Matilda - Roald Dahl . Review on Matilda - Roald Dahl

On a boring Thursday evening, I was even bored, and that was not all because of the boring Thursday evening. It was because I had completed my boring homework and fed my fish. I had stopped my cat from

boring holes in the fish tank to get at the fish. What was I to do, to get rid of this boredom? Skim through my age-old Roald Dahl collection, of course!

Summary

The story opens with Matilda, a special girl. She hates watching boring television. What she prefers is to sneak off to the library and read many boring books which she does not find boring! Her family hates her, and she hates her family. She believes that they are boring, as well as self-obsessed and crooked. After some smart tricks, she is shipped off to boring school. She makes friends with children, and with her teacher, Miss Honey. She finds out about the Terrifying Trunchbull. However, she is not scared and merely finds her a boring old hag. Then she finds out she has a not-very-boring gift, and she finds out how to use it to her advantage.

Characters

Matilda- A little five-year old, who is smart and special. By ‘smart’ I do not just mean boringly above average – I mean extraordinarily smart. The kind who read Dickens and Bronte and Austen in their nursery days, and the ones who memorize cookery books as toddlers. By ‘special’ I do not mean they can do double somersaults in a jiffy or something boring like that – I mean the kind who can shoot out electrical sparks from their eyes. This is very original. Roald Dahl shows that magic is not just muttering some boring words or waving a boring wand – it can be in any form, any shape.

Wormwoods- Matilda’s family are – as mentioned above – boring, self-obsessed and crooked. Mr Wormwood is a nasty, skinny, short little man who believes that being a criminal is noble. He owns a car showroom, and takes great pleasure in telling his son of his dastardly ways of making the car look and seem much newer. Mrs Wormwood is a big, beefy, blonde woman who needs three things in life. Bingo, soap operas and hair dye. Did I mention that she is too tired to do boring cooking, and serves her family TV dinners? Michael Wormwood is influenced by his father and is also interested in crime. He is not mentioned much in the book.

Lavender- Lavender, as Matilda’s best friend, is shown to be a cheeky, mischievous little girl who is very brave and doesn’t seem to be scared of anything.

Miss Honey- Miss Honey is a young teacher who looks ‘fragile, with a madonna face.’ She is very poor, because of a dirty trick played by the Trunchbull.

Trunchbull- is the most horrifying woman in the book. She is huge, and hates little children. She even believes that she was never a young child! She takes great pleasure in teasing, tormenting and torturing little children, especially little girls. Hates Matilda, and in the end…

Overall

I really liked this book. It was refreshing, and enjoyable. It had a mix of everything – humor, friendship, even some magic. Even years after it was published, it hasn’t lost its charm, and I don’t think that it ever will. Let’s just see if that is true… If you haven’t read it, I would really recommend buying it/borrowing it. That is, if you like these sort of stories. But I don’t think many people will be able to resist this NOT boring book!