The Best of Roald Dahl Study Guide

The Best of Roald Dahl is a collection of twenty-six short stories. In "Madame Rosette," Stag and Stuffy are fighter pilots during World War II. They are resting in a hotel in Cairo after fighting in Libya, taking turns in the bathtub. There isn't much to do to keep busy in the desert and when they get to Cairo they decide to find some women. They go shopping and a woman at the sunglasses shop catches Stuffy's eye. They stop for a drink, and Stag tells him to call Madame Rosette, a brothel owner. He tells Stag to call her up, pretending to be an important colonel, and ask her to fix him up with the sunglasses sales girl. Madame Rosette agrees, and says she will call him at his hotel. Stag tells Stuffy that Madame Rosette will now dispatch one of her pimps to offer the girl money to sleep with Stuffy. Once she accepts, she is under Rosette's control and Rosette will blackmail her by threatening to tell the girl's employer that she is a whore. Stuffy is uneasy about the situation. (read more)