“ a young boy is tormented by other children. Not just with words, „Shut your mouth...Nobody‘s askin‘ yout opinion“ but also with violence, „Peter saw the gun coming up to the shoulder. It was pointing straight at him.“ This world pictured is hard and cruel but if you have in mind that this cannot be suitable for children it really is a great story. A story that left me breathless after reading it. Full of magic and love like the other six ones.
Roald Dahl is a well known writer of fiction stories for adults like the stories about uncle Oswald. Yes it is the man who is a sex maniac and gets therefore in a lot of trouble. But the welsh author is by far more known for his children stories, like the BFG or Charlie and the chocolat factory. Many storiers by Dahl have been made into fantastic movies.
Of the seven stories in this book three are not fiction. This is very uncommen for Dahl. „For me, the pleasure of writing comes with inventing stiories.“ Dahl tells how it came that he became a writer. He even gives the reader advice how to start as a writer.
As you might heard he was a pilot for the Royal Air Force in the second World war. And before that he worked in East Africa for the Shell Oil Company. About his life as a young boy at the boarding school he cites a school report, „His punches are not well-timed and are easily seen coming.“
Whether the masters, like teachers have been named in this time, didn‘t see his talent or he was really worse, is unclear. But i doubt he was such a bad writer. You can check this on your own in reading his first ever published story which he wrote in 1942, „ piece of cake“. C.S. Forester says about this story, „It is the work of a gifted writer“. The story might be the weakest in this collection of stories, but here and there you can find the gifted writer.
The title story „The wonderful Story of Henry Sugar“ is about a man who with the help of yoga learns to see with his eyes closed and what he uses it for is another great story.
As a child I was enthralled with Roald Dahl’s Hammer House of Horror series on the TV, as a father I delighted in reading all his children’s books, and now I got to his short stories for adults - The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – collection. In addition to (spoiler alert) the card-trick-yogi being a modern reincarnation of Robin Hood converting money from casinos into orphanages, he has six other stories – all worth reading.
The magic of these stories is the elegance of the plot and the way the main characters effortlessly weave the story. Seven stories like seven rivers or streams. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is definitely a river in this classification, undulating from beginning with a bored rich English bachelor who cheats on his friends, to an Indian who is more than a conjurer, to the temptation and metamorphosis of Henry Sugar. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't sell his soul like Doctor Faustus, and doesn’t turn into a cockroach; it is almost the opposite).
The Hitch-hiker, The Boy Who Talked to Animals and The Swan are more like fast moving streams. Each treat honour and danger in different ways. The Swan was for me the most terrifying – a tale of two extraordinary bullies and their victim.
The collection also contains two non-fiction pieces - The Mildenhall Treasure and A Piece of Cake. The Mildenhall Treasure is more a slow-moving river - an honourable farmer ploughs a field and… I won’t say more. Read it. A Piece of Cake is the story that launched Roald Dahl’s career and is about the author’s plane crash in the war, echoing (in a very different way), the crash of Antoine de Saint Exupery, or the artist Joseph Beuys. Three amazing artistic careers were launched by these near-death experiences. Not to be recommended as a means of literary or artistic development of course!
The collection also contains advice from Roald Dahl on writing and how he became a writer, and his childhood at school, which reminds us that schools aren’t what they used to be; in this case that is a good thing.
So, for writers looking for tools of the craft – Roald Dahl’s advice is to find a good plot. Keep paper handy and write down plots when they come to you. A sentence can be enough, even a single word - seeds for future stories.
Below are some general guidelines to reading this book:
1) If you don't have a sense of humor, do not expect this book to wow you. This is very much high-brow humor, so if your favorite show is Family Guy or the like, you will be disappointed. The humor in Dahl's short stories is found hidden behind the psyche of the characters involved. Whether in the devilish grin of the hitchhiker as the policeman walks up to the car, or in the mysterious man who watches as the lighter is flicked again and again, to gain a true understanding of the characters, you must read what Dahl does not write, but only implies in his description of his inventions.
2) If you have lost your child-like wonder of the world, you may not GET these stories. Dahl himself said that we must rigidly grasp our child-like wonder before it is gone, and I am a firm believer in this. That said, if you loved Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) and have not yet experienced Dahl, BUY THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY. You will fall in love, and your children eventually will too.
Parents - you may or may not want your kids to read this book...I won't spoil any plot lines for you but the themes are sometimes adult, but rarely inappropriate.
Adults - buy this book, set aside an afternoon without your cellphone or laptop, and relish in the fantastical, but very real worlds that Dahl creates.
ハッピーエンドというよりも、グッと迫ってくる作品が多いように思われた。







