Charlotte's Web
1952
- farm life
- animals
- juvenile fiction
- domestic animals
- fantasy
- spiders
- fiction
- friendship
- swine
- juvenile works
The story
Charlotte's Web is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestock 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. ---------- Also contained in: [Novels](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL483326W)
What it’s like
Warm, slow and pastoral, with the feel of a late-summer afternoon in a barn: dust turning in slanted light, the smell of hay and manure, the soft sounds of animals settling for the night. White's prose is plain, clear and unhurried, full of small concrete observations about weather, meadows and the rhythms of farm work, and it reads aloud beautifully. Garth Williams's pen-and-ink illustrations, all fine crosshatching and gentle caricature, add a quiet, old-fashioned texture to the pages. The mood is cozy with a thread of melancholy, since the story keeps returning to the fragility of life and the ache of parting, but the danger stays mostly at the edges and the emotional register is tender rather than frightening. Chapters are short and the pace is leisurely, suited to a rainy Sunday, a bedtime read, or a comfort reread. There is no gore; the single threat of slaughter is handled with restraint and the violence stays offstage. This suits readers who want something gentle and reflective, parents reading to children, and adults who love quiet books about friendship, loyalty and the small, ordinary wonders of country life.
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