Dahl Study: My Lady Love, My Dove

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"My Lady Love, My Dove" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A man and his wife invite a couple to their home for the weekend to play bridge. The wife doesn't like the couple, and wants to bug their room to listen in to their conversations and activities. The man goes along with her idea, because it's easier than fighting. The couple arrives, and they all stay up late playing really good games of bridge. When they go back to their rooms, the man and wife listen in to the couple as they talk and get ready for bed. They realize that the other couple has a very detailed and polished system for cheating. The wife thinks it's brilliant and wants to copy it to do with her husband when they play.

"My Lady Love, My Dove" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/4/19)

The premise was slightly different - the woman is very rich, and this is her third husband. He doesn't work, but listens to music all day and is good with sound systems. She says she's bored and doesn't want the couple to come this weekend, but they're already on their way, so she wants to have fun with them. She bribes her husband to wire their room - he really doesn't want to, but she threatens him and says her second husband is working elsewhere as a salesman, and that threat pushes the man to do as she wishes. The rest of the show is the same as the story.

Dahl Study: Taste

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

- - -

"Taste" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A wine connoisseur comes to a man's house for dinner. The man loves to challenge the connoisseur to identify his wines, and this time he thinks he'll have him stumped. He wages a bet to make it interesting. The connoisseur keeps raising the stakes, and since the man is so sure the connoisseur won't guess correctly, he keeps agreeing. If the wine connoisseur loses, he gives the man two houses. If the connoisseur wins, he gets to marry the man's daughter. The connoisseur takes his time identifying the wine, building suspense, and eventually guesses correctly. Everyone is dumbfounded, until the maid brings the connoisseur his glasses from where he left them in the study when he went in and looked at the wine bottle's label before dinner.

"Taste" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 6/4/19)

This episode was just like the story. It was somewhat jarring to see how young the daughter was and how old and creepy the wine connoisseur was, but I guess that just adds to the suspense of the marriage bet. I think there was a little more foreshadowing about the study in the episode, because it's mentioned several times. The man is initially in the study before the wine connoisseur comes for dinner. When the wine connoisseur comes over, he asks for soda water to cleanse his palate, and goes away to use it privately. It is discussed at dinner that the study is the best place for wine to breathe, and that the man determined that location with help from the wine connoisseur. So it was not surprising when the maid brought in his glasses and said she found him in the study. It made sense that they would be there and that the wine connoisseur knew where the wine was kept, but still packed a punch for the ending of the story to realize what happened and that he's a cheater.