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Study 026 - The Landlady (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-12 20:15:13
Imported:
2026-06
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Time to check in for another strange story: The Landlady by Roald Dahl!

Special thanks to our reader, Rachel Lackey.

Next up: The Sound Machine 

Comments

Steve

Mmm, Dahl is just a bit too tidy and dull for me. It seemed pretty obvious where he was going from the start. A poor man's Aickman. The Swords has a similar kind of set up, but completely blows this story out of the water. Great reading from what's her name though.

Ed Sizemore

I'm thinking that there is only one a year, because of how long it probably takes to properly preserve and stuff a human.

MonsterTalk

Haha - the comment on The Shining 237 scene. Had that same conversation with my wife about how I feel about the "ghost": Every year I come closer and closer to thinking "ah, she's not bad for her age." It's gone from horror to "I wonder how many beers..." Aging is weird.

Mounty of Madness

Do stay in a pub guest room, it is fun. When the kids are asleep, you wonder whether you should go downstairs to the bar, and the answer is always, yeah sure, I'm on vacation. You get to mingle with the regulars, even if you are not super familiar with British pub etiquette and don't know anybody.

It's a Ghost.

Love that you mentioned Robert Aikman in this episode, because just before I read this story, I had read the first half of “Ringing the Changes” by Aikman, which is also about people staying at a strange English hotel, and as I read this story, I kept forgetting that I was reading a Roald Dahl story and not an Aikman story.

Jennifer DeFord

If you're looking for more Dahl, I'd suggest "Royal Jelly." I read that in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology when I was around 10 years old and have never forgotten it.

Forrest Rush

Second Pig. Perfect Dahl for a strange stories study

Corey Wittig

Speaking of the stars being right, I love that you are covering these stories. I was raised on the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka but didn’t actually read Dahl until high school when I got obsessed with these short stories. All these years later I often choose two Dahl stories to read to my middle school students when there is a little extra time. What stories do I read? Well, Lamb to the Slaughter and The Landlady of course! So fun to see these two stories pop up in my feed. Like HPL, there are lots of issues with Dahl as a person. Reading his somewhat (not sure how much) embellished memoirs “Boy” and “Going Solo” definitely gives you insight into the guy’s issues: being brutalized by teachers and school administrators, fetishizing candy, crashing his plane and having his nose dangle off his face with only a sliver of flesh keeping it connected to his head? Yeah, you get why he was fucked up. Haha Anyway, I’ve been vegetarian for 20 years now and Pig really resonates as does the listening machine one. Not sure what to conclude about those stories all these years later. Don’t get caught up in the feelings of lesser beings because it’ll drive you mad? Beats me. I do like how the conclusions are a bit ambiguous.

Joshua

A really enjoyable, tidy tale. But, Chad, extra tip of the hat for the excellent Twin Peaks/Bohren vibes in the music. I actually had to back up the reading because I was too busy enjoying the background tunes.

Drix

I think Chad really nailed it with his remark on the similarities to Aickman, I had actually had the exact same thought as I was reading it. The whole situation and undercurrent of horniness really shouted Aickman to me. I've also recently read Thomas Ligotti's "In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land," which uses the device of a traveler and a strange land lady running a boarding house to great effect. If you're looking for Aickman recs once the show inevitably swings back to him(I hope), I'd suggest "The Same Dog" or "The Swords"

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

Given the animals, I do wonder if our poor fella will be kept as a pet for some time before being, er, stuffed and mounted.

Jim Cannon

So obviously Our Hero recognizes the two names because they are famous missing persons. And the landlady has their names inscribed in her ledger? The people of Bath must sleep well at night, knowing they have such a crackerjack police force protecting the streets.

Bret Kramer

I actually visited Bath as a young man - slightly older than the vic here, on a romantic summer tour turned solo aimless mope due to the vagaries of sophomore love. I remember the bus from Oxford well. It was near the solstice and the barefoot druid got off near Salisbury and an older lady pitched the historic merits of Exeter to me. Bath had a full days worth of sights I mistakenly spread over two days. I didn’t encounter any suspicious landladies, just a youth hostel a long hike from the city center where irate Australians very nearly came to blows with some drunken Americans when their rowdy 2 am rugby songs awakened all of us in the cheapskate bunk hall. Good times.

Bret Kramer

Wait is “Creepy Dahl” month some really subtle viral marketing for that M3GAN movie?! ;)

Forrest Rush

Oh btw, the hot water bottle issue. First it's one of those words which I've pretty much forgotten in English as growing up in Georgia we certainly never needed one of those and I didn't even consider them a necessity until I moved to Eastern Europe. Now in Germany for 20+ years it's just Wärmflasche which my boyfriend cannot go to sleep without when the temperature is anything close to 49 degrees or lower. I don't like it, but have finally gotten over any fear of them exploding. My real worry was that rolling over on it would result in a champagne cork kind of incident. Has never happened, but would be shocking way to wake up.

Cacodaemoniacal

I feel like I've red a story almost exactly like this (I think it's common for authors to take their own pass on an idea) only it became obvious that she was turning them into cats. I think his Mother and the Landlady were in cahoots. I wonder if the LL is using them as batteries (rechargable) or if they are ghosts up there.

Andy O'Dowd

In the 80s we had Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected on the tv (worth checking out if you can if only for the intro and the accompanying music. Mention the show to a person of a certain age they’ll start doing that weird dance the bond-title refugee would do in the aforementioned intro). Dahl himself would intro each story and the dramatisation of the Landlady expands with a few more details.IIRC Billy starts feeling faint after drinking his tea and just before he passes out he has a flash of memory about the two names belonging to two young men who achieved a degree of infamy in the press by seemingly vanishing without a trace. After he passes out the landlady ascends the stairs to a room where we see the taxidermied remains of the two young men in bed (not together obviously; she’s not a weirdo!) and she informs them they’ll soon have company… The show ran for several seasons and included again iirc stories by other authors. I’m off to Wikipedia to remind myself of the details and then Yt to see if any are on there. Btw the series also included a dramatisation of Lamb to the Slaughter.