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The Sound Machine

Roald Dahl

First published September 1949
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

A man named Klausner invents a machine that can hear sound the human ear cannot hear. It reproduces the sounds on a lower pitch so that human beings can hear it. With this machine he hears roses scream as his neighbor cuts them. The next morning he hears a tree scream when he cuts into it with an axe. He calls his doctor excitedly and asks him to come over at once. The doctor comes and Klausner says he wants him to listen to the tree's screams. He starts cutting into it with an axe and a large branch begins to fall They barely get out of the way in time. He asks the doctor if he heard the scream but the doctor will not say that he did. Klausner is very upset and demands that the doctor paint the two gashes with iodine.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
September 1949 The New Yorker, September 17, 1949 MAGAZINE
September 1952 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 164
1953 Cover Someone Like You Alfred A. Knopf Collection
1954 Someone Like You Secker & Warburg Collection
1959 Cover Br-r-r-! Avon Anthology 158
1961 Cover Someone Like You Michael Joseph Collection
August 1961 Cover Stories for Late at Night Random House Anthology 71
August 1961 Cover Someone Like You Dell Collection 179
December 1961 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
1962 M'n liefje, m'n duifje Meulenhoff Collection 140
January 1962 Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology
December 1962 Cover More Stories for Late at Night Dell Anthology 51
1963 Cover M'n liefje, m'n duifje Meulenhoff Collection 140
1964 Cover Verhalen die Hitchcock koos 3 Het Spectrum Anthology 41
1965 Cover Someone Like You Four Square Books Collection
1965 Cover Someone Like You Dell Collection
March 1967 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
January 1968 Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
September 1968 Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
November 1968 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
November 1969 Cover Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl Michael Joseph Omnibus
1970 Cover Someone Like You Penguin Books Collection 152
August 1970 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
1972 Cover Someone Like You Pocket Books Collection
August 1972 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
October 1973 Cover Racconti per le ore piccole: volume primo Garzanti Anthology 106
1974 Cover Science Fact/Fiction Scott, Foresman and Company Anthology 205
1974 Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
September 1976 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
August 1977 Cover Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow Bantam Books Anthology 140
February 1978 Cover Sirius, #20 Vjesnik MAGAZINE 126
May 1978 Cover The Best of Roald Dahl Vintage Books Collection 40
September 1979 Cover Tales of the Unexpected Vintage Books Collection 346
October 1979 Cover Stories of the Supernatural William Kimber Anthology 21
1980 Cover More Tales of the Unexpected Penguin Books Collection 19
October 1980 Cover Küßchen, Küßchen! Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft Collection 205
March 1983 Cover Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction Farrar, Straus and Giroux Anthology 33
1984 Cover Een Spelletje Met de Dood Loeb Anthology 43
1985 Cover Rakkaani, kyyhkyläiseni / Joku kaltaisesi Suuri Suomalainen Kirjakerho Omnibus 7|18
May 1985 Cover Orbite hallucination Londreys Anthology 35
September 1986 Cover Completely Unexpected Tales Penguin Books Omnibus
August 1990 Cover The Best of Roald Dahl Vintage Books Collection
August 1990 Cover Tales of the Unexpected Vintage Books Collection
September 1991 The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl Michael Joseph Omnibus 561
February 2000 Cover Skin and Other Stories Puffin / Penguin Books (UK) Collection 35
March 2000 Cover Ten Short Stories Penguin Books Collection 116
July 2000 Cover Skin and Other Stories Viking Collection 35
September 2001 Cover Skin and Other Stories Puffin Collection 35
January 2002 Skin and Other Stories Puffin / Penguin Books (US) Collection 35
October 2006 Cover Collected Stories Alfred A. Knopf Collection 201
December 2009 Cover Someone Like You Penguin Books Collection
December 2009 Cover Someone Like You Penguin Books Collection
2013 Cover McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Winter 2013 McSweeney's Books MAGAZINE 27
October 2024 Cover Gótico botánico. Cuentos de un verdor perverso Impedimenta Anthology |15
October 2024 Cover Gótico botánico. Cuentos de un verdor perverso Impedimenta Anthology |15