A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Wrinkle in Time
Book Review: "A Wrinkle in Time" is a book everyone in the world should read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Meg Murry is one of your typical, average girls. The only thing that might make her a little different is that her father is a scientist. He is not a scientist you may visualize, pouring thing into other things to make concotions. No, he is a time traveler. Now, Meg doesn't know any of this, all she knows is that she hasn't seen her father for a couple of weeks. Meg's mom says he is on one of his "trips" again, and Meg only occasionally worries about her dad. However, when a witch unexpectedly arrives at their door in a nasty storm, Meg's curiosity is too much to bear. Her brother, Charles Wallace, seems to have an acquatiance with this odd witch, taking Meg with him to visit the witch and her two friends, also witches. This is when Meg learns the art of time traveling. Charles Wallace, who has always had a mysterious phsycic power, seems to relate to these strange planets in interesting ways. Meg's friend, a boy, is unexpectedly swept up into the time traveling too, as they are left to find out what happened to their father, to figure out the key to saving the universe, something many people take for granted and something that many people live without.Book Review: "For thou wast a spirit too delicate..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Madeleine L'Engle's classic A WRINKLE IN TIME presents itself as science fiction but it is pure allegory.
Meg Murry is an awkward teenaged girl, clumsily trapped between immaturity and responsibility. She is the daughter of two highly respected scientists. She has three brothers, the typical Sandy and Dennys, and Charles Wallace, a child prodigy whom people believe is not quite bright. Charles Wallace is not only intellectually gifted but he is also spiritually advanced. The children are living with their mother while their father is away on a highly secret government project. As A WRINKLE IN TIME opens, Mr. Murry is not only away but has been missing for quite some time. The snide townspeople are snickering about his apparent decision to abandon his family, and are tormenting the family emotionally, especially Meg.
Things begin to come to a head when the family is visited by Mrs. Whatsit, an old crone who lives with her two friends, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, in a supposedly abandoned house. While talking with Mrs. Murry, the strange Mrs. Whatsit mentions the existence of the fifth-dimensional tesseract, a concept in space-time quantum mechanics, the existence of which the Murrys have been trying to prove scientifically.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which turn out to be creatures of a different order masquerading as old ladies, and take Meg, Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a journey through the tesseract in search of Mr. Murry, who is being held prisoner on the planet Camazotz.
Many people see Camazotz as a Communist or totalitarian state. Certainly the 1962 publication date places A WRINKLE IN TIME at the height of the Cold War, but L'Engle is not merely anti-totalitarian; she is also speaking against mindless conformity by choice, and against unthinking reliance on purely Utopian and religious visions, all of which are presented as equally destructive to the human condition.
Camazotz is hell, but a hell of absolute conformity, where the great controlling mind of IT has crushed any individuality out of the inhabitants. Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin must battle the overwhelming pressures of IT's control, and their own human flaws to not only free Mr. Murry, who is trapped Jesus-like in a transparent column of pure suffering, but also to escape Camazotz and the sentient Evil which is devouring the universe. In doing so, Charles Wallace learns a lesson about hubris, Meg comes to the adult realization that her beloved father is not omnipotent and that she must take responsibility for her life, and Calvin discovers the true meaning of family. They all learn a lesson in Love.
Although L'Engle's idiom is overwhelmingly Christian, she also finds inspiration in all the great thinkers, Horace, Euripedes, Shakespeare, Bach, Schweitzer, and dozens of others who are referenced in this book. Although considered "Young Adult" fiction, A WRINKLE IN TIME is fiction for extremely literate young adults, and can serve as an introduction to the Classics.
Book Review: "There IS Such a Thing as a Tesseract!"
Summary: 5 Stars
First published in 1962, Madeline L'Engle's classic book (and its subsequent sequels) remains one of the greats of children's literature, and it is a testimony to her skill that she can get away with using the line: "it was a dark and stormy night" as her opening sentence. Widely considered the first science-fiction novel written for children, "A Wrinkle in Time" is a must for any serious young reader's bookshelf.
Margaret "Meg" Murray is a rather despondent child: her father is missing, she's having trouble at school and her little brother Charles Wallace is often gossiped about in the community for being "strange". This is not entirely untrue: after being silent for much of his first four years, Charles Wallace suddenly began speaking in complete and complex sentences when he turned five. Unfortunately, by this stage his father was not around to hear it and the family wait in agony for news of him.
Mr Murray has been missing for some time, but Charles Wallace has come into contact with three strange old women (who call themselves Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which) who seem to have an idea as to where he's disappeared to. Stopping by on the aforementioned dark-and-stormy night Mrs Who introduces herself to the family and leaves with the following words to Mrs Murray: "there is such a thing as a tesseract." A tesseract is a wrinkle in time, and it is through one that Meg, Charles Wallace and their intuitive friend Calvin will be transported to another planet, with the mission to find their father and halt the progress of the terrible being known as IT.
IT is the enemy of mankind that has been fought against by our world's artists, thinkers and dreamers from time immemorial - and Mr Murray was one of these fighters, attempting to expand the world's knowledge for the benefit of mankind. But now it falls to his children to save him, as they embark on an adventure filled with creatures that are best experienced by reading "A Wrinkle in Time" yourself.
There are enough uplifting spiritual connotations here to shake a stick at (though they are not so overt as, say C. S. Lewis) and plenty of poignant moments in what is ultimately a coming-of-age story: most memorable is Meg's realisation that her reunion with her father does not mean that the happy ending can commence and that not even parents can solve everything. The best stories are the ones that resonant even years after they have been published, and the monotonous lifestyle on Camazotz is as chilling now as it was back in the 1960s when Communism was on everyone's minds. Now the threat comes from religious fundamentalism, and the image of those individuals forced into conformity remains as potent as ever.
It isn't perfect however; I felt that Meg and Calvin's little romance was started too suddenly and somewhat unrealistically, and the unmasking of IT as a (well, readers will already know) is considerably dated by now; it feels like it belongs in a silly sci-fi move-of-the-week. But the pluses far outweigh the minuses, and this is a book that demands to be read more than once, especially since this new edition includes an introduction by the author and an essay by Lisa Sonne that explores some of the real science behind the story.
I've said enough. Its time to go get your own copy of "A Wrinkle in Time".
Book Review: "I was devestated when this fairy tale creation ended"
Summary: 5 Stars
A misfit young girl, Meg, thinks that there's nothing she can do right: She can't act right, look right, think right, or make friends. But something called the Tesseract changes her life forever. She journeys through space and learns that there is one thing she can do better then anyone else: love. This is by far the best book that I have ever read. I cried when it was over. It's not like other sci-fi books. It's a fantasy-like twist of a fairy-tale mixed with a little bit of magic. I strongly disagree with anyone who says that it is'nt for younger hearts because it is loved by the Young-at-HeartBook Review: "It was a dark and stormy night."
Summary: 5 Stars
Thus begins Madeleine L'Engle's classic first volume of her "time trilogy." I somehow did not discover this book until I was an adult, and it has become an enduring favorite of mine. The story of the tesseract travelling Murrys, accompanied by the odd three "Missuses," has elements of many genres in one tale. Science fiction, written at the dawn of our own space age, fantasy, coming of age, spiritual quest are all woven deftly in the tale of children seeking answers in a threatening and often dark world.The characters are immensely memorable and interesting, leaving the reader just enough room to imagine for themselves what it would be like to meet Meg, or Charles Wallace, or any of the time travelling ladies who become their guides. Children will read this book for the adventure and plot, which is fully engaging, but adults will read it for the deeper themes that are explored. "A Wrinkle in Time" is one of those rare, many-layered books that will reveal something new to its readers each time they re-read it. Those who are becoming impatient waiting for the next "Harry Potter" might well enjoy visiting this classic, and reading on in the series.