Witches, like Soviet spies in a Cold War film, could be anywhere! The frame narrative also sets the stage for the kind of story we’re about to receive: a tale about deliberately caricatured witches and a world blissfully unaware of their existence. The witches, after all, despise children with every fiber of their being and have concocted elaborate schemes and costumes to hide their existence from humanity while abducting and killing the world’s children. This takes some of the edge off from what otherwise might be an objectively terrifying premise. These early chapters are part of a frame narrative that reminds the intended reader - children - that this is a story with a somewhat comical nature - witches are a silly bunch of monsters - and that everything will be alright in the end (sorta). It’s a story of evil witches and myth, children turned into mice, and the unwavering stupidity of English high society.Īs a novel, The Witches has the characteristic quirkiness of all Dahl creations, filling its early pages with delightful anecdotes and amusing witch facts. The boy, naturally, stumbles upon the witches, discovers their dastardly plot to rid England of all the pesky children, and suffers a tragic fate that drags his grandmother out of retirement. When his grandmother falls ill, they vacation in a fancy hotel in Southern England to promote her recovery, which turns out to be the location for the annual meeting of witches. The grandmother regales her newfound charge with all sorts of tales, the favorite of which are her stories about being a retired witch hunter. The novel follows an unnamed English boy who falls under the care of his Norwegian grandmother after the untimely death of his parents. The Witches is a curious work, both quirky and a tad twisted. And, so, like many readers of Dahl’s works, I have a different experience of this particular work, moving backwards from adaptation to the original with a clear sense of bias towards the former. Until now, my only knowledge of The Witches was my early experiences with the film, a product more deeply terrifying than its quirky and twisted literary predecessor. Indeed, Dahl is on record as having called the adaptation “ utterly appalling,” yet for a disturbing interpretation to his work, the film remains a cultural touchstone.
If Dahl were alive today, he might be particularly bothered by the fact that the 1990 adaptation of his 1983 novel, The Witches, has had the same (or, more probably, slightly more) cultural staying power than the novel it loosely adapts.
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