Exploring the fragility of human psyche
Title: Madness Author: Roald Dahl Publisher: Penguin Books, London Year published: 2016 256 pages “Madness” is a collection of ten unsettling short stories for adults, first compiled in 2016 as part of a centenary edition of his darker tales. The book delves into the chilling consequences of losing control—of one’s life, but more profoundly, of one’s own mind—exploring the fine, often domestic, line between sanity and irrationality. Dahl uses his signature blend of suspense, dark humor, and macabre plot twists to examine themes of obsession, psychological breakdown, and the hidden cruelties lurking beneath polite society. The stories are characterized by ordinary settings and seemingly normal people whose hidden anxieties, eccentric desires, or sudden fixations lead to bizarre and frequently fatal outcomes. One of the central pieces, “ The Way Up to Heaven ,” focuses on a wealthy, elderly woman with a crippling, pathological obsession with punctuality. Her...