Someone Like You (short story collection) explained

Someone Like You
Author:	Roald Dahl
Country:	United Kingdom
Language:	English
Genre:	Mystery, horror, science fiction
Publisher:	Alfred A. Knopf
Release 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

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

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

• Edgar Award, 1954

Further reading

• Book: Tuck, Donald H. . Donald H. Tuck

. Donald H. Tuck . The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy . Chicago . . 1974. 0-911682-20-1 . 125.

Notes and References

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