Books

First edition, first printing, first issue, in the first state dust jacket. In the words of his biographer Donald Sturrock, this is Dahl's "most famous children's book". The US edition preceded the UK edition by three years. The first issue can be distinguished by the six lines of printing information on the final page; this was cut to five in subsequent issues. The first state of the dust jacket does not carry an ISBN number on the lower cover. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been made into two musical films, one in 1971 directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Wonka, and another in 2005 directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp as the factory owner. A musical with book by David Greig, music by Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Scott Wittman included numbers from the 1971 film and ran in London between 2013 and 2017. A slightly reworked version ran on Broadway between 2017 and 2018. A film exploring Willy Wonka's origins, entitled simply Wonka, was released in December 2023. The character of Willy Wonka is played by Timothée Chalamet. The book is considered the author's most enduring and popular work for children. It has been adapted for radio, video games, a theme park ride, audiobooks, pop-up books, a stage play, colouring books, and an opera. In 2012, Charlie Bucket appeared on a Royal Mail stamp. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover with design in blind, rear cover with publisher's device in blind, yellow endpapers, top edge purple. With dust jacket. Frontispiece and illustrations throughout by Joseph Schindelman. Spine gently leaning, couple of small stains on outer edge and margin of one leaf, else clean; jacket lightly toned, minor rubbing and creasing at extremities, nick to rear panel, short closed tear to one fold, unclipped: a near-fine copy in very good jacket. .

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a delightful novel by Roald Dahl that tells the story of a poor boy named Charlie Bucket who finds a golden ticket in a chocolate bar, granting him a tour of Willy Wonka's mysterious and magical chocolate factory.