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"The Landlady" is a short
horror story Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A ...
by
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime Flying ace, fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. ...
. It initially appeared in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', as did other short stories that would later be reprinted in the 1960 anthology, ''
Kiss Kiss Kiss Kiss may refer to: Books * ''Kiss Kiss'' (book), a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl Music * Kiss Kiss (band), an American indie rock band * "Kiss Kiss" (Chris Brown song) * "Kiss Kiss" (Kim Hyun-joong song) * "Kiss Kiss" (Ladies' ...
''.


Plot

Billy Weaver is a seventeen-year-old youth who has travelled by train from
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
to
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
to start a new job. Looking for lodgings, he comes across a boarding-house and feels strangely compelled by its sign saying "
Bed and Breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...
". Through the window, he notices a parrot in a cage and a sleeping
dachshund The dachshund ( or ; German: "badger dog"), also known as the wiener dog, badger dog, and sausage dog, is a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed. The dog may be smooth-haired, wire-haired, or long-haired, and comes in a variety of ...
on the floor. When he rings the doorbell, it is instantly answered by a middle-aged landlady. Billy discovers that her boarding-house is extremely cheap, and finds the woman somewhat eccentric and absent-minded, but very kind. When Billy signs her guest-book, he finds only two names, both dated more than two years ago: Christopher Mulholland and Gregory W. Temple – names which seem curiously familiar to Billy. The landlady invites Billy for some tea, and Billy tries to remember where he has previously heard the names in the guest-book. He seems to recall that Mulholland was an Eton schoolboy whose disappearance was reported in the newspapers. The landlady assures Billy that her Mulholland was a
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
undergraduate, and that Mulholland and Temple are still staying upstairs in her boarding-house. She says that Billy is a handsome young man, as were the two other guests. Billy is surprised to find that the parrot and dachshund he had seen through the window are both stuffed. The landlady says that she stuffs all her pets when they die. Billy finds that his tea tastes faintly of
bitter almonds The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...
. He asks the landlady whether she has had any other guests since the two young men. The landlady replies, "No, my dear. Only you." The implication is that the landlady has poisoned Billy's tea with
cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a ...
and intends to stuff his corpse, as she has already done to Mulholland and Temple.


Origin

In the introduction to '' Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories'', a collection of fourteen stories by other writers that he chose as the genre's best, Dahl states that he had always wanted to write a ghost story but never quite been able to. The closest he came was with "The Landlady", but after reading it through he decided that he had not "brought it off", so changed the ending to make the twist non-supernatural.


Reception

"The Landlady" won "Best Short Story Mystery" at the 1960
Edgar Awards The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...
. This was the second time Dahl was honoured, the first having been for his collection of short stories, '' Someone Like You'' (Best Short Story, 1954).


Screen adaptation

In 1979
Siobhán McKenna Siobhán McKenna (; 24 May 1922 – 16 November 1986) was an Irish stage and screen actress. Background She was born Siobhán Giollamhuire Nic Cionnaith in Belfast in the newly-created Northern Ireland into a Catholic and nationalist family. ...
appeared in the title role of ''The Landlady'' in an episode of the British TV series '' Tales of The Unexpected'' where she played a seemingly charming, maternal but eccentric landlady who murders her male tenants and adds them to her collection of stuffed creatures.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717493/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series), The Landlady (1979)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landlady, The 1959 short stories Short stories by Roald Dahl Works originally published in The New Yorker Horror short stories Somerset in fiction