A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time is a children's fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, written in 1962. It is the first in her series of books about the Murry family.

The main character is thirteen-year-old Meg Murry, who is regarded by her peers and teachers as a bad-tempered underachiever. Her family, who recognize her problem as lack of emotional maturity but also regard her as being capable of great things, includes her beautiful scientist mother, her five-year-old brother Charles Wallace, a nascent super-genius, and ten-year-old twin athlete brothers Sandy and Dennys.

A Newbery Medal winner, the book begins with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night.", a duplicate of the opening words in Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The Murrys are visited by an eccentric old woman named Mrs. Whatsit, who has previously made the acquaintance of Charles Wallace. After drying her feet and having a midnight snack with Charles, Meg and their mother, Mrs. Whatsit tells an already perplexed Dr. Murry that "there is such a thing as a tesseract."

Shortly thereafter, Meg and Charles meet up with Meg's upperclassman Calvin O'Keefe, who, although he is a stereotypical "big man on campus", turns out to be keen to join the children for further encounters with Mrs. Whatsit and her rather more eccentric sisters Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.

Eventually, the three youths are offered the opportunity to find the Murrys' missing father. They eagerly accept, not then realizing that their journey will take them not only through time and space but also into the depths of their own psyches.

L'Engle has written three other books featuring this generation of the Murry family. Listed in order by the series's internal chronology:

• A Wind in the Door (1973)
• Many Waters (1986)
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978)

See also: List of L'Engle's works