Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in 1964 and in the United Kingdom by George Allen & Unwin 11 months later. In the 2012 survey published by SLJ, a monthly with primarily US audience, Charlie was the second of four books by Dahl among their Top 100 Chapter Books, one more than any other writer. Time magazine in the US included the novel in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time.
Where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Poor Charlie Bucket and four other children win Wonka Bar golden tickets and step into Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory for a single, very strange day. Only one will leave with the grand prize.
Yes. Notable adaptations include Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) starring Gene Wilder, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) directed by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp, and the prequel Wonka (2023) starring Timothee Chalamet.
Yes. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been challenged in some American schools, primarily over depictions of the Oompa-Loompas in the original 1964 text. Roald Dahl revised the book in 1973 to address concerns. More recent edits in 2023 generated controversy among Dahl readers.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was written by Roald Dahl, published in 1964 by VIK.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is 173 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a standalone novel by Roald Dahl, not part of a series.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
