The Twits
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The Twits is a children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was written in 1979, and first published in 1980.
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[edit] Synopsis
Mr. and Mrs. Twit are two ugly, smelly, nasty people, who spend their lives playing nasty tricks on each other. They enjoy treating animals with cruelty, by luring birds to glue-smothered trees so that they can be baked into bird pie, and by tormenting their pet monkeys, Muggle-Wump and his family, by getting them to stand upside down, one on top of the other. One day, the arrival of the Roly-Poly Bird from Africa allows the monkeys and the surviving birds to get the revenge that they have craved for years. They glue the carpet and furniture to the ceiling while the Twits are out, then on their return two ravens land some drops of glue from paintbrushes held in their claws onto the Twits' heads. When the Twits go indoors and see their furniture apparently turned upside down, they stand on their heads, believing that they are upside down and intending to turn the right way up; of course remaining stuck that way. With the Twits out of the way, the Muggle-Wumps are able to return to their native Africa with the help of the Roly-Poly Bird. Eventually, the Twits' bodies collapse into themselves, until there is nothing left but that which they wore or carried with them.
[edit] Mr Twit
Mr Twit is a trollish person, having hair that covers his whole face, except for his forehead, eyes his nose. His hair (which he falsely believes make him look wise and grand), rather than being smooth and soft, is spiky and hard. He is 60 years old, and he never washes. His beard contains many food items, including tinned sardines, stilton cheese, and cornflakes, which occasionally he will pick out from the hairs and eat. He is also a possible cannibal, in that when some boys come into his garden and climb the glue-ridden branches of the tree and get stuck, he threatens to bake them in a pie instead - although fortunately they escape. Mr Twit is a known drinker of beer, even at breakfast. He is known to go very quiet when he is plotting his latest evil trick, the victim of which is usually his wife.
[edit] Mrs Twit
Mrs Twit is the wife of Mr Twit. She, unlike her husband, was once very attractive. However, she had many ugly thoughts, and thus quickly transformed into the ugliest woman in the world. She is no more hygienic than her husband, and no more pleasant either: her walking-stick is used as a weapon towards children and strays (and, occasionally, her husband) as much as a prop. Mrs Twit has only one real eye; the other is made of glass, and she sometimes takes it out and uses it to frighten her husband.
[edit] The Tricks of The Twits
[edit] The Eye of the Morning
Mrs Twit likes to let Mr Twit know that she is always watching him. She does this by placing her glass eye into Mr Twit's mug of beer at the breakfast table. This makes Mr Twit jump in shock.
[edit] The Frog Princess
In revenge for the glass-eye trick, Mr Twit placed a frog in Mrs. Twit's bed. He teased Mrs Twit by claiming the item in her bed was a Giant Skillywiggler, with teeth like screwdrivers by which it would bite off her toes. Mrs Twit fainted during this trick, later to recover while the frog sat on her face.
[edit] The Spaghetti Incident
Seeking revenge for the Frog trick, Mrs Twit engineered the Spaghetti Incident. Mr Twit enjoyed spaghetti for his lunch, and so the day after the Frog trick, Mrs Twit combined his spaghetti with earthworms from the garden. She then made a tomato and cheese sauce, so that the worms would not show. When Mr Twit noticed that his lunch was moving, Mrs Twit claimed that the spaghetti was of a new brand, known as 'Squiggly Spaghetti'. Mr Twit ate it all up, causing Mrs Twit to burst out laughing.
[edit] The Short Walking-stick
In Revenge for the Spaghetti Incident; Mr Twit took Mrs Twit's walking stick, as well as her chair, to his workroom and lengthened it every night so that it was soon taller than its owner. He then told her that she was shrinking steadily, until she would disappear. To complete his trick, he created a kind of torturer's rack from helium balloons and an iron ring set into the ground, to which he tied his wife, saying that she thereby would be cured of the "Dreaded Shrinks". Later, he changes his trick and severs the cords, so that she will float away forever. In midair, she breaks the cords binding her to the balloons, coming down furiously upon Mr. Twit.
[edit] Sticky Tree
There is an unimaginatively-named "Big Dead Tree" in the Twits' garden. This, Mr Twit uses to trap birds, by spreading "HUGTIGHT" sticky glue on the branches. Those that get stuck, he eventually picks off to be put into a pie by Mrs Twit. He also manages, inadvertently, to catch four boys by the same method when they foolishly climb the tree themselves. Mr. Twit sees them and very nearly bakes them instead. Luckily, they escape in time. It is this use of glue that gives his pet monkey Muggle-Wump and his family the idea of using it against the Twits.
[edit] Overview
The Twits, as a book, has, as Dahl himself acknowledged, occasionally made adults feel physically sick - perhaps not least because of the graphic description of what lies within Mr Twits' beard in the second chapter of the book (all the chapters being very short by the standards of Dahl's novels). However, it seems it was written with the view that children enjoy being disgusted - and frightened. Whatever the truth in this theory, it has remained popular amongst children and due to its shortness is occasionally seen as a good "starting point" by UK parents - and primary school teachers - when introducing children to Roald Dahl's stories for younger readers.
[edit] Trivia
- The idea of The Twits was triggered by Dahl's simple desire to write "something about beards" since he had an acute dislike of them himself. The first sentence of the story: "what a lot of hairy faces one sees nowadays" is a genuine complaint.
- The Twits as a book has remained so successful since its publication in 1980 - at least in Britain - that it was adapted for the stage in 1999.
- Certain things within the book, such as Mr Twit's beard, "Wormy Spaghetti" and bird pie, appear within Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes.
- A monkey named Muggle-Wump (whether the same character as the one in The Twits or a member of the same family is not known) also appears in The Enormous Crocodile. A monkey bearing a more than passing resemblance to Quentin Blake's illustration of the same character also appears in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me.
- A Roly-Poly Bird likewise makes an appearance in The Enormous Crocodile and is also to be found in Dirty Beasts.
[edit] Editions
- ISBN 0-224-06491-6 (hardcover, 2003)
- ISBN 0-14-130107-4 (paperback, 2002)
- ISBN 0-375-82242-9 (hardcover, 2002)
- ISBN 0-14-131138-X (paperback, 2001)
- ISBN 0-14-034640-6 (paperback, 1991)
- ISBN 0-14-031406-7 (paperback, 1982)
- ISBN 0-224-01855-8 (hardcover, 1980)
