Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat

Last updated

"Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" is a short story by Roald Dahl that first appeared in the 1959 issue of Nugget. The story is Dahl's variation on a popular anecdote dating back at least to 1939: [1] a married woman receives a glamorous mink coat from a man with whom she had an affair. She hopes to sneak the coat into her home without arousing her husband's suspicions, but soon discovers her husband has his own plans.

Contents

Summary

Mrs Bixby and her dentist husband live in a New York apartment. Once a month, Mrs Bixby travels from New York City to Baltimore, supposedly visiting her elderly aunt; in fact, she is having an affair with the Colonel.

As she is preparing to leave after one of these visits to Baltimore, Mrs Bixby receives a package from the Colonel containing a letter and an expensive gift: a dark mink coat. The Colonel's letter informs Mrs Bixby they can no longer see each other, and suggests she tell her husband the mink coat is a Christmas present from her aunt. Mrs Bixby is in despair as she reads the letter: her aunt is far too poor to be given credit for the gift. However, Mrs Bixby is intent on keeping the coat and devises a plan. On her return to New York she visits a pawnbroker and pawns the coat for $50. The pawnbroker gives her a pawn ticket, which she declines to mark with any kind of name or description. The ticket guarantees her right to claim the coat at any time. She tells her husband she found the pawn ticket in the taxi. He decides it would be best if he redeemed the ticket, in spite of Mrs Bixby's objections.

The next day, Dr Bixby goes to the pawn shop to redeem the ticket and claim the item it stands for. Mrs Bixby is excited and rushes to her husband's office after he has collected it. She is horrified when he proudly holds up a small, mangy stole, and not her coat. He announces it is real mink and that she should consider it her Christmas present.

Mrs Bixby initially believes the pawnbroker has cheated her of her coat and intends to confront him. But as she leaves her husband's office, Dr Bixby's secretary, Miss Pulteney, walks proudly past her, wearing the mink coat. It is implied Dr Bixby is having an affair with Miss Pulteney, decided to give her the coat, and purchased a cheap stole for his wife instead. As Mrs Bixby cannot demand the coat back without revealing her own affair, she is hoist with her own petard. [2]

Adaptations

Television
YearTV showEpisodeStarringNotes
1960 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 6, Episode 1 Audrey Meadows [3] Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
1965 Thirty-Minute Theatre Season 1, Episode 9 Shelley Winters [4] This episode is believed lost. [5]
1979 Tales of the Unexpected Season 1, Episode 2 Julie Harris [6]
Film

Dus Kahaniyaan (English: Ten stories), a 2007 Indian Hindi-language anthology film comprising ten short films by different directors, includes Matrimony by Sanjay Gupta which is based on this short story. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roald Dahl</span> British writer and poet (1916–1990)

Roald Dahl was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. He has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".

<i>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</i> 1964 childrens novel by Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka.

<i>Matilda</i> (novel) 1988 childrens novel by Roald Dahl

Matilda is a 1988 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published by Jonathan Cape. The story features Matilda Wormwood, a precocious child with an uncaring mother and father, and her time in school run by the tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

<i>James and the Giant Peach</i> 1961 childrens novel by Roald Dahl

James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The first edition, published by Alfred Knopf, featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been re-illustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael Simeon, Emma Chichester Clark, Lane Smith and Quentin Blake. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996 which was directed by Henry Selick, and a musical in 2010.

<i>Kiss Kiss</i> (book) Short story collection by Roald Dahl

Kiss Kiss is a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl, first published in 1960 by Alfred A. Knopf. Most of the constituent stories had been previously published elsewhere.

<i>The Twits</i> 1980 childrens novel by Roald Dahl

The Twits is a 1980 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published by Jonathan Cape. The story features The Twits, a spiteful, idle, unkempt couple who continuously play nasty practical jokes on each other to amuse themselves, and exercise their devious wickedness on their pet monkeys.

<i>Esio Trot</i> 1990 childrens novel by Roald Dahl

Esio Trot is a 1990 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The title is an anadrome of "tortoise". It was the last of Dahl's books to be published in his lifetime; he died just two months later.

"The Way Up to Heaven" is a macabre short story by Roald Dahl. It was originally published in The New Yorker, as were some of the other short stories that would later be reprinted in the 1960 collection Kiss Kiss.

<i>Tales of the Unexpected</i> (short story collection) Short story collection by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected is a collection of 16 short stories written by British author Roald Dahl and first published in 1979. All of the stories were earlier published in various magazines, and then in the collections Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss.

Bixby may refer to:

"Lamb to the Slaughter" is a 1953 short story by Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by The New Yorker, but was published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It was adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (AHP) that starred Barbara Bel Geddes and Harold J. Stone. Originally broadcast on April 13, 1958, this was one of only 17 AHP episodes directed by Hitchcock. The episode was ranked #59 of the Top 100 Episodes by TV Guide in 2009. The story was adapted for Dahl's British TV series Tales of the Unexpected. Dahl included it in his short story compilation Someone Like You. The narrative element of the housewife killing her husband and letting the policemen eat the evidence was used by Pedro Almodóvar in his 1984 movie What Have I Done to Deserve This?, with a leg of mutton.

<i>The Great Automatic Grammatizator</i> Collection of short stories by Roald Dahl

The Great Automatic Grammatizator is a collection of thirteen short stories written by British author Roald Dahl. The stories were selected for teenagers from Dahl's adult works. All the stories included were published elsewhere originally; their sources are noted below. The stories, with the exception of the war story "Katina", possess a deadpan, ironic, bizarre, or even macabre sense of humor. They generally end with unexpected plot twists.

<i>Dus Kahaniyaan</i> 2007 Indian film

Dus Kahaniyaan is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language anthology film which tell ten different stories which are directed by a host of six directors: Sanjay Gupta, Apoorva Lakhia, Meghna Gulzar, Rohit Roy, Hansal Mehta and Jasmeet Dhodhi.

Dame Felicity Ann Dahl is a British film producer who married the author Roald Dahl in 1983. She was previously married to Charles Reginald Hugh Crosland. The quietly spoken Dahl gave a rare interview in November 2008 to publicise the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize and reflect on her years with the late author.

<i>The Best of Roald Dahl</i>

The Best of Roald Dahl is a collection of 25 of Roald Dahl's short stories. The first edition was published in 1978.

<i>The Roald Dahl Omnibus</i>

The Roald Dahl Omnibus is a 1986 short story collection by Roald Dahl.

<i>Esio Trot</i> (film) 2015 television film by Dearbhla Walsh

Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, or simply Esio Trot, is a British comedy drama television film directed by Dearbhla Walsh and written by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, based on the 1990 novel, Esio Trot, by Roald Dahl. In the film, a retired bachelor falls in love with his neighbour, a widow who keeps a tortoise as a companion after the death of her husband.

<i>Value—Beyond Price</i> 1910 American silent short drama film

Value—Beyond Price is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film focuses on a family beset by tragedy when the father is presumed dead after his ship is lost at sea. The mother struggles to support her child and sells her possessions to a pawnbroker. When she has nothing left, save her wedding ring, the pawnbroker asks to take care of the child and the mother consents. The pawn broker gives her a pawn ticket for the girl stating "a precious jewel, a value beyond price" and tells her she can redeem it at any time. Before her death, she entrusts the ticket to a friend. Ten years pass, the shipwrecked father has discovered a great fortune on the island and is rescued by a passing steamship. The father soon realizes his wife is dead and his child is missing, but he receives the pawn ticket and decides to claim this jewel his wife had left for him. He redeems it at the pawn shop and finds it is his lost daughter. The film was released on November 29, 1910 and it was met with positive reviews. The film survives in the Library of Congress archives.

Olivia Twenty Dahl was the oldest child of the author Roald Dahl and the American actress Patricia Neal. She died at the age of seven from encephalitis caused by measles, before a vaccine against the disease had been developed. Roald Dahl's books James and the Giant Peach (1961) and The BFG (1982) were dedicated to Olivia. As a result of her death, her father Roald became an advocate for vaccination and wrote the pamphlet "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" in 1988.

<i>Matilda the Musical</i> (film) 2022 film by Matthew Warchus

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical, or simply Matilda the Musical, or Matilda, is a 2022 fantasy musical film directed by Matthew Warchus from a screenplay by Dennis Kelly, based on the stage musical of the same name by Tim Minchin and Kelly, which in turn was based on the 1988 novel Matilda by Roald Dahl. It is the second film adaptation of the novel, following Matilda (1996). The film stars Alisha Weir as the title character, alongside Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sindhu Vee, and Emma Thompson. In the plot, Matilda Wormwood (Weir), who is neglected and mistreated by her parents, develops psychokinetic abilities to deal with Miss Trunchbull (Thompson), the ruthless and cruel headmistress of Crunchem Hall School.

References

  1. ↑ Mikkelson, Barbara (11 July 2001). "Spoils of Whore". Snopes. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Sharma, Amrendra K; Roy, Manju (2008). "The Sociology of Roald Dahl's 'Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat'" (PDF). Indian Review of World Literature in English. 4 (2): 59–64. ISSN   0974-097X . Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat (1960)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Thirty-Minute Theatre: Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat (1965)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "Missing or incomplete episodes for programme THIRTY MINUTE THEATRE". Lost UK TV Shows. Kaleidoscope Research Guides. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Tales of the Unexpected: Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat (1979)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Dus Kahaniyan Movie Review {3.5/5}: Critic Review of Dus Kahaniyan by Times of India". The Times of India.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.