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Charlotte's Web

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This article is about the book. For other uses, see Charlotte's Web (disambiguation).
Charlotte's Web
First edition
AuthorE. B. White
IllustratorGarth Williams
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's
PublisherHarper & Brothers
Publication date
1952
Publication placeUnited States
Pages192 pp

Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a pig 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 praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.

Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. 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.[1]

Charlotte's Web was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the U.S. in 2003 (Universal released the film internationally). A live-action film version of E. B. White's original story was released in 2006. A video game based on this adaption was also released in 2006.

Plot summary

After her father spares the life of a piglet from slaughtering it as runt of the litter, a little girl named Fern Arable nurtures the piglet lovingly, naming him Wilbur. On greater maturity, Wilbur is sold to Fern's uncle, Homer Zuckerman, in whose barnyard he is left yearning for companionship but is snubbed by other barn animals, until befriended by a barn spider named Charlotte, living on a web overlooking Wilbur's enclosure. Upon Wilbur's discovery that he is intended for slaughter, she promises to hatch a plan guaranteed to spare his life. Accordingly, she secretly weaves praise of him into her web, attracting publicity among Zuckerman's neighbors who attribute the praise to divine intervention. As time passes, more inscriptions appear on Charlotte's webs, increasing his renown. Therefore, Wilbur is entered in the county fair, accompanied by Charlotte and the rat Templeton, whom she employs in gathering inspiration for her messages. There, Charlotte spins an egg sac containing her unborn offspring, and Wilbur, despite winning no prizes, is later celebrated by the fair's staff and visitors (thus made too prestigious alive to justify killing him). Exhausted apparently by laying eggs, Charlotte remains at the fair and dies shortly after Wilbur's departure. Having returned to Zuckerman's farm, Wilbur guards Charlotte's egg sac, and is saddened further when the new spiders depart shortly after hatching. The three smallest remain, however. Pleased at finding new friends, Wilbur names the spiderlings Joy, Nellie, and Aranea, and the book concludes by mentioning that more generations of spiders kept him 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.[2]
  • John Arable: Wilbur's first owner.
  • Fern Arable, John's daughter, who adopts Wilbur in his infancy, and later visits him. She is the only human in the story capable of understanding nonhuman conversation.
  • 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 the elder brother of Fern. 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, Edith, and an assistant named Lurvy.
  • Other animals in Zuckerman’s barn, with whom Wilbur converses, are 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 of.
  • 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 and Wilbur’s rival at the fair.

History

White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day, in 1952, E. B. White handed her a new manuscript, the only version of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and enjoyed.[3] Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.[4]

Since White published Death of a Pig in 1948,[5] 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".[6] White's overall motivation for the book has not been revealed and he has written: "I haven't told why I wrote the book, but I haven't told you why I sneeze, either. A book is a sneeze".[7]

When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Aranea sericata), before discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea.[8] 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.

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.[9] White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders on silken parachutes.[9] White sent Gertsch’s book to illustrator Garth Williams.[10] Williams’ initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman’s face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.[11]

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.[10] White’s publishers were at one point concerned with the book’s ending and tried to get White to change it.[12]

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.[13]

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."[14] 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. 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, published in 1945.

Maria Nikolajeva (in her book The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature) calls the opening of the novel a failure because of White's begun and then abandoned human dimension involving Fern, which, she says, obscures any allegory to humanity, if one were to view the animals' story as such.[15] 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.[16] Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that Ax?"[17]

Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams' illustrations full of “sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence.”[18] Illustrator Diana Cain Bluthenthal states that Williams' illustrations inspired and influenced her.[19]

There is an unabridged audio book read by White himself which reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded.[20] 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.”[20] 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.[21] 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.[21]

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.[22]

A 2004 study found that Charlotte's Web was a common read-aloud book for third-graders in schools in San Diego County, California.[23] Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."[24] It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.[25]

Its awards and nominations include:

Adaptations

Film

File:Charlotte's Web VHS Movie (fair use only).jpg
Charlotte's Web, 2001 VHS

1973 version

Main article: Charlotte's Web (1973 film)

The book was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973 with a song score by the Sherman Brothers.

2003 sequel
Main article: Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure

This is the sequel to the 1973 film, released direct-to-video by Paramount Pictures.

2006 version

Main article: Charlotte's Web (2006 film)

Paramount Pictures, with Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, produced a live-action/animated film starring Dakota Fanning as Fern and the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte, released on December 15, 2006.

Stage

Main article: Charlotte's Web (musical)

A musical production was created with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse.

Video game

Main article: Charlotte's Web (video game)

A video game of the 2006 film was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by THQ and Sega, and released on December 12, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PC.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Private Tutor". Factmonster.com. Retrieved 2014-05-25.
  2. ^ "Charlotte A. Cavatica: Bloodthirsty, Wise And True". NPR. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  3. ^ Nordstrom, Ursula (1974-05-12). "Stuart, Wilbur, Charlotte: A Tale of Tales". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  4. ^ White, E. B. (2006). "Authors & illustrators: E. B. White: AUTHOR NOTE: A Letter from E. B. White". harpercollinschildrens.com. HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  5. ^ White, E.B. (January 1948). "Death of a Pig". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
  6. ^ Weales, Gerald (1970-05-24). "The Designs of E. B. White". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
  7. ^ Usher, Shaun. "A book is a sneeze". Letters of Note. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  8. ^ Elledge, Scott (1984). E. B. White: A Biography. W. W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-01771-0.
  9. ^ a b Neumeyer, Peter F. (1991). "Charlotte, Arachnida: The Scientific Sources". The Lion and the Unicorn. 19 (2): 223–221. doi:10.1353/uni.1995.0034. ISSN 0147-2593.
  10. ^ a b Elledge (1984), p. 295.
  11. ^ White, E.B.; Dorothy Lobrano Guth (ed.) (1976). Letters of E.B. White. Harper and Row. pp. 353–354. ISBN 0-06-014601-X. {{cite book}}: |author2= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ White (1976), p. 351.
  13. ^ Garfield, Henry (May 2007). "E.B. White's Web". Bangor-Metro. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
  14. ^ The New York Times, October 19, 1952
  15. ^ Nikolajeva, Maria (2002). The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature. Scarecrow Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 0-8108-4886-4.
  16. ^ Lerer, Seth (2008). Children's Literature. University of Chicago press. pp. 249–251. ISBN 0-226-47300-7.
  17. ^ Larrick, Nancy (1982). A Parent's Guide to Children's Reading (Fifth ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Westminster Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-664-32705-2.
  18. ^ Cole, Henry (2005). The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary. Compiled by Reading Is Fundamental. Dutton Books. p. 33. ISBN 0-525-47484-6.
  19. ^ Bluthenthal, Diana Cain (2005). The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary. Compiled by Reading Is Fundamental. Dutton Books. p. 30. ISBN 0-525-47484-6.
  20. ^ a b Ames, Katrine; Marc Peyser (1991-12-09). "For Little Pitchers With Big Ears". Newsweek (24). New York: 79. ISSN 0028-9604.
  21. ^ a b Schnol, Janet; Joanne Tangorra (1991-10-18). "Bantam Releases CD/Cassette of E. B. White Titles". Publishers Weekly. 238 (46): 32. ISSN 0000-0019.
  22. ^ Worldly Web: A traveling spider teaches fourth graders the joys of reading, meeting new people, and experiencing new adventures. Readers Digest 2007-06-13, page found 2012-11-13.
  23. ^ Fisher, Douglas; et al. (2004). "Interactive Read-Alouds: Is There a Common Set of Implementation Practices?" (PDF). The Reading Teacher. 58 (1): 8¬–17. doi:10.1598/rt.58.1.1. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  24. ^ National Education Association (2007). "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  25. ^ Bird, Elizabeth (July 7, 2012). "Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results". School Library Journal "A Fuse #8 Production" blog. Retrieved August 19, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ Newbery Medal Home Page, American Library Association
  27. ^ Book awards: A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book
  28. ^ Massachusetts Children's awards

Further reading

  • Griffith, John W. (1993). Charlotte's web: a pig's salvation. New York: Twayne. ISBN 0805788123.
  • Neumeyer, Peter F.; Williams, Garth; White, E. B. (1994). The annotated Charlotte's web. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060243872.
  • White, E. B. (2007). Some pig!: a Charlotte's web picture book. Illustrated by Maggie Kneen. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060781610.
  • White, E. B. (2008). Wilbur's adventure: a Charlotte's web picture book. Illustrated by Maggie Kneen. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060781644.
  • 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. ISBN 9780802777546.
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