Charlie Bucket lives in a little cottage right on the edge of the town with his parents and his maternal and paternal grandparents. They are very poor and don't have enough to eat but they get by on the meagre meals. Charlie loves chocolate but he only gets it on his birthday and savors it as much as he can. He lives in the same town as the famous chocolate factory and his grandpa Joe tells him the story of when the factory was open to workers and how Mr. Willy Wonka came up with so many different and delicious recipes for sweets but then spies from all over came to the factory and stole the recipes and then Mr. Willy Wonka shut the gates of the factory to the workers but he still produces and sells chocolate.

There's an announcement from Mr. Willy Wonka that he has put five golden tickets in his chocolate bars and then founders will be given a special admittance and tour of the factory. Charlie is hopeful when his family gets him a chocolate bar on his birthday but he doesn't find the golden ticket. Charlie finds money outside and he buys two chocolates and finds the fifth and the last golden ticket and he arrives with his grandpa Joe to the gates of the factory for the special tour.

Mr. Wonka admits the children and their parents/guardians and one by one the kids start to disappear or something goes wrong. In the end, Charlie and grandpa Joe are the only ones that are left and Mr. Wonka declares Charlie the winner. It was all a ruse by Mr. Wonka to find a successor for his factory, he wanted a good sensible loving child to be the successor and to share his secret recipes with. Mr. Wonka also says that his entire family is welcome to live at the factory.

This was such a delightful albeit a little gloomy and hilarious read. I did read this when I was younger and I loved it and I just re-read it and again loved it. I especially loved the songs. I do have a confession though, when I was younger I used to think that Willy Wonka and the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland were the same. Obviously I learnt that they are two completely different characters as I grew up but yeah that's what I used to think. I very much enjoyed this re-visit.

5 stars

"Isn't it wonderful?" asked Willy Wonka. "Haven't the Oompa-Loompas done a fine job? I particularly liked their poems. Quite perfect, don't you agree?"

Charlie turned red. "I, uh..." he began.

"Yes?" said Willy Wonka. "I know, it's not long enough. It should have been twice as long. Three times as long. But you mustn't discourage them. I'm sure they did the very best they could."

Grandpa Joe had meanwhile put on his glasses and peered at the book. "It's not that," he said. "Mr. Wonka, I think there's been some mistake. This book isn't in English. In fact, I don't properly know what language it's in. We can't understand a word of it."

"Of course!" said Willy Wonka, dramatically striking his forehead. "Of course. How silly of me, I forget to give you your Linguistic Lollies. My very latest and most brilliant invention. Now let me see," he said as he pulled a box out of his pocket and began fumbling through it, "Danish, Dari, Dakota, Dyirbal, where is it! Ah, here we are, Dutch." He pulled out a handful of brightly coloured sweets and gave one to each member of the party. "Take these and I'm sure we'll soon be back on track."

Charlie popped the sweet in his mouth. It had a curious taste which reminded him of cheese, tulips and something he couldn't name, but somehow it was quite delicious. In a moment he had gobbled it up.

"Alright," said Willy Wonka, clapping his hands. "Look at the book again. Why don't you try reading a bit aloud."

Charlie opened it, "S, uh," he began, and stopped. A look of great surprise came over his face.

"Yes?" said Willy Wonka. Charlie stared at the book and continued. "’s Avonds als hij zijn avondmaal van waterige koolsoep op had, ging Sjakie altijd naar de kamer van zijn vier grootouders om naar hun verhalen te luisteren en ze daarna goedenacht te zeggen."

"And in English?" asked Willy Wonka encouragingly. Charlie's eyes were as big as saucers.

"I know what it means!" he said. "'’s Avonds' - well, that's 'in the evening', 'als hij zijn avondmaal van waterige koolsoep op had', 'when he'd had his dinner of watery cabbage soup'. Of course, 'koolsoep', that's like Swedish 'kålsoppa'! 'ging Sjakie altijd naar de kamer van zijn vier grootouders', 'ging' and 'altijd' are like in Swedish, 'kammer' and 'vier' are like in German, so it's 'went Sjakie always to the room of his four grandparents'. 'Om naar hun verhalen te luisteren en ze daarna goedenacht te zeggen', what's 'verhalen', oh, it must be 'stories'. 'To listen to their stories then say goodnight to them'. I see, the German initial S is often changed into Z, so 'sein' and 'sagen' become 'zijn' and 'zeggen'."

"Exactly so!" said Willy Wonka. "You see, you understood it all along. Now we must hurry or we'll never have time for the Parsing Peppermints."

اولين بار فيلمش رو با بازى جانى دپ از تلويزيون ديدم. كوچيك بودم كه تماشاخانه شبكه ى پنج پخش مى كرد و من هر بار ميديدمش. عاشق اين فيلم بودم. عاشق ويلى ونكا و كارخونه ى جادويىِ شكلات سازيش بودم. عاشق اون قيافه و رفتاراى عجيب و غريبش بودم.
گذشت و گذشت تا يك ماه پيش كه تو شهركتاب چشمم خورد به كتابش. وسوسه شدم و خريدمش. و از اين بابت خيلى خوشحالم. فوق العاده بود. ايده ى كتاب و سبك نوشتنش جورى بود كه يكسره خوندمش و با اينكه تمام داستان رو ميدونستم و تك تك صحنه هاش رو حفظ بودم واسم كلى جذاب بود :)
يه تشكرى هم بكنيم از تيم برتونِ عزيز بابت فيلمِ خوش ساختش :) البته فيلم يه تفاوت هايى با كتاب داشت. مثلا اون قسمت كودكى ويلى ونكا و ماجراى پدرش ايده ى فيلم بود و در كتاب وجود نداشت ( گرچه وجودش تو فيلم خوب بود )
و جانى دپ عزيز هم كه گل كاشته بود !
اين اولين كتابى بود كه از رولد دال خوندم و حدس مى زنم از اين به بعد طرفدار سرسخت كتاب هاش ميشم !

Slightly odd story of virtuous poverty rewarded by the evil capitalist who caused the poverty by firing all his workers in favour of employing non-human immigrants.

Unemployment from the chocolate factory, apparently the only consumer of labour in the otherwise stagnant economy of Charlie's home town, (proving I suppose that an excess of chocolate is really bad for you both economically and physically) requires that all of his grandparents have to live and sleep in one bed while the family slowly starves. Evidently the social contract is relentlessly one-sided in Charlie's country.

Willy Wonka, the owner of the chocolate factory, a man who makes Charles Montgomery Burns look reasonable, holds a competition to allow a small number of children into his factory to select one of them to be his successor.

Charlie wins one of the tickets. The hard school of his poverty having made him virtuous, he manages to survive all the other children whose gross moral turpitudes cause them to be eliminated.

Having won the right to become Willy Wonka's successor he wins himself a sequel adventure, but this involves travelling to the moon in an elevator rather than changing the employment practises of the factory and the introduction of a living wage. Proving, I suppose, there is a limit to the amount of fantasy you can fed a child before it becomes completely unbelievable.

Genius tale with memorable characters and delicious fantasy

Lately, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been the subject of many headlines because it is frequently on the banned books list.

So what gives?

Willy Wonka announces a contest for five lucky children to visit his candy factory.

These five characters are some of the most memorable in all of literature:
tAugustus Gloop
tVeruca Salt
tViolet Beauregarde
tMike Teavee
tCharlie Bucket

Dahl has been accused of fat shaming, sexism, and racism.

In the book, Augustus Gloop is described as “enormously fat," “great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body," “two small greedy curranty eyes," and a “repulsive boy.”

However, the shopkeeper is also described as fat, and he protects Charlie when a mob descends on the young boy.

The fat shaming certainly hasn’t aged well. However, should an author be so heavily censored? Should we, as readers, only listen to views that we whole-heatedly agree, creating an echo chamber for ourselves?

If we were to throw away this work, it would deprive the world of a case study in how to craft memorable characters. And the imagination of Roald Dahl is dazzling!

There are a few differences between the movie and the book, but (channeling Reading Rainbow) you don’t have to take my word for it.

A delight for the fantastic

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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One of my New Years Resolutions was the read more "classics" this year, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of the first I was able to pick up. I was so lucky that I found this book at a local charity book sale! It was screaming my name the minute I saw it on the table and it's been screaming my name while it's been sitting on my bookshelf (well...desk. My bookshelves are rather full. I need to get reading faster and more to clear some room...).

I've seen both of the movies (Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp) so I knew what was coming. It was going to be a book full of shenanigans with some humor and lessons sprinkled throughout. And boy, did it not disappoint! I have to say, Roald Dahl is one amazing author and I really want to read more by him now. This classic is so full of childish nonsense and valuable lessons all at the same time. It's mesmerizing what this man could do with his words.

The book has some deep, dark material that comes off as playful. Charlie and his family weren't well off and Roald make that very, very clear. Yet the prose he puts this narrative in makes it seem... fun? Silly? I can't even pick the right word. As an adult, I am in awe of how this family survived but I could easily see a child laughing their way through. A child would truly have no idea what the horror of starving is like, yet it is described so amazingly in this book...

Seriously, I'm in awe. I am in complete and utter awe over this man's writing. He's a literary genius, to say the least.

There are parts as an adult that I can pick apart, but I don't think this book was intended to be some literary work that needs to be examined like Shakespeare. This book shows the good and the bad of being a kid - don't be stubborn, don't be a brat, don't watch television all day, don't go ahead without listening - stuff that we all learn as a kid. Charlie is the "perfect" child who listens and does what he is supposed to, and in the end he wins. Is this how life works? Nope. Is it still important to teach? Heck yes!

Wonka is such a wild and interesting character too. He's a very old adult but doesn't act like it who employs Oompa Loompa and pays them in cacoa beans. He has a giant workshop but no workers and wants to give a child his only life's work. Yes, that makes so much sense... Not. But it's believable in this book, because he's so wild and zany... I'd love to see a perfect adaption of this book - word for word, picture for picture, etc.

The language, dark humour and sarcasm in this book also make it absolutely hilarious. Snozzberries gets me every time! And Wonka's absolutely amazing sarcasm against the children... Well, it's mean but it's funny. So funny. I found myself giggling at how ridiculous some of the comments were, yet I still loved it all the same.

Either way, this book is amazing! I wish I would have read it as a kid but reading it as an adult was so much funnier! Amazingly enough, this book only took me two days to finish.

Five out of five stars!

I need some more Roald Dahl in my life!

I am one of the very few readers in the world, I feel, who have read almost all of Roald Dahl's adult stories but very less of his tales for children. (I have only read Matilda). Having nothing to do other than sit at home and watch the Corona virus continue its merry dance across the world, I thought a little escapism won't be amiss - and raided my son's old bookshelf to unearth this classic.

Dahl is an extremely subversive writer - he is not politically correct, not by a long chalk! But in this book, he is much more on the side of conventional morality than Matilda. However, if one reads between the lines, the barbs aimed at society are very much present.

The tale is of Charlie Bucket, an abysmally poor boy who gets his reward at the end, just by being "good" - the conventional trope of a fairy tale. But the story is located in the here and the now, and the root cause of the penury of Charlie's family is pointed out as capitalism: his assembly-line-worker father cannot provide for his wife and child, as well as two sets of aged parents. The poverty is described in hyperbolic terms, but as in Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush, it's very real.

Charlie's secret craving is for chocolate - as symbolised by the factory of Willy Wonka, situated in his town, but unapproachable by him or anyone else. Until one day, he wins a surprise ticket to visit the factory along with four other children, all of them spoilt. As can be expected, the bad children all get their comeuppance while Charlie is rewarded beyond his wildest dreams. Willy Wonka is the fairy godmother here.

But once one goes beyond the simplistic reading into the hidden text, some disturbing things begin to surface. Wonka is running the factory through the slave labour (practically!) of mythical creatures called Oompa - Loompas, creatures modelled on aboriginal tribes. They are being paid cacao nuts to work almost continuously without a break. Moreover, Wonka's testing of his quirky products on his tribal workforce would really raise eyebrows.

The "bad" children are not really bad in the true sense. They chew gum, throw tantrums, watch TV and eat like gluttons - characteristics of pampered middle-class children in many families. By blowing up their faults and submitting them to grotesquely comic punishments, the author is playing on the antagonism between the poor and the well-off in a traditional capitalist society.

Chocolate is a metaphor - for all that is unattainable for the masses but still craved by them; yet something which is not only useless, but harmful to health if not consumed in moderation. The way people try to gain entry into Wonka's factory by locating the golden ticket is one of the most hilarious passages in the book: it also holds a mirror to the society we live in.

But if one forgets all that, and reads the book as a children's story, it is a humdinger of a tale!

This was always one of my childhood favourites and it’s just as good as an adult. Charlie really does deserve the world!

Had so much fun reading this. Just like Matilda, this book was heartwarming, hilarious and had some heartfelt messages that I just loved. He's such a brilliant storyteller and has the perfect balance of entertainment and lessons in his books.

انتهت الرحلة
وياااالها من رحلة
من أمتع واسلى واظرف الجولات في اجمل أماكن العالم " مصنع الشوكولا " ويا ليتني كنت مكانه
بقدر ما شعرت بالسعادة لأجل تشارلي بقدر ما شعرت بالغيرة منه وتمنيت ان اكون انا مكانه
اجرب واتذوق وامتع ناظري ّ بكل تلك النكهات والأشكال
وقد شعرت وكأن الكاتب يجاكرني بهذه الرحلة ، رحلة ادفع من أجلها كل ما أملك ، ولو كلفني الأمر أن ابيع سيارتي والتي لا اطيق ان تطأها قداما اي شخص آخر

I have read this book ages ago!!! I was exploring books and I came across it. I also remember it being my favourite book that time. I was the first novel that I had read entirely. I was up all night reading this. I wasn't into reading that time but my friend persuaded me to read it. And it was really good. After that I read several other books by Roald Dahl. He has his own thing with weird words! That's how I began my journey of reading with Roald Dahl.( but to be clear my love for reading only started with Harry Potter)

This book was quite disturbing. I mean Augustus Gloop, who apparently had a nasty cold, completely contaminated the entire chocolate river, and then Wonka scoops out cup-fulls for Charlie and Grandpa Joe to drink, and they do. Nasty! You just know that Augustus peed himself from fear when he fell in, too!

I really enjoyed this, with the exception of the insanely long Oompa-Loompa songs. I just don't like reading verse, no matter how clever it is, so I skimmed these sections. Sometimes pages of them. :/

Otherwise, I liked it a lot, though I actually expected it to be darker than it was. This is my first time reading Dahl, despite owning a handful of his books, and I'd always heard that he wrote darker stuff for kids, which is awesome. I loved the adult humor. It allows people of all ages to m enjoy the book. Especially the puns. Square candy that looks round indeed! Cute. :)