I always thought there was mean streak to Roald Dahl’s books. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed them so much as a child; Dahl indulged in that vengeful, immature side of little boys that we hopefully subsume by the time we become young adults.
Now comes this piece from Alex Carnevale explaining that apparently, Dahl was an anti-semitic womanizer. Does this make me think of his books any less? Yeah. It does.
An unhappy and bullied little boy, in adulthood he longed for the kind of dominance he never achieved as a child. Even from his earliest days, he was a hateful little fuck. He began one prep school essay, “Sometimes there is a great advantage in traveling to hot countries, where niggers dwell. They will give you many valuable things.” From a very young age Dahl found himself attracted to older women, cultivating many secret relationships throughout his life, including a variety of affairs with married women.