My Uncle Oswald

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My Uncle Oswald
RoaldDahl MyUncleOswald.jpg
First edition
AuthorRoald Dahl
CountryUnited Kingdom
PublisherMichael Joseph (UK)
Publication date
October 1979
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages222 pp. (hardback edition) * 208 pp. (paperback edition)
ISBN0-7181-1864-2 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-14-005577-0 (paperback edition)

My Uncle Oswald is an adult novel written by Roald Dahl.

The novel stars Uncle Oswald, a character who previously appeared in "The Visitor" and "Bitch", two short stories also written by Roald Dahl (and which can be both found in the book Switch Bitch). Dahl's novel was published in 1979.

Plot summary[edit]

Oswald Hendryks Cornelius, an extremely attractive and wealthy bounder, was the greatest fornicator of his time. In this instalment of his scorchingly frank memoirs, Uncle Oswald recounts his discovery of the sexually invigorating properties of the Sudanese Blister Beetle, and his cunning plan to steal what men are most willing to give away and sell it to women who wish to have children 'fathered' by geniuses.

Inspired by the aphrodisiac powers of the Sudanese blister beetle, the palpable seductiveness of the lovely Yasmin Howcomely, and the scientific know-how of Professor A. R. Woresley, Uncle Oswald anticipates the concept of the Nobel sperm bank by some 40 years, flim-flamming crowned heads, great artists, and eccentric geniuses into making "donations." The life of a commercial sperm broker has a few surprises even for a sophisticated bon vivant, and Dahl manages his signature sting-in-the-tail ending even in one of his lightest comic works.

There were a few near-misses along the way--Einstein very nearly figured out what was happening--but only one real failure. Howcomely inadvertently eats the wrong chocolate she intended to serve King Haakon of Norway. She gets thrown out of the king's castle after she falls into a temporary state of nymphomania and tries to rape him.


Victims of Oswald's plot in order of appearance in the book:


Uncle Oswald[edit]



In his 1980 review, Vance Bourjaily said:[1]


The tone is that of a gentleman telling ribald anecdotes to his male guests after dinner. The leer is civilized... the dialog gets mean and raunchy, but the physical detail is kept decorous.... Mr. Dahl's guests are not invited to vicarious orgy, then, nor will they hear a disguised lecture by a wicked satirist of morals and manners.... Summer reading.



  1. ^ Bourjaily, Vance (1980), "Civilized Ribaldry," The New York Times, 20 April 1980, p. BR4
  2. ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (1980), "Books of the Times," The New York Times, 29 April 1980, p. C9

External links[edit]