Uncle Oswald and the Sudan Beetle
Uncle Oswald and the Sudan Beetle is a 1979 novel by the Norwegian-Welsh author Roald Dahl . The German first edition in the translation used since then appeared in 1985 by Rowohlt-Verlag , Reinbek near Hamburg.
action
This book begins with the narrator receiving a shipment of initially enigmatic wooden boxes. He discovers that they contain the diaries of his late uncle Oswald, a connoisseur, very rich, who didn't have to work and who spent his time enjoying his life and seducing countless women. The narrator tells how his uncle Oswald amassed his fortune.
The young English playboy Oswald traveled to France after the First World War , where he met his father's friends. Oswald has successfully withdrawn from military service and is enjoying life to the full. It is part of his iron principle to only have one-night stands and only ever consume the very best. During his crossing and his time in Paris, he, who is naturally dazzling, has numerous minor affairs. In Paris, he first heard about the legendary Sudan beetle, the supposedly most powerful aphrodisiac in the world. He realizes that he can make a fortune with it and travels to Sudan, where he is convinced of the truth of the legends. Back in Paris, he begins by doing a self-experiment to find out which dosage is appropriate. He makes pills from the beetle's dried powder and sells them to horny old diplomats. The pills put its users in an intoxicating state of sexual arousal, which makes immediate copulation with the next best partner inevitable. It also gives a Herculean potency . The diplomats are enthusiastic and ask for more pills. Oswald quickly amassed a fortune. When he meets the beautiful Yasmin Howcomely, he begins a passionate affair with her. For the first time he can imagine something like a relationship with a woman. Together with the ingenious professor AR Woresley, who knows how to freeze seeds, he hatches a new plan: He mixes aphrodisiac ingredients into the chocolate truffles from Prestat , London. With her help, Yasmin seduces the world's most famous men in order to steal their seeds and then sell them to women who want a child of geniuses. The semen is collected with the help of condoms. Woresley's ingenious method ensures that the semen is preserved - anachronistic within the framework of the action. The embarrassed celebrities sign a declaration that the semen is theirs and Yasmin refrains from bringing the scandalous behavior to the public. Yasmin works off the list, but a nasty surprise awaits Oswald. In the end, Yasmin and the professor run off with the entire sperm bank and put him on the back. Oswald takes it with humor.
Victim of the story of Oswald
(in the order of their appearance in the book)
- Alfonso XIII , King of Spain
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter
- Claude Monet , French painter
- Igor Stravinsky , Russian composer
- Pablo Picasso , Spanish painter
- Henri Matisse , French painter
- Marcel Proust , French poet
- Vaslav Nijinsky , Polish-born Russian ballet dancer and choreographer
- James Joyce , Irish writer and poet
- Giacomo Puccini , Italian composer
- Sergei Rachmaninoff , Russian composer, conductor and pianist
- Sigmund Freud , Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis
- Albert Einstein , German-Jewish theoretical physicist
- Thomas Mann , German narrator
- Joseph Conrad , Polish-born British storyteller
- HG Wells , British writer
- Rudyard Kipling , India-native British author and poet
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , British writer and creator of the character of Sherlock Holmes
- George Bernard Shaw , Irish-British writer
- The King of Belgium
- The king of Italy
- Peter I of Serbia, King of Yugoslavia
- The king of Greece
- Boris III of Bulgaria, King of Bulgaria
- Ferdinand I , King of Romania
- The King of Denmark
- The King of Sweden
style
Beyond Dahl's pronounced joke, the book stands for moving stories about foreign countries, for the juicy description of life and as a script for adults. Uncle Oswald and the Sudan Beetle stand for sharp humor.
reception
In his review published in 1980, Vance Bourjaily said :
“What can be said is that 'My Uncle Oswald' provides entertainment for four or five hours of effortless reading, with some amusing scenes, mostly of the kind the filmmakers suggest we call 'soft porn' - so soft, in fact, that at times one thinks, almost like cotton wool [...] The tone is that of a gentleman who tells his male guests slippery anecdotes after dinner. "
Christopher Lehman-Haupt called it “a festival of bad taste, so innocent at heart that we soon forgive and enjoy ourselves”, “thoroughly juvenile fun”, and wrote: “I haven't had so much fun with this species since my last Herrenwitz session in the summer camp. "
The fictional character Uncle Oswald had previously appeared in two other short stories by Roald Dahl, in “The Visitor” and “The Witch”.