Short Stories

"B***h"

Information   Plot/Description

Information

• First published:
  • July 1974 issue of Playboy
• Collected in:
  • Switch B***h
  • The Roald Dahl Omnibus
  • The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
  • 5 Bestsellers
• Connections:
  • Features same protagonist as My Uncle Oswald and The Visitor, noted lover Oswald Cornelius

Plot/Description

This very adult story is from Dahl's book Switch B***h and probably shouldn't be read by any children without the consent of their parents. With that in mind, I'm going to keep the plot/description rather simple and vague.

Spoiler Warning! Oswald meets up with an olfactory chemist (a scientist of smells) who wants to isolate the human sex pheromone. They accomplish this feat and successfully test the new perfume, which they label "B***h." Unfortunately the scientist's lab assistant steals almost all of their supply and then Henri, the scientist, dies of a heart attack during, uh, "exertions" brought on by the pheromone. Armed with only a small remainder and unable to make more, Uncle Oswald decides to have some fun. He plants the liquid in a large flower corsage to be worn by an obnoxious woman sitting next to the President on live television. His plans derail, however, when she unknowingly releases the perfume in his presence in her hotel room. A spectacularly surreal sex scene concludes the story.