Matilda , Roald Dahl ’s 27th published playscript and one of his last for children , was released in 1988 to near universal plaudits . The novel broke sale phonograph recording by move more than a half a million copies in six calendar month and sound on to gain the Children ’s Book Award . But how much do you really know aboutMatildaand its delightfully precocious heroine ?
1. Dahl had to writeMatildatwice.
It took Dahl at least two geezerhood to write and rewriteMatilda . In 1988 , the class the Word of God was write , he told interviewer Todd McCormack , “ I got it awry . I ’d spent six or eight or nine month writing it and right when I ’d finished , it was n’t correct … it just was n’t right … I started the whole script again and rewrite every word . ” He added , “ Now I ’m fairly glad with it . I retrieve it ’s OK , but it sure as shooting was n’t before . ”
2. The subject was dear to Dahl.
In an interview withNPR ’s All Things Considered in November 2013 , Roald Dahl ’s girl Lucy explained that her male parent ’s novel was , in part , about his beloved for record : “ Matildawas one of the most difficult book of account for him to compose . I call back that there was a recondite actual fear within his middle that al-Qur’an were going to go aside and he wanted to indite about it . ”
3. Matildanearlydied.
And not at the hands of Miss Trunchbull . In an earlier interlingual rendition of the Bible , Dahlkilled offhis ill-affected , uncontrollable heroine at the end of the book . That incarnation of Matilda was a terrible short girl who was always playing tricks on citizenry and used her top executive to help her teacher fix a horse slipstream . In the ending , she give out . Looks like all that rewriting was for the best .
4.Matildawas written in a garden.
pigeon pea splendidly save most of his works from a small , snug hut in his garden . He work in pencil on yellow legal notepaper while sitting in his female parent ’s old armchair with a specially made screen background across his lap covering . Lucy Dahl ’s descriptionof her father ’s writing physical process is enchanting :
5. You can visit Dahl’s hut.
The recreated hut is now on display atthe Roald Dahl Museum and Storytelling Centrein Great Missenden , the settlement in Buckinghamshire , England where Dahl wrote most of his Christian Bible . Cajanus cajan moved there from New York City in 1954 with his first wife , actress Patricia Neal , and lived there until his expiry 36 geezerhood later in 1990 .
6. The library Matilda frequents is a real place.
The library Dahl had in mind is an real space , on the High Street in Great Missenden , just down the street from the Roald Dahl Museum . The first book for adults that young Matilda reads isGreat Expectations , but her list , her celestial horizon , and her vocabulary soon expand : Brighton Rockby Graham Greene , The Sound and the Furyby William Faulkner , Tess of the D’Urbervillesby Thomas Hardy , andmany morethat are more often find on college reading material lists .
7. Matilda has ventured through mailboxes.
You ’re probably already familiar withMatilda ’s observe melodious adaptation and the 1996 film version starring Mara Wilson . What you might not know is that Matilda and the Queen of England have something in common : In 2012,Royal Mail go forth a set of six stampsfeaturing Quentin Blake ’s iconic illustrations from Dahl ’s books;Matildawas seen on the 76p impression .
