Charlotte's Web is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. It was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestockpig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages in her web praising Wilbur, such as "Some Pig", "Terrific", "Radiant", and "Humble", to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyed by readers of all ages.[1] The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often-cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. In 2000, Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time.[2]
After a little girl named Fern Arable pleads for the life of the runt of a litter of piglets, her father gives her the pig to nurture, and she names him Wilbur. She treats him as a pet, but a month later, Wilbur is no longer small and is sold to Fern's uncle, Homer Zuckerman. In Zuckerman's barnyard, Wilbur yearns for companionship but is snubbed by the other animals. He is befriended by a barn spider named Charlotte, whose web sits in a doorway overlooking Wilbur's enclosure. When Wilbur discovers that he is being raised for slaughter, she promises to find a way to save his life. Fern often sits on a stool, listening to the animals' conversation, but over the course of the story, as she starts to mature, she begins to find other interests.
As the summer passes, Charlotte ponders how to save Wilbur and comes up with a plan. Reasoning that Zuckerman would not kill a famous pig, Charlotte weaves words and short phrases in praise of Wilbur into her web. Charlotte weaves the words Some Pig into the web, and the next morning, the farmhand, Lurvy, sees the web and runs to find Mr. Zuckerman. This turns Wilbur, and the barn as a whole, into tourist attractions, because many people believe the web to be a miracle. After the excitement dies down, Charlotte weaves the word Terrific into her web, beginning the cycle anew. To maintain the public's interest in Wilbur, Charlotte then tells Templeton, a barn rat, to get another word for the web. He goes to the dump and finds a laundry detergent ad with the word radiant, which she then weaves into her web. Fern's mother starts to get worried that Fern is spending too much time around the animals because she is telling her mother stories about the animals talking. Mrs. Arable then goes to visit Dr. Dorian, who persuades her that being among animals is natural and likely therapeutic for Fern.
Wilbur is eventually entered into the county fair, and Charlotte and Templeton accompany him. He fails to win the blue ribbon but is awarded a special prize by the judges. Charlotte weaves the last word into her web, Humble. Charlotte hears the presentation of the award over the public address system and realizes that the prize means Zuckerman will cherish Wilbur for as long as the pig lives and will never slaughter him for his meat. However, Charlotte, being a barn spider with a naturally short lifespan, is already dying of natural causes by the time the award is announced. Knowing that she has saved Wilbur, and satisfied with the outcome of her life, she does not return to the barn with Wilbur and Templeton and instead remains at the fairgrounds to die. However, she allows Wilbur to take with him her egg sac, from which her children will hatch in the spring. Meanwhile, Fern, who has matured significantly since the beginning of the novel, loses interest in Wilbur and starts paying more attention to boys her age. She misses most of the fair's events in order to go on the Ferris wheel with Henry Fussy, one of her classmates.
Wilbur waits out the winter, a winter he would not have survived but for Charlotte. He is initially delighted when Charlotte's children hatch but is later devastated when most leave the barn until there are only three remaining spiders. Pleased at finding new friends, Wilbur names one of them Nellie, while the remaining two name themselves Joy and Aranea. Further generations of spiders keep Wilbur company in subsequent years.
Characters
Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter. He is often strongly emotional.
Charlotte A. Cavatica, or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur. In some passages, she is the heroine of the story.[4]
John Arable is Wilbur's first owner.
Fern Arable, John's daughter, who adopts Wilbur when he's a piglet, and later visits him. She is the only human in the story capable of understanding animal conversation.
Lurvy, the hired man at Zuckerman's farm, who is the first to read the message in Charlotte's web.
Templeton is a rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
Avery Arable is Fern's elder brother and John's son. Like Templeton, he is a source of comic relief.
Homer Zuckerman is Fern's uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife named Edith and an assistant named Lurvy.
Other animals in Zuckerman's barn, with whom Wilbur converses, include a disdainful lamb, a talkative goose, and an intelligent "old sheep".
Henry Fussy is a boy of Fern's age, of whom Fern becomes fond.
Dr. Dorian is the family physician/psychologist consulted by Fern's mother and something of a wise old man character.
Uncle is a large pig whom Charlotte disdains for coarse manners but is recognized as Wilbur's rival at the fair.
Charlotte's children are the 514 children of Charlotte the spider. Although they were born at the barn, all but three of them (Joy, Aranea, and Nellie) go their own ways by ballooning.
Themes
Death
Death is a major theme seen throughout Charlotte's Web and is brought forth by that of the spider, Charlotte. According to Norton D. Kinghorn, Charlotte's web acts as a barrier that separates two worlds. These worlds are that of life and death.[5] Scholar Amy Ratelle says that through Charlotte's continual killing and eating of flies throughout the novel, White makes the concept of death normal for Wilbur and for the readers.[6] Neither Wilbur nor the rat Templeton sees death as a part of his life; Templeton sees it only as something that will happen at some time in the distant future, while Wilbur views it as the end of everything.[7]
Wilbur constantly has death on his mind at night when he is worrying over whether or not he will be slaughtered.[8] Even though Wilbur is able to escape his death, Charlotte, the spider who takes care of Wilbur, is not able to escape her own. Charlotte passes away, but, according to Trudelle H. Thomas, "even in the face of death, life continues and ultimate goodness wins out".[9] Jordan Anne Deveraux explains that E.B. White discusses a few realities of death. From the novel, readers learn that death can be delayed but that no one can avoid it forever.[10]
Change
For Norton D. Kinghorn, Charlotte's web also acts as a signifier of change. The change Kinghorn refers to is that of both the human world and the farm/barn world. For both of these worlds, change is something that cannot be avoided.[5] Along with the changing of the seasons throughout the novel, the characters also go through their own changes. Jordan Anne Deveraux also explains that Wilbur and Fern each go through their changes to transition from childhood closer to adulthood throughout the novel.[10] This is evidenced by Wilbur accepting death and Fern giving up her dolls. Wilbur grows throughout the novel, allowing him to become the caretaker of Charlotte's children just as she was a caretaker for him, as is explained by scholar Sue Misheff.[11] But rather than accept the changes that are forced upon them, according to Sophie Mills, the characters aim to go beyond the limits of change.[8] In a different way, Wilbur goes through a change when he switches locations. Amy Ratelle explains that when he moves from Fern's house to Homer Zuckerman's farm, Wilbur goes from being a loved pet to a farm animal.
Innocence
Fern, the little girl in the novel, goes from being a child to being more of an adult. As she experiences this change, Kinghorn notes that it can also be considered a fall from innocence.[5] Wilbur also starts out young and innocent at the beginning of the novel. A comparison is drawn between the innocence and youth of Fern and Wilbur. Sophie Mills states that the two characters can identify with one another.[8] Both Wilbur and Fern are, at first, horrified by the realization that life must end; however, by the end of the novel, both characters learn to accept that, eventually, everything must die.[10] According to Matthew Scully, the novel presents the difference in the worldview of adults versus the worldview of children. Children, such as Fern, believe killing another for food is wrong, while adults have been gradually conditioned to believe that it is natural.[12]
History
Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.[13] White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day in 1952, E. B. White arrived at her office and handed her a new manuscript, the only copy of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and enjoyed.[14]Charlotte's Web was released on October 15, 1952.[15][16][17]
In light of White's Death of a Pig, published in 1948,[18] which gives an account of his own failure to save a sick pig (bought for butchering), Charlotte's Web can be seen as White's attempt "to save his pig in retrospect".[19] White's overall motivation for the book has not been revealed, and he once wrote: "I haven't told why I wrote the book, but I haven't told you why I sneeze, either. A book is a sneeze."[20]
When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Larinioides sclopetarius), before discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea.[21] In the novel, Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.[citation needed]
The arachnid anatomical terms (mentioned in the beginning of chapter nine) and other information that White used, came mostly from American Spiders by Willis J. Gertsch and The Spider Book by John Henry Comstock, both of which combine a sense of poetry with scientific fact.[22] White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders on silken parachutes.[22] White sent Gertsch's book to illustrator Garth Williams.[23] Williams's initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman's face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.[24]
White originally opened the novel with an introduction of Wilbur and the barnyard (which later became the third chapter) but decided to begin the novel by introducing Fern and her family on the first page.[23] White's publishers were at one point concerned with the book's ending and tried to get White to change it.[25]
Charlotte's Web has become White's most famous book, but White treasured his privacy and that of the farmyard and barn that helped inspire the novel, which have been kept off limits to the public according to his wishes.[26]
Reception
Charlotte's Web was generally well-reviewed when it was released. In The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote: "As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done."[27]
Aside from its paperback sales, Charlotte's Web is 78th on the all-time bestselling hardback book list. According to publicity for the 2006 film adaptation (see below), the book has sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It was a Newbery Honor book for 1953, losing to Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark for the medal.[28][29]
In 1970, White won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature, for Charlotte's Web, along with his first children's book, Stuart Little (1945).[30]
Seth Lerer, in his book Children's Literature, finds that Charlotte represents female authorship and creativity, and compares her to other female characters in children's literature such as Jo March in Little Women and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden.[31]Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that ax?"[32]
Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams's illustrations full of "sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence".[33] Illustrator Diana Cain Bluthenthal states that Williams's illustrations inspired and influenced her.[34]
An unabridged audio book read by White himself reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded.[35]Newsweek writes that White reads the story "without artifice and with a mellow charm", and that "White also has a plangency that will make you weep, so don't listen (at least, not to the sad parts) while driving".[35] Joe Berk, president of Pathway Sound, had recorded Charlotte's Web with White in White's neighbor's house in Maine (which Berk describes as an especially memorable experience) and released the book in LP.[36] From Michael Sims: "The producer later said that it took him 17 takes to read the death scene of Charlotte. And finally, they would walk outside, and E.B. White would go, this is ridiculous, a grown man crying over the death of an imaginary insect. And then, he would go in and start crying again when he got to that moment."[37] Bantam released Charlotte's Web alongside Stuart Little on CD in 1991, digitally remastered, having acquired the two of them for rather a large amount.[36]
In 2005, a school teacher in California conceived of a project for her class in which they would send out hundreds of drawings of spiders (each representing Charlotte's child Aranea going out into the world so that she can return and tell Wilbur of what she has seen) with accompanying letters; they ended up visiting a large number of parks, monuments, and museums, and were hosted by and/or prompted responses from celebrities and politicians such as John Travolta and then-First Lady Laura Bush.[38]
In 2003, Charlotte's Web was listed at number 170 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's 200 "best-loved novels".[39] A 2004 study found that Charlotte's Web was a common read-aloud book for third-graders in schools in San Diego County, California.[40] Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."[41] It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.[42]
In 2010, the New York Public Library reported that Charlotte's Web was the sixth most borrowed book in the library's history.[43]
On March 8, 2022, it was announced that Sesame Workshop was working on an animated miniseries based on the book.[48] It was in production for a few months, and was slated to premiere in 2024 on Cartoon Network and HBO Max.[49] On November 3, 2022, it was reported that the miniseries would not be moving forward.[50] However, Canadian animation studio Guru Studio claimed the miniseries is still in production.[51]
A musical production was created with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse.[52]
Tricycle Productions (Montreal, Canada) produced a touring version of Charlotte's Web in 1996 with arrangements of Strouse's score by Canadian composer Derek Aasland.
Elwyn Brooks White was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970).
Stuart Little is a 1945 American children's novel by E. B. White. It was White's first children's book, and became recognized as a classic in children's literature. Stuart Little was illustrated by the artist Garth Williams, also his first work for children.
Julia Ann Harris was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary roles, she earned numerous accolades including the record five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play, three Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.
The Chronicles of Prydain is a pentalogy of children's high fantasy Bildungsroman novels written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company. The series includes: The Book of Three (1964), The Black Cauldron (1965), The Castle of Llyr (1966), Taran Wanderer (1967), and The High King (1968). The Black Cauldron earned a 1966 Newbery Honor, and The High King won the 1969 Newbery Medal.
Jean Stafford was an American short story writer and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford in 1970.
White Noise is the eighth novel by Don DeLillo, published by Viking Press in 1985. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
Garth Montgomery Williams was an American artist who came to prominence in the American postwar era as an illustrator of children's books. Many of the books he illustrated have become classics of American children's literature.
In Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and in the Little House series of books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Williams['s] drawings have become inseparable from how we think of those stories. In that respect ... Williams['s] work belongs in the same class as Sir John Tenniel's drawings for Alice in Wonderland, or Ernest Shepard's illustrations for Winnie the Pooh.
Charlotte's Web is a 2006 fantasy film based on the 1952 novel by E. B. White. Directed by Gary Winick and written by Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick, it is the second film adaptation of E. B. White's book, and live-action/CGI remake of Paramount's 1973 animated feature film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The film stars Dakota Fanning, Kevin Anderson, and Beau Bridges, with voices provided by Dominic Scott Kay, Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Thomas Haden Church, André Benjamin, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Robert Redford, and Sam Shepard as the narrator. Danny Elfman composed the film's score.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is a historical novel by the American author Avi published in 1990. The book is marketed towards children at a reading level of grades 5–8. The book chronicles the evolution of the title character as she is pushed outside her naive existence and learns about life aboard a ship crossing from England to America in 1832. The novel was well received and won several awards, including being named as a Newbery Honor book in 1991.
Charlotte's Web is a 1973 American animated musical drama film based on the 1952 children's book of the same name by E. B. White. The film was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Like the book, the film centers on a pig named Wilbur who befriends an intelligent spider named Charlotte who saves him from being slaughtered.
Aranea may refer to:
Throughout history, spiders have been depicted in popular culture, mythology and in symbolism. From Greek mythology to African folklore, the spider has been used to represent a variety of things, and endures into the present day with characters such as Shelob from The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man from the eponymous comic series. It is also a symbol of mischief and malice for its toxic venom and the slow death it causes, which is often seen as a curse. In addition, the spider has inspired creations from an ancient geoglyph to a modern steampunk spectacle. Spiders have been the focus of fears, stories and mythologies of various cultures for centuries.
Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure is a 2003 American animated direct-to-video musical adventure film. The sequel to the 1973 film Charlotte's Web, the film is a co-production between Universal Home Entertainment Productions and Paramount Pictures Corporation, with Nickelodeon Animation Studio handling production services, and Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Video respectively handling North American and overseas distribution.
The barn spider is a common orb-weaver spider native to North America. They are around three-quarters of an inch (20 mm) in length and are usually yellow and brown in color. They often construct their webs in wooden human structures, hence their common name. The species is notable for being the basis for the character Charlotte in the book Charlotte's Web by American writer E. B. White.
Anne Carroll Moore was an American educator, writer and advocate for children's libraries.
Ursula Nordstrom was publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books at Harper & Row from 1940 to 1973. She is credited with presiding over a transformation in children's literature in which morality tales written for adult approval gave way to works that instead appealed to children's imaginations and emotions.
Charlotte's Web is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse and based on a book by Joseph Robinette.
Death in children's literature has changed over the course of history as both the average lifespan has increased and society's morals and beliefs and conceptions of children have changed.
Melissa, previously published as George until April 2022, is a children's novel about a young transgender girl written by American author Alex Gino. The novel tells the story of Melissa, a fourth-grade girl who is struggling to be herself to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees Melissa as George, a boy. Melissa uses the class play, Charlotte's Web, to show her mom that she is a girl by switching roles with her best friend, and playing the part of Charlotte. Scholastic first published the novel on August 25, 2015, and it has had a mixed reaction because of its LGBT+ content. In 2021, Gino retitled the novel Melissa.
References
↑ Neto, Bill (April 19, 2021). "Fiction Genres". eBooks Discounts. Archived from the original on 2021-04-19. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
↑ Piluso, Mario (2003-03-18), Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure (Animation, Adventure, Family), Julia Duffy, David Berón, Charlie Adler, Paramount Pictures, Universal Animation Studios, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, retrieved 2024-06-30
↑ Gagnon, Laurence (1973). "Webs of Concern: The Little Prince and Charlotte's Web". Children's Literature. 2 (2): 64. doi:10.1353/chl.0.0419. S2CID144139864.
↑ Thomas, Trudelle H. (2016). "The Arc of the Rope Swing: Humour, Poetry, and Spirituality in Charlotte's Web by E.B. White". International Journal of Children's Spirituality. 21 (3–4): 201–215. doi:10.1080/1364436X.2016.1228618. S2CID151314127.
1 2 3 Jordan, Anne Devereaux (1997). "Appreciating 'Charlotte's Web'". Teaching and Learning Literature with Children and Young Adults. 7.
↑ Misheff, Sue (1998). "Beneath the Web and Over the Stream: The Search for Safe Places in Charlotte's Web and Bridge to Terabithia". Children's Literature in Education. 29 (3): 131–141. doi:10.1023/A:1022471421284. S2CID159809077.
↑ Scully, Matthew (June 2011). "Tangled Web; A Children's Classic, and the Moral Dimensions of Animal Farming. (The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic)". The Weekly Standard. 16.
White, E. B. (2008). Wilbur's adventure: a Charlotte's web picture book. Illustrated by Maggie Kneen. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN9780060781644.
Sims, Michael (2011). The story of Charlotte's web: E. B. White's eccentric life in nature and the birth of an American classic. New York: Walker & Co. ISBN9780802777546.
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