Charlie and the big glass elevator
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Original title: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator ) is a children's book by the Norwegian - Welsh writer Roald Dahl , which was published in 1972. It is the sequel to his successful book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .
The plot is inspired by the moon landing of the Apollo 11 mission , which Roald Dahl had inspired.
content
The story follows on from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory : Charlie's parents and grandparents decide to move with Willy Wonka to his chocolate factory, to which Charlie has been selected as heir. You get into Willy Wonka's flying glass elevator to return to the factory. Since three of Charlie's grandparents refuse to get out of bed, they take the bed with them into the elevator.
The elevator goes astray on the way and finds itself in the orbit of the earth. There you can visit the “Raumhotel USA”, a hotel that revolves around the earth and that the United States government is about to open. Willy Wonka, Charlie and his family enter the space hotel to the confusion of the astronauts who are getting ready for the first visit to the hotel, and the US President who is observing what is going on in the hotel from Earth. Willy Wonka speaks to the government over the radio and pretends to be aliens and himself and his companions. While the President and his advisory staff ponder what to do, Charlie's grandmother realizes that there are indeed aliens, the dangerous wormed Nilche, on board the hotel. You have to flee the hotel and are attacked outside by a group of wormed Nilche. The American astronauts and the hotel staff are also in distress, but Willy Wonka manages to bring everyone safely to Earth.
Even after arriving at the chocolate factory, Charlie's grandparents continue to refuse to get out of bed. Willy Wonka then offers them his latest invention, a substance called Wonka-Vit , which can make people twenty years younger. Suddenly the three grandparents are greedy, they consume too much of it, and so two of them become toddlers, while Charlie's grandmother Georgine even disappears completely, since she is younger by more years than she was old. Willy Wonka and Charlie then take the glass elevator to "Minusland" to administer an antidote to Grandmother Georgine.
After everyone has been able to return to their original age, Willy Wonka receives a letter from the President inviting him to the White House as a thank you for saving the astronauts from the alien attackers . The grandparents are convinced to get out of bed after all, and the family and Willy Wonka enter the helicopter that was sent to pick them up.
Publication history
The original edition appeared in 1972 in the United States and 1973 in the United Kingdom . It was illustrated by Quentin Blake . The first German translation by Adolf Himmel and Roswitha Fröhlich with illustrations by Horst Lemke was published by Bertelsmann Verlag in 1974 . Several more recent editions with the original illustrations were published by Rowohlt Verlag .
reception
Charlie and the Big Glass Elevator received mostly negative reviews and is considered less successful compared to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Dahl himself later regretted having written a sequel, since he too thought it was worse than the first book. Although the end of the book is deliberately kept open, as Dahl originally planned to write a third part, the bad reviews diverted him from this endeavor.
Roald Dahl did not approve a film adaptation of this book after being utterly disappointed with the 1971 film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . In Tim Burton's remake from 2005, there are some details from Charlie and the large glass elevator .
expenditure
German book editions
- Charlie and the big glass elevator. From the English by Adolf Himmel and Roswitha Fröhlich. With illustrations by Horst Lemke , Bertelsmann 1974, ISBN 3-570-07633-4 (German first edition).
- Charlie and the big glass elevator. From the English by Adolf Himmel and Roswitha Fröhlich. With illustrations by Quentin Blake . 4th edition, Rowohlt Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-499-21212-9 .
English original edition
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Puffin Modern Classics 2007, ISBN 0141322691 .
Audio book
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. 3 CDs, read by Eric Idle , Puffin Audiobooks 2007, ISBN 0141807806 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.roalddahl.com/
- ↑ Don D'Ammassa: Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. New York, Checkmark Books 2006, ISBN 0816061920 , p. 52.
- ^ Michael D. Sharp: Popular Contemporary Writers. New York, 2006, ISBN 0761476016 , p. 520.
- ^ Mark I. West: Roald Dahl. New York, Twayne 1992, ISBN 0805770194 , p. 77.
- ↑ Tom Bishop: Willy Wonka's everlasting film plot. In: BBC News . July 11, 2005, accessed November 11, 2011 .
- ↑ Michael Saunders: Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. In: BBC . July 29, 2005, accessed November 11, 2011 .