The Twits
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Twits is a children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was written in 1979, and first published in 1980.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Mr and Mrs Twit are two ugly, smelly, nasty people, who spend their lives playing nasty tricks on each other. They co-habitate a presumably dark house with no windows which overlooks a garden filled with nettles, weeds and brambles. The fact that the lack of windows is there to prevent people from looking in and spying, and the more than endearing garden there to prevent them trespassing, implies- besides unpleasantness, acute paranoia on their part. At the same time they enjoy treating animals with cruelty, by luring birds to glue-smothered trees so that they can be baked into bird pie and tormenting their pet monkeys, Muggle-Wump and his family, by getting them to stand upside down, one on top of the other. Then, one day, the arrival of the Roly-Poly Bird from Africa allows the monkeys and the birds that survived the fate of being wrapped in pastry to get the revenge that they have craved for years. They glue the carpet and furniture to the ceiling while the Twits are out, then on their return two ravens land some drops of glue from some paintbrushes in their claws onto the Twits' heads. When they go indoors and see their furniture apparently turned upside down, they stand on their heads- and of course remain stuck that way. With the Twits out of the way, the Muggle-Wumps are able to return to their native Africa with the help of the Roly-Poly Bird.
[edit] Mr Twit
Mr Twit is a horrible person, who has hair that covers his whole face, except for his forehead, eyes and his nose. His hair(which he falsely believes make him look wise and grand), rather than being smooth and soft, is much more like a nail brush. He is 60 years old, and he never washes. His beard contains many food items, including tinned sardines, stilton cheese, and cornflakes, which occasionally he will pick out from the hairs and eat. Mr Twit is a known drinker of beer, even at breakfast. He is known to go very quiet when he is plotting, usually his latest evil trick... the brunt of which is usually his wife.
[edit] Mrs Twit
Mrs Twit is the wife of Mr Twit. She, unlike her husband, was once very attractive. However, she had many ugly thoughts, and quickly transformed into the ugliest woman in the world. She is no more hygienic than her husband, and no more pleasant either: her walking-stick is used as a weapon towards children and strays as much as a prop. Mrs Twit has only one real eye, the other is glass, and she sometimes uses this to frighten her husband by putting it in unexpected places.
[edit] The Tricks of The Twits
[edit] The Eye of the Morning
Mrs Twit likes to let Mr Twit know that she is always watching him. She does this by placing her glass eye into Mr Twit's mug of beer at the breakfast table. This makes Mr Twit jump.
[edit] The Frog Princess
In revenge for the glass eye trick, Mr Twit played the old classic frog in the bed trick. He teased Mrs Twit by claiming the item in her bed was a Giant Skillywiggler, with teeth like screwdrivers, that would bite off her toes. Mrs Twit fainted after this trick.
[edit] The Spaghetti Incident
Revenge for the Giant Skillywiggler/Frog trick, Mrs Twit engineered the Spaghetti Incident. Mr Twit enjoyed spaghetti for his lunch, and so the day after the Frog trick, Mrs Twit combined his spaghetti with worms from the garden. She then made a tomato and cheese sauce, so that the worms would not show. When Mr Twit noticed that his lunch was moving, Mrs Twit claimed that the spaghetti was a new kind, known as 'Squiggly Spaghetti'. Mr Twit ate it all up, causing Mrs Twit to fall on floor laughing.
[edit] The Short Walking-stick
Revenge for the Spaghetti Incident, Mr Twit took Mrs Twit's walking stick to his workroom and lengthened it every night so Mrs Twit thought she had the shrinks. So Mr Twit tied her feet to an iron ring in the ground and tied 1000 ballons to her arms. Mr Twit cut the string and watched Mrs Twit float into the sky. But not for long.
[edit] Sticky Tree
There is an unimaginatively-named "Big Dead Tree" in the Twits' garden. This Mr Twit uses to trap birds upon by spreading glue on the branches that he eventually picks off to be put into a pie by Mrs Twit. He also manages, inadvertently, to catch four boys by the same method when they foolishly climb the tree themselves and very nearly bakes them instead. Luckily, they escape in time. It is this use of glue that gives the monkeys the idea of using it against the Twits.
[edit] Overview
The Twits, as a book, has, as Dahl himself acknowledged, occasionally made adults feel physically sick- perhaps not least because of the description of what lies within Mr Twits' beard in only the second chapter of the book (all the chapters being very short by the standards of Dahl's novels). However, it seems it was written with the view that children enjoy being disgusted- and frightened. Whatever the truth in this theory, it has remained popular amongst children and due to its shortness is occasionally seen as a good "starting point" by UK parents- and primary school teachers- when introducing children to Roald Dahl's stories for younger readers.
[edit] Trivia
- The idea of The Twits was triggered by Dahl's simple desire to write "something about beards" since he had an acute dislike of them himself. The first sentence of the story: "what a lot of hairy faces one sees nowadays" is a genuine complaint.
- The Twits as a book has remained so successful since its publication in 1980- at least in Britain- that it was adapted for the stage in 1999.
- Certain things within the book such as Mr Twit's Beard, "Wormy Speghetti" and bird pie appear within Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes.
- A monkey named Muggle-Wump (whether the same character as the one in The Twits or a member of the same family is not known) also appears in The Enormous Crocodile. A monkey bearing more than a passing resemblance to Quentin Blake's illustration of the same character also appears in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me.
- A Roly-Poly Bird likewise makes an appearance in The Enormous Crocodile and is also to be found in Dirty Beasts.
[edit] Editions
- ISBN 0-224-06491-6 (hardcover, 2003)
- ISBN 0-14-130107-4 (paperback, 2002)
- ISBN 0-375-82242-9 (hardcover, 2002)
- ISBN 0-14-131138-X (paperback, 2001)
- ISBN 0-14-034640-6 (paperback, 1991)
- ISBN 0-14-031406-7 (paperback, 1982)
- ISBN 0-224-01855-8 (hardcover, 1980)
