Matilda - Hardcover

Dahl, Roald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224025724 ISBN 13: 9780224025720

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 1988

Synopsis

Matilda is brilliant. Sensitive and brilliant, but Mr and Mrs Wormwood treat her as a scab, not a daughter - a scab to be endured until the time comes to flick her away to the next county, or preferably farther.
Even before she is five years old, Matilda has read Dickens and Hemingway, Kipling and Steinbeck, and still her parents think her just a nuisance. So she decides to get her own back. Matilda's car salesman father, in his loud checked suit, and her platinum-haired mother are no match for her sharp genius. And when she is attacked by Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress who could teach Wackford Squeers a thing or two about punishment, the child prodigy discovers she has an extraordinary psychic power that can save her school and especially her lovely teacher, Miss Honey.
This is a novel with all the qualities of The BFG and The Witches (winner of the 1983 Whitbread Award). Roald Dahl has done it again!

About this title

Review:

Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she's knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she's a super-nerd and the teacher's pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda's world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centred parents who ever lived. Then there's the large, busty nightmare of a school mistress, Mrs ("The") Trunchbull, a former hammer- throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience and an innate talent for revenge.

She warms up with some practical jokes aimed at her hapless parents, but the true test comes when she rallies in defence of her teacher, the sweet Miss Honey, against the diabolical Trunchbull. There is never any doubt that Matilda will carry the day. Even so, this wonderful story is far from predictable--the big surprise comes when Matilda discovers a new, mysterious facet of her mental dexterity. Roald Dahl, while keeping the plot moving imaginatively, also has an unerring ear for emotional truth. The truly reader cares about Matilda because, in addition to all her other gifts, she has real feelings.

Review:

A true genius . . . Roald Dahl is my hero (David Walliams)

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0224025724
• ISBN 13: 9780224025720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256
• Illustrator: Blake Quentin