The fan who suddenly got everything he wanted, the writer Roald Dahl never said in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, lived happily ever after. Fans of the beloved children's classic may not get everything they want, but they are getting a previously unpublished chapter from the book that turns 50 this month.
The chapter, Fudge Mountain, describes the Vanilla Fudge Room, an extra room in the chocolate factory. It was published over the weekend in The Guardian, with permission from Roald Dahl Nominee Ltd., which manages the late writer's works. It was originally chapter five in an early draft of the book.
In it, Charlie goes to the factory with his mother – not his grandfather.
The Guardian, in a separate article, says the lost chapter was "deemed too wild, subversive and insufficiently moral for the tender minds of British children." Here's more from the newspaper:
"The chapter reveals the original larger cast of characters, and their fates, as well as the original names of some of those who survived into later drafts. Dahl originally intended to send Charlie into the chocolate factory with eight other children, but the number was slimmed down to four. The narrator reveals that a girl called Miranda Grope has already vanished into the chocolate river with Augustus Pottle: she is gone for ever, but the greedy boy was reincarnated as Augustus Gloop."
The new chapter comes weeks after the announcement that publisher Penguin was releasing a new U.K. cover for the book, which was first published in September 1964. That cover was criticized because, in the words of The Washington Post, "Why did the cover of a novel about five kids and a wonderful — if admittedly bizarre — candy-maker look like a scene from "Toddlers & Tiaras"?
Penguin has defended the cover, saying it "highlights the way Roald Dahl's writing manages to embrace both the light and the dark aspects of life."
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in case you need to be reminded of it, follows Charlie Bucket as he makes his way through Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The book has sold millions of copies and inspired movies as well as a musical.
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