A Wrinkle in Time


A Wrinkle in Time is a young adult novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle. First published in 1962, the book has won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. The main characters—Meg Murry, Charles Wallace Murry, and Calvin O'Keefe—embark on a journey through space and time, from universe to universe, as they endeavor to save the Murrys' father and the world. The novel offers a glimpse into the war between light and darkness, and good and evil, as the young characters mature into adolescents on their journey. The novel wrestles with questions of spirituality and purpose, as the characters are often thrown into conflicts of love, divinity, and goodness. It is the first book in L'Engle's Time Quintet, which follows the Murrys and Calvin O'Keefe.
L'Engle modeled the Murry family on her own. Scholar Bernice E. Cullinan noted that L'Engle created characters who "share common joy with a mixed fantasy and science fiction setting." The novel's scientific and religious undertones are therefore highly reflective of the life of L'Engle.
The book has inspired two film adaptations, both by Disney: a 2003 television film directed by John Kent Harrison, and a 2018 theatrical film directed by Ava DuVernay.

Background

Raised in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, author Madeleine L'Engle began writing at a young age. After graduating from boarding school in Switzerland, she attended Smith College, where she earned a degree in English. In addition to writing, L'Engle also gained experience as an actor and playwright. At age forty, she nearly abandoned her career as a novelist, but continued to write after her publication of Meet the Austins.
L'Engle wrote A Wrinkle in Time between 1959 and 1960. In her memoir, A Circle of Quiet, L'Engle explains that the book was conceived "during a time of transition." After years of living in rural Goshen, Connecticut where they ran a general store, L'Engle's family, the Franklins, moved back to New York City, first taking a ten-week camping trip across the country. L'Engle writes that "we drove through a world of deserts and buttes and leafless mountains, wholly new and alien to me. And suddenly into my mind came the names, Mrs Whatsit. Mrs Who. Mrs Which." This was in the spring of 1959. When asked for more information in an interview with Horn Book magazine in 1983, L'Engle responded "I cannot possibly tell you how I came to write it. It was simply a book I had to write. I had no choice. It was only after it was written that I realized what some of it meant." L'Engle has also described the novel as her "psalm of praise to life, stand for life against death."
Additionally, L'Engle drew upon her interest in science. The novel includes references to Einstein's theory of relativity and Planck's quantum theory.
A Wrinkle in Time is the first novel in the Time Quintet, a series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle. Later books include A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. The series follows the adventures of Meg Murry, her youngest brother Charles Wallace Murry, their friend Calvin O'Keefe, and her twin siblings Sandy and Dennys Murry. Throughout the series, the friends band together to travel through space and time as they attempt to save the world from the grasps of evil.

Publication history

Upon completion in 1960, the novel was rejected by at least 26 publishers, because it was, in L'Engle's words, "too different," and "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was really difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adults' book, anyhow?"
In "A Special Message from Madeleine L'Engle" on the Random House website, L'Engle offers another possible reason for the rejections: "A Wrinkle in Time had a female protagonist in a science fiction book," which at the time was uncommon. After trying "forty-odd" publishers, L'Engle's agent returned the manuscript to her. Then at Christmas, L'Engle threw a tea party for her mother. One of the guests happened to know John C. Farrar of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and he insisted that L'Engle should meet with him. Although the publisher did not, at the time, publish a line of children's books, Farrar met L'Engle, liked the novel, and ultimately published it under the Ariel imprint.
In 1963, the book won the Newbery Medal, an annual award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature. The book has been continuously in print since its first publication. The hardback edition is still published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The original blue dust jacket by Ellen Raskin was replaced with new art by Leo and Diane Dillon, with the publication of A Swiftly Tilting Planet in 1978. The book has also been published in a 25th anniversary collectors' edition, at least two book club editions, as a trade paperback under the Dell Yearling imprint, and as a mass market paperback under the Dell Laurel-Leaf imprint. The cover art on the paperback editions has changed several times since its first publication.
The book was reissued by Square Fish in trade and mass market paperback formats in May 2007, along with the rest of the Time Quintet. This new edition includes a previously unpublished interview with L'Engle as well as a transcription of her Newbery Medal acceptance speech.

Plot summary

Thirteen-year-old Meg Murry's classmates and teachers see her as a troublesome and stubborn student. Her family knows that she is emotionally immature but also sees her as capable of doing great things. The family includes her scientist mother Katherine, missing scientist father Alexander, twins Sandy and Dennys, and five-year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry, a child genius who can sometimes read Meg's mind.
The book begins with the line "It was a dark and stormy night", an allusion to the opening words in the Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel Paul Clifford. Unable to sleep during a thunderstorm, Meg descends from her attic room to find Charles Wallace sitting at the table drinking milk and eating bread and jam. They are joined by their mother and visited by their new eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Whatsit. During the conversation, Mrs. Whatsit casually mentions the existence of a tesseract, which causes Katherine to almost faint.
The next morning, Meg discovers that the term refers to a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following afternoon, Meg and Charles Wallace encounter Meg's schoolmate, Calvin O'Keefe, a high-school junior who, although popular at school, considers himself a misfit as well. Then they visit an old haunted house near town that Charles Wallace already knows is the home of Mrs. Whatsit. There, they encounter two companions of Mrs. Whatsit's, the equally strange Mrs. Who and the unseen voice of Mrs. Which. She promises that she and her friends will help Meg find and rescue her father. In the evening, Charles Wallace declares it is time for them to go on their mission to save their father. This is accompanied by the appearance of the third member of the Mrs. Ws, Mrs. Which, who appears to materialize out of nothing.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which turn out to be supernatural beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe through the universe by means of tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as folding the fabric of space and time. The first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian world filled with Centaur-like beings who live in a state of light and love. Mrs. Whatsit shows that she, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which are these centaur-like creatures in disguise as humans. The Mrs. Ws reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing, which is essentially the personification of evil. The children are taken to visit the Happy Medium, a woman with a crystal ball through which they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, scientists, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs. Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.
The children travel to the dark planet of Camazotz, which has succumbed to the Black Thing. Meg's father is trapped on the planet. They find that all the inhabitants behave in a mechanical way and seem to be under the control of a single mind. At the planet's central headquarters, CENTRAL Central Intelligence, they discover a telepathic red-eyed man who can cast hypnotic spells and claims to know their father's whereabouts. Charles Wallace deliberately looks into the man's red eyes, allowing himself to be hypnotized in order to find their father. Under the man's influence, he takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Alexander is being held prisoner because he would not succumb to the group mind.
The planet is controlled by an evil disembodied brain with powerful abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call "IT". Charles Wallace takes them to the place where IT is held. In such proximity to IT, the children are vulnerable to a potential telepathic takeover of their minds. With special powers from Mrs Who's glasses, Alexander is able to "tesser" Calvin, Meg and himself away from Camazotz, but Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT. Dr. Murry, inexperienced at tessering, does not know how to protect Meg from the Black Thing, nearly killing her. When they arrive on the neighboring planet of Ixchel, Meg is paralyzed and nearly frozen. Calvin and the Murrys are discovered by the planet's inhabitants - large, eyeless beasts with featureless faces, tentacles and four arms, who prove both wise and gentle. Meg's paralysis is cured under the care of one inhabitant, whom Meg nicknames Aunt Beast. Meg overcomes her anger at her father for leaving Charles Wallace on Camazotz, realizing that parents can't fix everything, and sometimes children can solve problems themselves.
Then the trio of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which arrive. They charge Meg with rescuing Charles Wallace from IT, because only Meg has a strong enough bond with him while their father had last seen Charles Wallace when he was a baby and Calvin had only just met him. They each give Meg a gift. Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg her love. Mrs. Who quotes to Meg a passage from the Bible about God choosing the foolish of the world to confound the wise, and the weak to defeat the strong. Mrs. Which tells Meg that she has one thing that IT does not have but doesn't specify what it is. Arriving at the building where IT resides, they find Charles Wallace under IT's influence. Meg realizes that the one thing she has that IT does not is love. She focuses all her love at Charles Wallace and is able to free him from IT's control. Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Whatsit tesser the Murrys and Calvin back to Earth. In the vegetable garden they are all reunited with Katherine and the twins. Mrs. Whatsit says that although she and the others like the spectacle of the family reuniting, they have to go somewhere. Before Mrs. Whatsit finishes her sentence, she and the others disappear.

Characters

Main characters

Margaret "Meg" Murry

Meg is the oldest child of scientists Alex and Kate Murry, about thirteen years old. Introduced on the first page of the book, she is the story's main protagonist.

Charles Wallace Murry

Charles Wallace is the youngest Murry child, at five years old. Charles Wallace speaks only to his family, but can empathically or telepathically read certain people's thoughts and feelings.

Calvin O'Keefe

Calvin is the third oldest of Paddy and Branwen O'Keefe's eleven children: a tall, thin, red-haired 14-year-old high school junior. He shows some signs of being able to communicate telepathically, the same power Charles Wallace seems to have.

Supernatural characters

Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which

Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which are immortal beings who can travel across large stretches of time and space by dematerializing and rematerializing. They are capable of shapeshifting, but spend most of their time on Earth as elderly women.
Mrs. Whatsit
Mrs. Whatsit is the youngest of the Mrs. Ws, and interacts with the children.
Mrs. Who
Mrs. Who communicates in Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, and Greek.
Mrs. Which
Mrs. Which is the leader of the three women and the wisest.

ᎥᎿ

ᎥᎿ is the bodiless, telepathic brain that dominates the planet of Camazotz and is the main antagonist of the story. ᎥᎿ is described as a giant-sized human brain. While ᎥᎿ usually speaks through one of its pawns, ᎥᎿ can speak directly to people via telepathy.

The Black Thing

The Black Thing, a formless, shadowy being, is the source of all evil in the universe.

Secondary characters

Alex Murry

Alex Murry, the father of the Murry children, is a physicist who is researching the mysteries of the space/time continuum. At the start of the novel, he has been missing for some time.

Dr. Katherine "Kate" Murry

Katherine Murry, the mother of the Murry children, is a microbiologist. She is considered beautiful by the Murry children and others, having "flaming red hair", creamy skin, and violet eyes with long dark lashes.

Sandy and Dennys Murry

Sandy and his twin brother Dennys are the middle children in the Murry family, older than Charles Wallace but younger than Meg. They are 10 years old at the time of this book. The twins are depicted as inseparable from one another. They are the only "normal" and accepted children in the Murry family.

Mrs. Buncombe

Mrs.Buncombe is the wife of the constable in Meg's hometown.

Mr. Jenkins

Mr. Jenkins is Meg's high-school principal who implies that her family is in denial about Mr. Murry's true whereabouts.

Supporting alien characters

Happy Medium

The Happy Medium is human in appearance. She uses her powers and a crystal ball to look at distant places and people. She lives in a cavern on a planet in Orion's Belt.

Aunt Beast

Aunt Beast is a character who nurses and befriends Meg on the planet Ixchel. The character is a four-armed eyeless gray creature with telepathic abilities and numerous long, waving tentacles instead of fingers. The character's actual name, if any, is not given.

Analysis

Religious analysis

The novel is highly spiritualized, with notable influences of divine intervention and prominent undertones of religious messages. According to scholar James Beasley Simpson, the overwhelming love and desire for light within the novel is directly representative of a Christian love for God and Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the children encounter spiritual intervention, signaling God's presence in the ordinary, as well as the extendibility of God's power and love. Madeleine L'Engle's fantasy works are in part highly expressive of her Christian viewpoint in a manner somewhat similar to that of Christian fantasy writer C. S. Lewis. She was herself the official writer-in-residence at New York City's Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is known for its prominent position in the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church. L'Engle's liberal Christianity has been the target of criticism from more conservative Christians, especially with respect to certain elements of A Wrinkle in Time.
L'Engle utilizes numerous religious references and allusions in the naming of locations within the novel. The name Camazotz refers to a Mayan bat god, one of L'Engle's many mythological allusions in her nomenclature. The name Ixchel refers to a Mayan jaguar goddess of medicine. Uriel is a planet with extremely tall mountains, an allusion to the Archangel Uriel. It is inhabited by creatures that resemble winged centaurs. It is "the third planet of the Star Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 101", which would place it at roughly 21 million light-years from Earth. The site of Mrs Whatsit's temporary transformation into one of these winged creatures, it is the place where "the guardian angels show the questers a vision of the universe that is obscured on earth." The three women are described as ancient star-beings who act as guardian angels.
The theme of picturing the fight of good against evil as a battle of light and darkness is a recurring one. Its manner is reminiscent of the prologue to the Gospel of John, which is quoted within the book. When the Mrs W's reveal their secret roles in the cosmic fight against darkness, they ask the children to name some figures on Earth, a partially dark planet, who fight the darkness. They name Jesus and, later in the discussion, Buddha is named as well.
Nevertheless, religious journalist Sarah Pulliam Bailey doubts whether the novel contains religious undertones. Bailey explains that many readers believe the novel promotes witchcraft, as opposed to alluding to Christian spirituality. Bailey states that conservative Christians take offense, due to the novel's potential relativistic qualities, suggesting the various interpretations of religious allusions signals anti-Christian sentiments. However, in her personal journal referencing A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle confirms the religious content within the novel: "If I've ever written a book that says what I feel about God and the universe, this is it."

Conformity

Further, the themes of conformity and the status quo are present. IT is a powerful dominant group that manipulates the planet of Camazotz into conformity. Even Charles Wallace falls prey and is hence persuaded to conform. It is thanks to Meg that she and her family are able to break from conformity. According to the author's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, the story was not a simple allegory of communism; in a three-page passage that was cut before publication, the process of domination and conformity is said to be an outcome of dictatorship under totalitarian regimes and by an excessive desire of security under democratic countries.
Scholar Jean Fulton writes:
"L'Engle's fiction for young readers is considered important partly because she was among the first to focus directly on the deep, delicate issues that young people must face, such as death, social conformity, and truth. L'Engle's work always is uplifting because she is able to look at the surface values of life from a perspective of wholeness, both joy and pain, transcending each to uncover the absolute nature of human experience that they share."

Conformity within Camazotz

Camazotz is a planet of extreme, enforced conformity, ruled by a disembodied brain called IT. Camazotz is similar to Earth, with familiar trees such as birches, pines, and maples, an ordinary hill on which the children arrive, and a town with smokestacks, which "might have been one of any number of familiar towns". The horror of the place arises from its ordinary appearance, endlessly duplicated. The houses are "all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray", which, according to author Donald Hettinga, signals a comparison to "the burgeoning American suburbia", such as the post-war housing developments of Levittown, Pennsylvania. The people who live in the houses are similarly described as "mother figures" who "all gave the appearance of being the same". Scholar William Blackburn draws a comparison to "an early sixties American image of life in a Communist state", a characterization Blackburn later dismissed.

Feminism

A Wrinkle in Time has also received praise for empowering young female readers. Critics have celebrated L'Engle's depiction of Meg Murry, a young, precocious heroine whose curiosity and intellect helps save the world from evil. The New York Times has described this portrayal as "a departure from the typical 'girls' book' protagonist - as wonderful as many of those varied characters are". In doing so, L'Engle has been credited for paving the way for other bright heroines, including Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter book series, as well as Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games trilogy. Regarding her choice to include a female protagonist, L'Engle has stated in her acceptance speech upon receiving the Margaret Edwards Award "I'm a female. Why would I give all the best ideas to a male?"

Reception

At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews said: "Readers who relish symbolic reference may find this trip through time and space an exhilarating experience; the rest will be forced to ponder the double entendres." According to The Horn Book Magazine: "Here is a confusion of science, philosophy, satire, religion, literary allusions, and quotations that will no doubt have many critics. I found it fascinating... It makes unusual demands on the imagination and consequently gives great rewards." In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1956 to 1965, librarian Carolyn Horovitz wrote: "There is no question but that the book is good entertainment and that the writer carries the story along with a great deal of verve; there is some question about the depth of its quality."
A 2004 study found that it was a common read-aloud book for sixth-graders in schools in San Diego County, California. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.
In 2016, the novel saw a spike in sales after Chelsea Clinton mentioned it as influential in her childhood in a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Controversy

A Wrinkle in Time is on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 at number 23. The novel has been accused of being both anti-religious and anti-Christian for its inclusion of witches and crystal balls and for containing "New Age" spiritualist themes that do not reflect traditional Christian teachings. According to USA Today, the novel was challenged in a school district in the state of Alabama due to the "book's listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists and religious leaders when referring to those who defend Earth against evil." The novel was also challenged in 1984 by an elementary school in Polk City, Florida when parents claimed that the novel promoted witchcraft.
Regarding this controversy, author Madeleine L'Engle told The New York Times: "It seems people are willing to damn the book without reading it. Nonsense about witchcraft and fantasy. First I felt horror, then anger, and finally I said, ‘Aw, the hell with it.’ It's great publicity, really."

Adaptations

Audio books

In 1994, Listening Library released an unabridged, 4-cassette audio edition read by the author.
On January 10, 2012, Audible released a 50th anniversary edition recorded by Hope Davis.
as Charles Wallace Murry, Katie Stuart as Meg Murry, and Gregory Smith as Calvin O'Keefe on the planet Uriel

Film adaptations

In 2003, a television adaptation of the novel was made by a collaboration of Canadian production companies, to be distributed in the United States by Disney. The movie was directed by John Kent Harrison, with a teleplay by Susan Shilliday. It stars Katie Stuart as Meg Murry, Alfre Woodard as Mrs. Whatsit, Alison Elliott as Mrs. Who, and Kate Nelligan as Mrs. Which. In an interview with MSNBC/Newsweek, when L'Engle was asked if the film "met her expectations", she said, "I have glimpsed it... I expected it to be bad, and it is."
A theatrical feature film adaptation of the novel, by Walt Disney Pictures, was released in 2018. The film was directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell. It stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Storm Reid, Michael Peña, and Zach Galifianakis.

Play

An adaptation by James Sie premiered at the Lifeline Theatre in Chicago in 1990, and it returned to the stage in 1998 and 2017.
John Glore adapted the novel as a play that premiered in 2010. It was written for six actors playing 12 parts. One actor plays Mrs Whatsit, the Man with Red Eyes, and Camazotz Man. Dr. Kate Murry, Mrs Who, Camazotz Woman, and Aunt Beast also share one performer. The stage adaptation premiered in Costa Mesa, California, with productions in Bethesda, Maryland; Cincinnati; Philadelphia; Orlando; Portland, Oregon; and other cities.
An adaptation by Tracy Young premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in April 2014, as well as at colleges and theaters around the U.S.

Opera

In 1992, OperaDelaware staged an opera based on A Wrinkle in Time written by Libby Larsen with a libretto by Walter Green. The review in Philly.com stated: "The composer does not place arias and set pieces, but conversational ensembles with spoken dialogue that made the young daughter's climactic but concise song about familial love all the more imposing."

Graphic novel

In 2010, Hope Larson announced that she was writing and illustrating the official graphic novel version of the book. This version was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in October 2012.

Concerning ''A Wrinkle in Time''