《夏洛的網》這部作品初版於1952年，至2009年已有20多種譯文，發行近千萬册。雖然作者書寫的是一個童話故事，但他給人以無限溫情、感動和憧憬，是一部給大人閱讀的童話。作者懷特用柔韌無比的蜘蛛絲編織了一張理想的、溫暖的、美麗的、愛的大網，感動着世界無數的讀者。這是一個善良的弱者之間相互扶持的故事，除了愛、友誼之外，這篇極抒情的童話裏，還有一分對生命本身的贊美與眷戀。
中文書名：《夏洛的網》
作 者: E・B・懷特（美）
譯 者: 任溶溶
I S B N: 9787532733415
頁 數: 181
裝 幀: 平裝
出 版 年: 2004-05
所屬類型：少兒/兒童文學/童話/
適合閱讀年齡：6歲以上
出版社: 上海譯文出版社
一隻名叫威爾伯的小豬和一隻叫夏洛的蜘蛛成為朋友。小豬未來的命運是成為聖誕節時的盤中大餐，這個悲涼的結果讓威爾伯心驚膽寒。它也曾嘗試過逃跑，但它畢竟是一隻豬。看似渺小的夏洛卻說：“讓我來幫你。”於是夏洛用它的網在豬棚中織出“王牌豬”、“朱剋曼的名豬”等字樣，那些被人類視為奇跡的字讓威爾伯的命運整個逆轉，終於得到了比賽的特別奬和一個安享天命的未來。但就在這時，蜘蛛夏洛的生命卻走到了盡頭……
這是一個善良的弱者之間相互扶持的故事，除了愛、友誼之外，這篇極抒情的童話裏，還有一分對生命本身的贊美與眷戀。
《夏洛的網》-主要目錄
目錄：
1）早飯前 2）小豬威爾伯 3）逃走 4)孤獨 5)夏洛 6)夏日 7)壞消息 8)傢裏的談話 9)威爾伯說大話 10)臭蛋爆炸 11)奇跡 12)會議 13）進展順利 14）多裏安醫生 15）蟋蟀
關係表：
約翰·阿拉布爾先生，阿拉布爾太太，多裏安醫生
艾弗裏——阿拉布爾夫婦的兒子，十歲 弗恩——阿拉布爾夫婦的女兒，八歲 霍默·L·朱剋曼先生——弗恩的舅舅 伊迪絲·朱剋曼太太——弗恩的舅媽 勒維——朱剋曼夫婦的雇工 威爾伯——小豬 夏洛·阿·卡瓦蒂卡——蜘蛛 坦普爾頓——老鼠
《夏洛的網》-書籍作者
E.B.懷特(1899-1985) 生於紐約蒙特弗農，畢業於康奈爾大學。多年來他為《紐約人》雜志擔任專職撰稿人。懷特是一位頗有造詣的散文傢、幽默作傢、詩人和諷刺作傢。對於幾代美國兒童來說，他之所以出名是因為寫第一流的兒童讀物《小斯圖亞特》(1945年) 和《夏洛特的網》(1952年)。一代又一代學生和作者熟悉他，因為他是 《風格的要素》這本書的合著者 (兼修訂者)。該書是關於作文和慣用法的很有價值的小册子，最初由在康奈爾大學教過懷特英語的小威廉．斯特朗剋教授撰寫。散文《自由》於1940年7月首先由《哈潑斯》雜志發表。當時美國尚未加入反對納粹的戰爭，世界正處於納粹──蘇聯條約的時期，無論左派或右派都忽略了極權主義對民主的威脅。這篇散文收入懷特的文集《一個人的肉食》(1942年)。
《夏洛的網》-出版花絮
美國作傢E.B.懷特1952年的作品《夏洛的網》1979年曾出版過，但現在已經很難見到了。“這些年來總是找不到活着的感覺，看了《夏洛的網》，纔知道生活是什麽。”網絡譯本的翻譯者肖毛就為了這樣的感受，自己翻譯並在網絡上發佈了這個經典童話，也帶動起了一大批的“夏洛迷”。現在，這本被譽為“寶書 ”的《夏洛的網》經過長達五年的版權談判，由著名兒童文學作傢任溶溶、終於上海譯文出版社出版。
《夏洛的網》-成績
《夏洛的網》，一首關於生命，友情，愛與忠誠的贊歌。一部傲居“美國最偉大的十部兒童文學名著”首位的童話。風行世界五十年，發行千萬册。
《夏洛的網》-相關評價
一）經過漫長的等待，世界經典童話《夏洛的網》終於在2004年5月由上海譯文出版社引進出版，新版的譯者是德高望重的兒童文學翻譯傢任溶溶先生。作為一本兒童文學名著，任溶溶先生的譯本顯然比舊譯更加貼近兒童，但新譯本能否完全取代舊譯在讀者心中的地位，還需要讀者來作出判斷。
不過無論如何，終於能夠讀到《夏洛的網》，對讀者來說確實是一件幸運的事情。 “這實在是一本寶書。我覺得在一個理想的世界裏，應該衹有兩種人存在，一種是讀過《夏洛的網》的人，另一種是將要讀《夏洛的網》的人。有時候，半夜裏醒過來，摸摸胸口還在跳，就會很高興，因為活着就意味着還能再把《夏洛的網》讀一遍，而讀《夏洛的網》就意味着還活着。……從我第一次讀《夏洛的網》到現在，幾乎已經有20年過去了，我一直都沒能搞明白，這部‘兒童文學’何以能夠如此長久地令我着迷。” ——復旦大學中文係副教授 嚴鋒
二）這是一部非常優秀的童話，它的主題就是動物之間的友誼。懷特一生寫過3部童話，這3部童話我都翻譯過，相比而言，《夏洛的網》是其中最容易懂的，他的另外兩部童話含義要更深一些。特別是《小老鼠斯圖爾特》，當故事最後小老鼠上路去尋找的時候，那種氣氛是非常憂傷的，懷特最終也沒有告訴讀者斯圖爾特最後的尋找是不是有什麽結果，這是一種很典型的“在路上”的感覺，而《夏洛的網》就要明亮得多，它的結尾是美好的，整個故事也非常清晰。——國內著名的兒童文翻譯傢之一任溶溶
The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time as of 2000.
Charlotte's Web was made into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Paramount Pictures in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the US in 2003 (Universal released the film internationally). A live-action film version of E. B. White's original story was released on December 15, 2006. A video game based on this adaption was also released on December 12.
Plot summary
The book begins when John Arable's sow gives birth to a litter of piglets, and Mr. Arable discovers one of them is a runt and decides to kill it. However, his eight year old daughter Fern begs him to let it live. Therefore her father gives it to Fern as a pet, and she names the piglet Wilbur. Wilbur is hyperactive and always exploring new things. He lives with Fern for a few weeks and then is sold to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. Although Fern visits him at the Zuckermans' farm as often as she can, Wilbur gets lonelier day after day. Eventually, a warm and soothing voice tells him that she is going to be his friend. The next day, he wakes up and meets his new friend: Charlotte, the grey spider.
Wilbur soon becomes a member of the community of animals who live in the cellar of Zuckerman's barn. When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Charlotte has the idea of writing words in her web extolling Wilbur's excellence ("some pig", "terrific", "radiant", and eventually "humble"), reasoning that if she can make Wilbur sufficiently famous, he will not be killed. Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, and with the assistance of the gluttonous rat Templeton, Wilbur not only lives, but goes to the county fair with Charlotte and wins a prize. Having reached the end of her natural lifespan, Charlotte dies at the fair. Wilbur repays Charlotte by bringing home with him the sac of eggs (her "magnum opus") she had laid at the fair before dying. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's farm, most of them leave to make their own lives elsewhere, except for three: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, who remain there as friends to Wilbur.
Characters
* Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter, who loves life, even that of Zuckerman’s barn. He sometimes feels lonely or fearful.
* Charlotte A. Cavatica , or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur, who at first seems bloodthirsty due to her method of catching food.
* Fern Arable, daughter of John Arable and Mrs. Arable, is the courageous eight-year-old girl who saves Wilbur in the beginning of the novel.
* Templeton is a gluttonous rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
* Avery Arable is the brother of Fern. He appears briefly throughout the novel.
* Homer Zuckerman is Fern’s uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife, Edith, and a hired man named Lurvy who helps out around the barn.
* Other animals living in Zuckerman’s barn with whom Wilbur converses are a disdainful lamb, a goose who is constantly sitting on her eggs, and an old sheep.
* Henry Fussy is a boy Fern’s age whom Fern becomes very fond of.
* Uncle is Wilbur’s rival at the fair, a large pig whom Charlotte doesn’t consider to be particularly refined.
History
White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day, in 1952, E.B. White handed her a new manuscript out of the blue, the only version of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and was hugely impressed with. Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.
Since E. B. White published Death of a Pig in 1948, an account of how he failed to save a sick pig (which had been bought in order to be fattened up and butchered), Charlotte’s Web can be seen as White attempting "to save his pig in retrospect."
When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Aranea sericata), later discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea. In the novel, Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.
The anatomical terms (such as those mentioned in the beginning of chapter nine) and other information that White used came mostly from American Spiders by Willis J. Gertsch and The Spider Book by John Henry Comstock, both of which combine a sense of poetry with scientific fact. White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders and also the way one of them climbs to the top of a fence before launching itself into the air. White sent Gertsch’s book to Illustrator Garth Williams. Williams’ initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman’s face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.
White originally opened the novel with an introduction of Wilbur and the barnyard (which later became the third chapter), but then decided to begin the novel from a human perspective by introducing Fern and her family on the very first page. White’s publishers were at one point concerned with the book’s ending and tried to get White to change it.
The author’s granddaughter, Martha White, thinks many children don’t necessarily see the book as set in Maine. Charlotte's Web has become White's most famous book. However, White treasured his privacy and the integrity of the farmyard and barn that helped inspire the novel, which have been kept off limits to the public according to his wishes.
Reception
Charlotte's Web was generally well-reviewed when it was released. In The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote, "As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done." Aside from its paperback sales, Charlotte's Web is 78th on the all-time bestselling hardback book list. According to publicity for the 2006 film adaptation (see below), the book has sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It was a Newbery Honors book for 1953, losing to Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark for the medal. In 1970, White won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature, for Charlotte's Web, along with his first children's book, Stuart Little, published in 1945.
Maria Nikolajeva (in her book The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature) calls the opening of the novel a failure because of White's begun and then abandoned human dimension involving Fern, which, she says, obscures any allegory to humanity, if one were to view the animals' story as such. Seth Lerer, in his book Children’s Literature, finds that Charlotte represents female authorship and creativity, and compares her to other female characters in children’s literature such as Jo March in Little Women and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that Ax?"
Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams' illustrations full of “sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence.” Illustrator Diana Cain Blutenthal states that Williams' illustrations inspired and influenced her.
There is an unabridged audio book read by White himself which reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded. Newsweek writes that White reads the story “without artifice and with a mellow charm,” and that “White also has a plangency that will make you weep, so don’t listen (at least, not to the sad parts) while driving.” Joe Berk, president of Pathway Sound, had recorded Charlotte’s Web with White in White’s neighbor's house in Maine (which Berk describes as an especially memorable experience) and released the book in LP. Bantam released Charlotte’s Web alongside Stuart Little on CD in 1991, digitally remastered, having acquired the two of them for rather a large amount.
In 2005, a school teacher in California conceived of a project for her class in which they would send out hundreds of drawings of spiders (each representing Charlotte’s child Aranea going out into the world so that she can return and tell Wilbur of what she has seen) with accompanying letters; they ended up visiting a large number of parks, monuments and museums, and were hosted by and/or prompted responses from celebrities and politicians such as John Travolta and then First Lady Laura Bush.
Maggie Kneen created full-color illustrations for a couple sections of the novel, which were published in picture book format as Wilbur's Adventure and Some Pig.
Awards and nominations
* Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1984)
* Newbery Honor Book (1953)
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (1970)
* Horn Book Fanfare
Film adaptations
1973 version
Main article: Charlotte's Web (1973 film)
The book was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973 with a song score by the Sherman Brothers.
2003 sequel
This is the sequel to the 1973 film, released direct-to-video by Paramount Pictures.
2006 version
Paramount Pictures, with Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, produced a live-action/animated film starring Dakota Fanning as Fern and the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte, released on December 15, 2006.
Video game
A video game of the 2006 film was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by THQ and Sega, and released on December 12, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PC.
中文書名：《夏洛的網》
作 者: E・B・懷特（美）
譯 者: 任溶溶
I S B N: 9787532733415
頁 數: 181
裝 幀: 平裝
出 版 年: 2004-05
所屬類型：少兒/兒童文學/童話/
適合閱讀年齡：6歲以上
出版社: 上海譯文出版社
一隻名叫威爾伯的小豬和一隻叫夏洛的蜘蛛成為朋友。小豬未來的命運是成為聖誕節時的盤中大餐，這個悲涼的結果讓威爾伯心驚膽寒。它也曾嘗試過逃跑，但它畢竟是一隻豬。看似渺小的夏洛卻說：“讓我來幫你。”於是夏洛用它的網在豬棚中織出“王牌豬”、“朱剋曼的名豬”等字樣，那些被人類視為奇跡的字讓威爾伯的命運整個逆轉，終於得到了比賽的特別奬和一個安享天命的未來。但就在這時，蜘蛛夏洛的生命卻走到了盡頭……
這是一個善良的弱者之間相互扶持的故事，除了愛、友誼之外，這篇極抒情的童話裏，還有一分對生命本身的贊美與眷戀。
《夏洛的網》-主要目錄
目錄：
1）早飯前 2）小豬威爾伯 3）逃走 4)孤獨 5)夏洛 6)夏日 7)壞消息 8)傢裏的談話 9)威爾伯說大話 10)臭蛋爆炸 11)奇跡 12)會議 13）進展順利 14）多裏安醫生 15）蟋蟀
關係表：
約翰·阿拉布爾先生，阿拉布爾太太，多裏安醫生
艾弗裏——阿拉布爾夫婦的兒子，十歲 弗恩——阿拉布爾夫婦的女兒，八歲 霍默·L·朱剋曼先生——弗恩的舅舅 伊迪絲·朱剋曼太太——弗恩的舅媽 勒維——朱剋曼夫婦的雇工 威爾伯——小豬 夏洛·阿·卡瓦蒂卡——蜘蛛 坦普爾頓——老鼠
《夏洛的網》-書籍作者
E.B.懷特(1899-1985) 生於紐約蒙特弗農，畢業於康奈爾大學。多年來他為《紐約人》雜志擔任專職撰稿人。懷特是一位頗有造詣的散文傢、幽默作傢、詩人和諷刺作傢。對於幾代美國兒童來說，他之所以出名是因為寫第一流的兒童讀物《小斯圖亞特》(1945年) 和《夏洛特的網》(1952年)。一代又一代學生和作者熟悉他，因為他是 《風格的要素》這本書的合著者 (兼修訂者)。該書是關於作文和慣用法的很有價值的小册子，最初由在康奈爾大學教過懷特英語的小威廉．斯特朗剋教授撰寫。散文《自由》於1940年7月首先由《哈潑斯》雜志發表。當時美國尚未加入反對納粹的戰爭，世界正處於納粹──蘇聯條約的時期，無論左派或右派都忽略了極權主義對民主的威脅。這篇散文收入懷特的文集《一個人的肉食》(1942年)。
《夏洛的網》-出版花絮
美國作傢E.B.懷特1952年的作品《夏洛的網》1979年曾出版過，但現在已經很難見到了。“這些年來總是找不到活着的感覺，看了《夏洛的網》，纔知道生活是什麽。”網絡譯本的翻譯者肖毛就為了這樣的感受，自己翻譯並在網絡上發佈了這個經典童話，也帶動起了一大批的“夏洛迷”。現在，這本被譽為“寶書 ”的《夏洛的網》經過長達五年的版權談判，由著名兒童文學作傢任溶溶、終於上海譯文出版社出版。
《夏洛的網》-成績
《夏洛的網》，一首關於生命，友情，愛與忠誠的贊歌。一部傲居“美國最偉大的十部兒童文學名著”首位的童話。風行世界五十年，發行千萬册。
《夏洛的網》-相關評價
一）經過漫長的等待，世界經典童話《夏洛的網》終於在2004年5月由上海譯文出版社引進出版，新版的譯者是德高望重的兒童文學翻譯傢任溶溶先生。作為一本兒童文學名著，任溶溶先生的譯本顯然比舊譯更加貼近兒童，但新譯本能否完全取代舊譯在讀者心中的地位，還需要讀者來作出判斷。
不過無論如何，終於能夠讀到《夏洛的網》，對讀者來說確實是一件幸運的事情。 “這實在是一本寶書。我覺得在一個理想的世界裏，應該衹有兩種人存在，一種是讀過《夏洛的網》的人，另一種是將要讀《夏洛的網》的人。有時候，半夜裏醒過來，摸摸胸口還在跳，就會很高興，因為活着就意味着還能再把《夏洛的網》讀一遍，而讀《夏洛的網》就意味着還活着。……從我第一次讀《夏洛的網》到現在，幾乎已經有20年過去了，我一直都沒能搞明白，這部‘兒童文學’何以能夠如此長久地令我着迷。” ——復旦大學中文係副教授 嚴鋒
二）這是一部非常優秀的童話，它的主題就是動物之間的友誼。懷特一生寫過3部童話，這3部童話我都翻譯過，相比而言，《夏洛的網》是其中最容易懂的，他的另外兩部童話含義要更深一些。特別是《小老鼠斯圖爾特》，當故事最後小老鼠上路去尋找的時候，那種氣氛是非常憂傷的，懷特最終也沒有告訴讀者斯圖爾特最後的尋找是不是有什麽結果，這是一種很典型的“在路上”的感覺，而《夏洛的網》就要明亮得多，它的結尾是美好的，整個故事也非常清晰。——國內著名的兒童文翻譯傢之一任溶溶
The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time as of 2000.
Charlotte's Web was made into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Paramount Pictures in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the US in 2003 (Universal released the film internationally). A live-action film version of E. B. White's original story was released on December 15, 2006. A video game based on this adaption was also released on December 12.
Plot summary
The book begins when John Arable's sow gives birth to a litter of piglets, and Mr. Arable discovers one of them is a runt and decides to kill it. However, his eight year old daughter Fern begs him to let it live. Therefore her father gives it to Fern as a pet, and she names the piglet Wilbur. Wilbur is hyperactive and always exploring new things. He lives with Fern for a few weeks and then is sold to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. Although Fern visits him at the Zuckermans' farm as often as she can, Wilbur gets lonelier day after day. Eventually, a warm and soothing voice tells him that she is going to be his friend. The next day, he wakes up and meets his new friend: Charlotte, the grey spider.
Wilbur soon becomes a member of the community of animals who live in the cellar of Zuckerman's barn. When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Charlotte has the idea of writing words in her web extolling Wilbur's excellence ("some pig", "terrific", "radiant", and eventually "humble"), reasoning that if she can make Wilbur sufficiently famous, he will not be killed. Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, and with the assistance of the gluttonous rat Templeton, Wilbur not only lives, but goes to the county fair with Charlotte and wins a prize. Having reached the end of her natural lifespan, Charlotte dies at the fair. Wilbur repays Charlotte by bringing home with him the sac of eggs (her "magnum opus") she had laid at the fair before dying. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's farm, most of them leave to make their own lives elsewhere, except for three: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, who remain there as friends to Wilbur.
Characters
* Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter, who loves life, even that of Zuckerman’s barn. He sometimes feels lonely or fearful.
* Charlotte A. Cavatica , or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur, who at first seems bloodthirsty due to her method of catching food.
* Fern Arable, daughter of John Arable and Mrs. Arable, is the courageous eight-year-old girl who saves Wilbur in the beginning of the novel.
* Templeton is a gluttonous rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
* Avery Arable is the brother of Fern. He appears briefly throughout the novel.
* Homer Zuckerman is Fern’s uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife, Edith, and a hired man named Lurvy who helps out around the barn.
* Other animals living in Zuckerman’s barn with whom Wilbur converses are a disdainful lamb, a goose who is constantly sitting on her eggs, and an old sheep.
* Henry Fussy is a boy Fern’s age whom Fern becomes very fond of.
* Uncle is Wilbur’s rival at the fair, a large pig whom Charlotte doesn’t consider to be particularly refined.
History
White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day, in 1952, E.B. White handed her a new manuscript out of the blue, the only version of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and was hugely impressed with. Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.
Since E. B. White published Death of a Pig in 1948, an account of how he failed to save a sick pig (which had been bought in order to be fattened up and butchered), Charlotte’s Web can be seen as White attempting "to save his pig in retrospect."
When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Aranea sericata), later discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea. In the novel, Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.
The anatomical terms (such as those mentioned in the beginning of chapter nine) and other information that White used came mostly from American Spiders by Willis J. Gertsch and The Spider Book by John Henry Comstock, both of which combine a sense of poetry with scientific fact. White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders and also the way one of them climbs to the top of a fence before launching itself into the air. White sent Gertsch’s book to Illustrator Garth Williams. Williams’ initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman’s face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.
White originally opened the novel with an introduction of Wilbur and the barnyard (which later became the third chapter), but then decided to begin the novel from a human perspective by introducing Fern and her family on the very first page. White’s publishers were at one point concerned with the book’s ending and tried to get White to change it.
The author’s granddaughter, Martha White, thinks many children don’t necessarily see the book as set in Maine. Charlotte's Web has become White's most famous book. However, White treasured his privacy and the integrity of the farmyard and barn that helped inspire the novel, which have been kept off limits to the public according to his wishes.
Reception
Charlotte's Web was generally well-reviewed when it was released. In The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote, "As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done." Aside from its paperback sales, Charlotte's Web is 78th on the all-time bestselling hardback book list. According to publicity for the 2006 film adaptation (see below), the book has sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It was a Newbery Honors book for 1953, losing to Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark for the medal. In 1970, White won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature, for Charlotte's Web, along with his first children's book, Stuart Little, published in 1945.
Maria Nikolajeva (in her book The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature) calls the opening of the novel a failure because of White's begun and then abandoned human dimension involving Fern, which, she says, obscures any allegory to humanity, if one were to view the animals' story as such. Seth Lerer, in his book Children’s Literature, finds that Charlotte represents female authorship and creativity, and compares her to other female characters in children’s literature such as Jo March in Little Women and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that Ax?"
Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams' illustrations full of “sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence.” Illustrator Diana Cain Blutenthal states that Williams' illustrations inspired and influenced her.
There is an unabridged audio book read by White himself which reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded. Newsweek writes that White reads the story “without artifice and with a mellow charm,” and that “White also has a plangency that will make you weep, so don’t listen (at least, not to the sad parts) while driving.” Joe Berk, president of Pathway Sound, had recorded Charlotte’s Web with White in White’s neighbor's house in Maine (which Berk describes as an especially memorable experience) and released the book in LP. Bantam released Charlotte’s Web alongside Stuart Little on CD in 1991, digitally remastered, having acquired the two of them for rather a large amount.
In 2005, a school teacher in California conceived of a project for her class in which they would send out hundreds of drawings of spiders (each representing Charlotte’s child Aranea going out into the world so that she can return and tell Wilbur of what she has seen) with accompanying letters; they ended up visiting a large number of parks, monuments and museums, and were hosted by and/or prompted responses from celebrities and politicians such as John Travolta and then First Lady Laura Bush.
Maggie Kneen created full-color illustrations for a couple sections of the novel, which were published in picture book format as Wilbur's Adventure and Some Pig.
Awards and nominations
* Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1984)
* Newbery Honor Book (1953)
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (1970)
* Horn Book Fanfare
Film adaptations
1973 version
Main article: Charlotte's Web (1973 film)
The book was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973 with a song score by the Sherman Brothers.
2003 sequel
This is the sequel to the 1973 film, released direct-to-video by Paramount Pictures.
2006 version
Paramount Pictures, with Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, produced a live-action/animated film starring Dakota Fanning as Fern and the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte, released on December 15, 2006.
Video game
A video game of the 2006 film was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by THQ and Sega, and released on December 12, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PC.