Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl (George Allen & Unwin, 1964)
audiobook read by David Tennant (Penguin Audio, 2023)
Gleeful and deranged, yet Dahl’s most famous novel is actually a bit of a mess, narrative-wise, establishing Charlie then elbowing him aside to revel in smudgelumptious flights of comeuppance and misopedic wish-fulfilment. David Tennant gives us one of the great Willy Wonkas.
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
by Roald Dahl (Alfred A. Knopf, 1972); audiobook read by Douglas Hodge (Random House Audio, 2013)
A protracted example of Dahl’s rollicking lunacy, though in this instance lacking a greater storyline to lend substance beyond the jovial alien invasion, American caricaturing, silly rhymes, and terrible comeuppances visited upon cantankerous adults. Douglas Hodge narrates a suitably mercurial Willy Wonker.