Revolting Rhymes

Imagine Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White become BFFs, and then Jack, who everyone knows for having traded a cow for a bean, falls madly in love with his neighbour Cinderella. Imagine then that the cleverest of the three little pigs has become nothing less than a banker and that Prince Charming - if the truth be told - is not quite so “charming” after all. What fairy tales would we end up with? Roald Dahl is ready and more than willing to give us a hint. Revolting Rhymes is a 1982 collection of comic nursery rhymes, written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. A book in which the most extravagant author of children's literature transforms, overturns and reinvents some famous traditional fables and fairy tales (such as Cinderella, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs) and the stories of their protagonists with ironic and often surprising results. The verses that come to life on the page seem whispered in the ear of the young reader “by a tiny devil” who enjoys distorting the originals (or perhaps recounting for the first time those truths that adults have never wanted children to know). The plots are thus full of unscrupulous female protagonists, endowed with sharp wit, intelligence and common sense, but also host the weaving of different stories, fun and unexpected crossovers, stories in which the characters rebel and changes direction, moving away from the endings “already written” for them. The new endings, proposed by the author, will be far from ordinary: comedic, suspenseful, adventurous and — why not? — even a little bit horror. All in a game of style — Roald Dahl’s own inimitable one, cleverly translated by Roberto Piumini — in which turning things upside down, pranks and persuasion merge with plot twists, macabre traits and dark humour. On the other hand, did you really believe in 'happy ever afters'?  

Revolting Rhymes (Versi perversi)
by Roald Dahl; With the translation by Roberto Piumini
Salani, 2016