Terug Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat (1979)
by
Roald Dahl
All the children in the world love to read Roald Dahl’s books, especially in Holland. I think that everyone of my age has read a book from him.
Roald Dahl’s parents were Norwegian (that explains his last name), but he was born in Glamorgan (Wales) in 1916. He went to a public school in Repton. He worked a while for Shell. In the Second World War he became a pilot. He crashed and got badly injured.
During a mission to Washington in 1942 he began to write short stories about his war-experiences. After his first book, ‘Over To You’, he couldn’t stop anymore. Books as ‘Someone Like You’, ‘Kiss, Kiss’, ‘The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar’ became very popular. His childrensbooks became even more popular. Everyone knows books like ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘Danny the Champion of the World’.
His books became a success because of his masterly plots. In the beginning of the book nothing is happening, but the plot knocks you of your feet because it’s very overwhelming or funny.
He died in 1990.
Contents
Mr and Mrs Bixby are leading a boring life in New York. Mr Bixby is a dentist.
Mrs Bixby keeps a secret life: she has had a lover in Baltimore for eight years now. Mr Bixby doesn’t know that his wife is having an affair. She goes to her lover once in a month. She tells her husband that she goes to visit her aunt.
One day Mrs Bixby gets a packet from her lover, the Colonel. It contains a beautiful mink coat. What must she tell her husband, she doesn’t have any rich friends. She goes to a pawnbroker and says that she has lost her purse and that the banks are all closed until Monday. So she asks him if she can borrow fifty dollars for the weekend. She leaves her coat behind and promises that she will give him his fifty dollars back on Monday. If she does that she will get her coat back. He gives her a ticket without name, address and discription because she doesn’t want to. It’s all part of her plan. Done deal!
She makes up a story that she has found a pawnticket on the seat of her taxi. Mr Bixby explains that it could be anything. He will pick it up. He said that it could be worth more than five hundred dollars. He is very exciting to find out what it is and Mrs Bixby plays along. When he gets back from the pawnbreaker, he calls her to come to his office and see what it is. He doesn’t have the mink coat, but a little fur neckpiece. Mrs Bixby is very angry with the pawnbroker; she wants her coat back, her plan has failed. She goes out and slams the door behind her. At that precise moment, Miss Pulteney, the secretary-assistant is coming in sailing past her down the corridor on her way to lunch. She is looking like a queen, just exactly like a queen in the beautiful black mink coat that the Colonel had given to Mrs Bixby.
The narrative technique and theme
The omniscient author. With the point of view of Mrs Bixby.
The theme’s are adultery and irony.
My own opinion
I have always enjoyed the stories by Roald Dahl, so this one too. Ofcourse the plot is very funny and surprising again. It teaches you a lesson that you must never play adultery or lie to someone about something important. It also shows that almost no plan is perfect.
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