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A Wrinkle in Time
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Read A Wrinkle in Time
Time Quintet: Book 1

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) (edit title/settings)

by Madeleine L'Engle (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Rediscover one of the most beloved children's books of all time: A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. She claims to have... read more

Summary edit see section history

It was a dark and stormy night when Meg Murry met Mrs. Whatsit for the first time. She had been unable to sleep, and was startled tofind her little brother, Charles Wallace, already downstairs in the kitchen making hot chocolate for her and her mother, who arrived shortly afterwards. In the... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

It was a dark and stormy night when Meg Murry met Mrs. Whatsit for the first time. She had been unable to sleep, and was startled tofind her little brother, Charles Wallace, already downstairs in the kitchen making hot chocolate for her and her mother, who arrived shortly afterwards. In the middle of their midnight snack, they were interrupted by a knocking on the door. It was Mrs. Whatsit, whom they found out to be a friend of Charles Wallace. she came in, promptly making herself at home, and declared to the started Mrs. Murry "By the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract"
This launches Meg, Charles, and a friend of theirs named Calvin O'Keefe into an unforgettable adventure to rescue Meg's father and save their planet, as well as the universe.

Characters edit see section history

  • Meg Murry: Meg is not pretty, and very conscious of that fact. She doesn't think she is very smart, gets bad grades, and most people hate her, but she loves her family especially her dad main character
  • Charles Wallace Murry: Charles is the little brother of Meg, and is really smart. He hardly ever talks to anyone but his own family, so everyone thinks he's stupid
  • Calvin O'Keefe: Calvin O'Keefe is the third oldest of Paddy and Branwen O'Keefe's eleven children, a tall, thin, red-haired 14-year-old high school junior who plays on the school basketball team and is one of the popular boys in high school. Neglected by his own family, Calvin joyfully enters the lives of the Murry family, starting in Chapter Two. He shows some signs of being able to communicate telepathically; the same power Charles Wallace seems to have, a technique referred to in later books as kything. He also feels as if he has been hiding his true self all his life, and likes the Murry family much more than his own, which is characterized by abuse and dysfunctional dynamics. He is Meg's love interest, and he loving her back as well
  • Mrs. Whatsit: The Stange old woman that wanders in on a stormy night.
  • Mrs. Who: One of the strange women the children encounter. She constantly quotes literary works. Mrs. Who gives Meg her spectacles on Camazotz. This illuminates the fact that Meg can see things others cannot
  • Mrs. Which: .
  • Dr. Alex Murry: Meg's father. He's a scientist who disappeared
  • Dr. Kate Murray: Dr. Kate Murry is a microbiologist, wife of Dr. Alexander Murry, and mother of the four Murry children. She is considered beautiful by the Murry children and others, having "flaming red hair" and violet eyes. Her physical attractiveness, academic and scientific accomplishments give Meg a bit of an inferiority complex. She is introduced in Chapter One, and usually referred to as Mrs. Murry. As in her husband's case, her first name is given in the subsequently published An Acceptable Time. The television version of her character is renamed Dana
  • Sandy Murry: Average "Normal" type of kid Meg's younger brother and Charles Wallace's older brother.
  • Dennys Murry: Dennys Murry is the twin of Sandy Murry. Dennys and his twin are usually inseparable, with Dennys generally following Sandy's lead. However, Dennys is slightly less skeptical than his brother about the strange theories and even stranger adventures of Meg and Charles Wallace. (Note: The name Dennys is a shortened version of "Dionysus",which is the name of a Greek god, but is pronounced the same way as the more common spelling Dennis
  • Aunt Beast?..: Aunt Beast is a character who takes care of Meg on the planet Ixchel. Aunt Beast has four arms, no eyes or mouth, and numerous long, waving tentacles instead of fingers. Tall, gray in color, sightless and telepathic, Aunt Beast has a motherly, nurturing attitude toward Meg. The name Aunt Beast is one that Meg and the alien come up with together, based on the character's perusal of Meg's mind. The character's actual name, if any, is not given. A loving, mother-like creature from another planet
  • Happy Medium: .
  • IT: An oversized giant brain.
  • Mr. Jenkins: the school principal.
  • Fortinbras: The Murrys' dog. He is known to bark when someone strange comes along
  • .: .
Show all 16 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “"Maybe I don't like being different", Meg said, "but I don't want to be like everybody else, either"”
    Meg
  • “Wild nights are my glory.”
  • “I must be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there IS such a thing as a tesseract!”
    Mrs. Whatsit
  • “The two boys seem to be nice, regular children, but that unattractive girl and the baby boy certainly aren't all there”
  • “The houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray”
  • “"Good helps us, the stars help us, perhaps what you call light helps us. Oh my child, I cannot explain! This is something you just have to know or not know."”
  • “I'm all confused again...”
    Meg
  • “"Can't she see what's going to happen?" Calvin asked. "Oh, not in this kind of thing." Mrs. Whatsit sounded surprised at his question. "If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we'd be—we'd be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned and done for us.”
  • “In your language you have a form of poetry called a sonnet." "Yes, yes," said Calvin. . . ."It's a very strict form of poetry, is it not?" "Yes" "There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?" "Yes"Calvin nodded. "And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?" "No" "But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn't he?" "Yes." Calvin nodded again. "So," Mrs. Whatsit said. "So what?" "Oh, do not be stupid, boy!" Mrs. Whatsit scolded. "You know perfectly well what I am driving at!" "You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?" "Yes." Mrs. Whatsit said. "You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you."”
  • “"I'm—I'm sorry, Father." He took both her hand in his, bent down to her with his short-sighted eyes. "Sorry for what, Megatron?" Tears almost came to her eyes at the gentle use of the old nickname. "I wanted you to do it all for me. I wanted everything to be all easy and simple. . . . So I tried to pretend that it was all your fault . . . because I was scared, and I didn't want to have to do anything myself—" "But I wanted to do it for you," Mr. Murry said. "That's what every parent wants." He looked into her dark, frightened eyes. "I won't let you go, Meg. I am going." "No." Mrs. Whatsit's voice was sterner than Meg had ever heard it. "You are going to allow Meg the privilege of accepting this danger. You are a wise man, Mr. Murry. You are going to let her go."”
  • “We look not at the things which are what you would call seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal.”
    Aunt Beast
  • “A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points.”
  • “Sing unto the LORD a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift their voice; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the LORD!”
  • “Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point. Pascal(The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.)”
  • “Thee onnlly wway ttoo ccope withh ssometthingg ddeadly sseriouss iss ttoo ttry ttoo trreatt itt a llittlle lligghtly.”
  • “Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything. Euripides”
Show all 16 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

The setting of this book is fairly broad, seeing as it spans from a regular 1960's house to a star in Orion's belt. It takes place in the year it was published, 1963.
  • Meg's House: The story starts and ends here. It's probably a three-story house, with a first and second floor and an attic. It's in a remote town somewhere in Conneticut.
  • Black Thing: This seems to be a place where all darkness and evil are gathered.
  • Uriel: The first planet outside the solar system Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin have seen.
  • Camazotz: A place where people do everything at the same time.
  • Ixchel: The planet in which Aunt Beast and the other lovely, tentacled creatures without light or sight inhabit and where Meg, Mr. Murry and Calvin land during the failed tessering out of Camazotz.

First Sentence edit see section history

It was a dark and stormy night in a small village in the United States.

Table of Contents edit see section history

1 Mrs Whatsit

2 Mrs Who

3 Mrs Which

4 The Black thing

5 The Tesseract

6 The Happy Medium

7 The Man with Red Eyes

8 The Transparent Column

9 IT

10 Absolute Zero

11 Aunt Beast

12 The Foolish and the Weak

Glossary edit see section history

  • Gamboled: --verb. To skip about, as in dancing or playing; to frolic.
  • Tesseract: In geometry, the tesseract, also called an 8-cell or regular octachoron or cubic prism, is the four-dimensional analog of the cube. The tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of 6 square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of 8 cubical cells. The tesseract is one of the six convex regular 4-polytopes.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Trust: The characters must trust each other as well as the strangers they meet along the way. They also trust that their Father will return to them, despite the rumors to the contrary.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 5 in Time Quintet. (standard series)

Followed by A Wind in the Door.

This is book 106 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Me Talk Pretty One Day, and followed by One Night at the Call Center.

This book is in Most Surprising Banned Books. (community list)
This is book 90 of 98 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Friday Night Lights, and followed by Julie of the Wolves.

This is book 824 of 986 in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Friedrich, and followed by Der Brief für den König.

This is book 69 of 157 in Fantasy Book Review Top 100 fantasy books of all time. (community list)

Followed by Titus Groan.

This is book 107 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Interview with the Vampire, and followed by The Other Boleyn Girl.

This is book 105 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Hamlet, and followed by Interview with the Vampire.

This is book 107 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Client, and followed by The Lost Symbol.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Madeleine L'Engle (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1962
ISBN: 0-374-38613-7
Page Count: 233

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PZ7.L5385 Wr 1962
  • Dewey: F Wright

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Lexile Score: 740

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Wrinkle in Time Quintet
  • A Wind in the Door

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • When You Reach Me
  • The Wrinkle in Time Quintet
  • Running from Secrets

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