Roald Dahl’s author profile is crazy long.

Why did I purchase this book?

Building a mini-library, have nephews and nieces interested in listening to stories, and…

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Price: ~Rs 49

Seller: Bookchor

Condition: preloved, good condition, some annotations

Why did I pick this book as wildcard entry to July TBR?

Last Sunday, my nephew borrowed it for reading (family get-together, kids playing, adults talking, some reading books). Once they all left, mum kept it some place safe and I didn’t get the book until Wednesday. When I was shelving it back, I was like: why don’t I read it myself? It’d be a good story to tell the kids the next time they visit. I mean, I know the story by heart but just going through it one more time and checking the illustrations wouldn’t hurt, right?

So, I put the book on my side table, hoping to pick it up after the then-currently reading: Does My Bum Look Big in This? by Arabella Weir.

Yeah… I don’t have a strong resolve when it comes to books and my plans change very often, so Arabella Weir was parked aside in Roald Dahl’s favour.

 

A Little GR History

When I went to Goodreads, this is what I saw:

9-Jan-2019:
The movie and the book is strange – in a way that it never gets old,never gets tiring, never gets repetitive.

The wit of Matilda, the kindness of her teacher, the cruelty of Miss Trenchball and ignorance of Matilda’s family is so nicely described.

I was like: whaaaat?

Timeline

So, I started reading this on 25th of July and finished it on 26th. It’s a small book and it reads amazingly quick.

Notes on-the-go

P12

• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
• Kim by Rudyard Kipling
• The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley
• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• Animal Farm by George Orwell

This girl has read more classic books than I ever have.

P76

I know Matilda is a genius and the hero of the book but if I saw someone else getting all the teacher’s attention in the class, I would be pissed. I say thst because it has happened to me, several times. Some new girl, someone whose parents are rich, someone whose mum was teacher’s friend. Of course, this didn’t happen when I was five like Matilda. If it did, I have no recollection of it whatsoever. I was a kid who hated school in the first couple of years and all I wanted was to go back home.

What I’m saying is, giving all the attention to one student: It wasn’t Matilda’s fault, obviously. It was Miss Honey’s. Keep your excitement in check when you’re in class, you’re a teacher to all eighteen kids, not just Matilda.

P95

But children of their age do not search deeply for reasons.

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Miss Honey’s cottage… oh, it’s so sad and I don’t think this part was covered in the movies… of Matilda discovering how poor Miss Honey is and how careful and polite she is afterwards.

A Story That Refuses to Grow Old

Some books are meant for children. Others are secretly written for the adults who have forgotten what it feels like to be a child.

Matilda by Roald Dahl somehow manages to be both.

Published in 1988, this beloved classic has entertained generations of readers with its unforgettable characters, clever humour and a little sprinkle of magic. On the surface, it’s the story of an extraordinarily intelligent little girl who loves books. Beneath that cheerful exterior, however, lies a surprisingly emotional tale about neglect, loneliness, bullying and the importance of finding people who truly see your worth.

Even after all these years, Matilda remains every bit as charming as it was when it first appeared.

What a story!

So… does Matilda still hold up?

Absolutely. And here’s the funny thing: I think I enjoyed it more as an adult than I would have as a child.

As kids, we’d probably be too busy cheering every time Miss Trunchbull gets outsmarted (which, let’s be honest, never gets old). But as an adult, I found myself noticing things that would’ve flown right over my head twenty years ago.

For starters, this isn’t just a cute story about a little girl who likes books. Poor Matilda is genuinely neglected. Her parents don’t simply fail to understand her, they actively make fun of her for being intelligent. Imagine your child happily reading Dickens at four, and your reaction is basically, “Turn that rubbish off and watch television.” It’s funny because Roald Dahl writes it that way, but beneath all that humour is a child who’s desperately looking for someone, anyone, to notice her.

And then there’s Miss Honey.

Can we just take a moment for Miss Honey?

As a kid, she was simply “the nice teacher.” Reading it now, I just wanted to give the poor woman a hug. Her story is heartbreaking, and honestly, she deserves her own happy ending as much as Matilda does. In a book full of larger-than-life characters, Miss Honey feels wonderfully real.

Speaking of larger than life… Miss Trunchbull.

What an absolutely iconic villain.

She’s so ridiculously over-the-top that you almost forget how terrifying she’d actually be if you were one of those children. Throwing Amanda Thripp by her pigtails? Locking kids in the Chokey? Making Bruce Bogtrotter finish that gigantic chocolate cake? It’s equal parts hilarious and horrifying. Only Roald Dahl could make you laugh one minute and quietly think, “Hang on… that’s actually awful,” the next.

That’s something I really appreciated about this book. It never pretends childhood is all sunshine and birthday cake. Some children have awful parents. Some adults abuse their authority. Some genuinely kind people, like Miss Honey, have to endure years of unfairness. Dahl doesn’t shy away from those darker ideas. He just wraps them in humour, absurdity and enough hope that the story never feels heavy.

And of course, we have to talk about books.

If there were ever a novel designed specifically for bookworms, this has to be it. Matilda doesn’t escape her miserable home by running away. She escapes into stories. Every trip to the library opens another little window in her world, and I think every reader can relate to that feeling. We’ve all had books that became safe places when the real world wasn’t particularly pleasant.

One thing that surprised me was how restrained the magical element actually is.

I’d grown up with the film, so somewhere in my brain I’d remembered Matilda floating objects around left, right and centre. But in the book, her telekinetic powers arrive much later and are used very sparingly. They’re almost the cherry on top rather than the whole dessert. The real magic has always been Matilda herself, her intelligence, kindness and refusal to let the adults around her convince her she’s ordinary.

The 1996 film expands this quite a bit. It introduces her powers much earlier and has a lot more fun with them. She practises them, experiments with them and uses them in several playful scenes that simply don’t exist in the novel. Honestly? I can understand why. A film is a visual medium, and seeing books fly across a room is far more exciting on screen than reading about quiet genius. I never felt those changes betrayed the book. If anything, they made for a more entertaining adaptation while keeping the heart of the story intact.

When I closed the book, I realised Matilda isn’t remembered because of telekinesis or even because Miss Trunchbull is one of the greatest villains ever written. It’s remembered because every child deserves someone like Miss Honey. Every child deserves to be encouraged instead of ridiculed. And every child deserves the chance to discover the joy of reading.

It’s one of those rare children’s books that doesn’t lose its magic once you’ve grown up. If anything, it quietly gains a little more.

Final Thoughts

This book was first published when I was Matilda’s age, roughly, depending on the month of publishing, which is not mentioned in the book. I can’t believe how modern this book still feels.

Starts with absolute zings for kids with delusional parents. Love it. And this was back in the days. I wonder what Roald Dahl would say about Indian parents these days.

I’m going to find more Roald Dahl books.

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