A Wrinkle in Time (originally called A Wrinkle in Time in English) is a young adult fantasy novel written between 1959 and 1960 by American writer Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007).
It was published in 1962 after being rejected by 26 publishers for being “too different” according to the author.
The novel won some of the most prestigious awards for children’s and young adult’s novels in America: the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and came in second for the Hans Christian Andersen Award .
It is the first in Madeleine L’Engle’s The Quintet of Time series of books about the Murry and O’Keefe families:
- A Wrinkle in Time, 1962
- A Wind in the Door(‘a wind in the door’), 1973
- A Swiftly Tilting Planet(‘a planet that is tilting rapidly’),
- Many Waters(‘many waters’) and
- An Acceptable Time(‘an acceptable time’).
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 try to save the father of the Murries and planet Earth. The novel offers a glimpse into the war between light and dark, and good and evil, as the young characters become teenagers on their journey.
The novel wrestles with questions of spirituality and purpose, as the characters are often embroiled in conflicts of love, divinity, and goodness.
L’Engle modeled the Murry family alone. Scholar Bernice E. Cullinan noted that L’Engle created characters who “share a common joy with a mixed fantasy and science fiction environment.”
The scientific and religious overtones of the novel are therefore a great reflection of L’Engle’s life.
A Wrinkle in Time (film)
The book has inspired two film adaptations, both by Disney: a 2003 television movie directed by John Kent Harrison; and a 2018 film directed by Ava DuVernay and starring Reese Whiterspoon and television host Oprah Winfrey .
