The Landlady (short story)

"The Landlady" is a short horror story by Roald Dahl. It first appeared in print in the November 28, 1959 edition of The New Yorker magazine,^[1] as did some of the other short stories that would later be reprinted as Kiss Kiss (1960).^[2]

It won the "Best Short Story Mystery" award of the 1960 edition of the Edgars, the second time Dahl was to do so, the first award having been for his collection of short stories, Someone Like You (Best Short Story, 1954).^[3]

Plot summary

On a rainy day nov 1959, Billy Weaver, a 17-year-old, travels to his hotel for business. But along the way, he catches sight of a bed and breakfast and is strangely charmed by the sign outside the door and the cozy setting within, so he decides to put up there for the night. He is greeted by a talkative landlady, who insists upon conversing with the young man and serving him tea (Dahl refers to the tea tasting of "bitter almonds", implying it contains cyanide). Billy is slightly perplexed by the names of the guests registered in the guest book; he has seen two of the names in a newspaper report, but the landlady insists that they are still staying with her in a room upstairs. She also mentions her fondness for stuffing her deceased house-pets. The story ends with Weaver having drunk the tea, implying he will die because of the poison and be stuffed to be added to the landlady's collection.

References