Matilda ( novel ) - wikipedia Matilda ( novel ) Not to be confused with Mathilda ( novella ). Matilda First UK edition Author Roald Dahl Illustrator Quentin Blake Country United Kingdom Language English Genre Children 's literature, Fantasy Published 1 October 1988 Matilda is a book by British writer Roald Dahl. It was published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in London, with 232 pages and illustrations by Quentin Blake. It was adapted as an audio reading by actress Kate Winslet, a 1996 feature film directed by Danny DeVito, a two - part BBC Radio 4 programme starring Lauren Mote as Matilda, Emerald O'Hanrahan as Miss Honey, Nichola McAuliffe as Miss Trunchbull and narrated by Lenny Henry, and a 2010 musical. In 2012 Matilda was ranked number 30 among all - time children 's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily US audience. It was the first of four books by Dahl among the Top 100, more than any other writer. Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Adaptations 3 Connections to other Roald Dahl books 4 References Plot summary In a small Buckinghamshire village, Matilda Wormwood is a five - and - half - year - old girl of unusual precocity, but she is often ill - treated or neglected by her parents. In retaliation, she resorts to pranks such as gluing her father 's hat to his head, hiding a friend 's parrot in the chimney to simulate a burglar or ghost, and secretly bleaching her father 's hair. Matilda has read a variety of books by different authors, especially at the age of four, when she read many in six months. At school, Matilda befriends her teacher, Jennifer Honey, who is astonished by Matilda 's intellectual abilities. She tries to move her into a higher class but is refused by the headmistress, the tyrannical Agatha Trunchbull. Miss Honey also tries to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood about Matilda 's intelligence, but they ignore her. Matilda quickly develops a particularly strong bond with Miss Honey and watches as Miss Trunchbull terrorizes her students with creative, over-the - top punishments. When Matilda 's friend, Lavender, plays a practical joke on Miss Trunchbull by placing a newt in her jug of water, Matilda uses an unexpected power of telekinesis to tip the glass of water containing the newt onto Miss Trunchbull. After Matilda reveals her powers to Miss Honey, Miss Honey confides that she was raised by an abusive aunt after the suspicious death of her father. Her aunt is revealed to be Miss Trunchbull, who appears ( among other misdeeds ) to be withholding her niece 's inheritance so that Miss Honey has to live in poverty in a derelict farm cottage. Preparing to avenge Miss Honey, Matilda develops her telekinetic gift through practice at home. Later, during a lesson that Miss Trunchbull is teaching, Matilda telekinetically raises a piece of chalk to the blackboard and writes on it, posing as the spirit of Miss Honey 's late father and demanding that Miss Trunchbull hand over Miss Honey 's house and wages and leave the region forever. This is soon done, and with the approval of a new school headteacher, the capable and good - natured Mr. Trilby, Matilda herself advances to the highest level of schooling. Rather to her relief, she is no longer capable of telekinesis ; this is explained by Miss Honey as the result of using her mind on a more challenging curriculum. Matilda continues to visit Miss Honey at her house regularly, but one day finds her parents hastily packing to escape from the police, who are after her father for selling stolen cars. Matilda asks permission to live with Miss Honey, to which her parents rather uninterestedly agree. So both she and Miss Honey find their happy ending. Mr. Wormwood was based on a real - life character from Roald Dahl 's home village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. Adaptations Matilda the Musical has been performed at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End since November 2011. Pictured in July 2016 The novel was made into the film Matilda in 1996. It was directed by Danny DeVito and starred Mara Wilson as Matilda. Although the film was not a box office success, it received critical acclaim at the time of its release, and holds a `` fresh '' rating of 90 % on Rotten Tomatoes. DeVito portrayed Mr. Wormwood as well as the narrator. In 1990, the Redgrave Theatre in Farnham produced a musical version, adapted by Rony Robinson with music by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, which toured the UK. It starred Annabelle Lanyon as Matilda and Jonathan Linsley as Miss Trunchbull, and had mixed reviews. A second musical version of the novel, Matilda the Musical, written by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin and commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, premiered in November 2010. It opened at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End on 24 November 2011. It opened on Broadway on 11 April 2013 at the Shubert Theatre. The musical has since done a US tour and opened in July 2015 in Australia. The stage version has become hugely popular with audiences and praised by critics, and won multiple Olivier Awards in the UK and Tony Awards in the US. One critic called it `` the best British musical since Billy Elliot ''. The actress Kate Winslet provides the English - language audiobook recording of Matilda. In 2014, the American Library Association shortlisted her for an Odyssey Award for her audiobook performance. Connections to other Roald Dahl books One of Miss Trunchbull 's punishments is to force an overweight child, Bruce Bogtrotter, to eat an enormous chocolate cake, which makes him so full that he can not move. He had been found guilty of stealing cake from the kitchen. In Roald Dahl 's Revolting Recipes one of the recipes is based on that cake ; whereas Bruce is a more sympathetic variation of Augustus Gloop ( from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ) and similar gluttons, and made something of a hero by finishing the cake without suffering nausea. The short story `` The Magic Finger '' by Roald Dahl, released in 1964, may have been a precursor to Matilda. A young girl has power within her finger to do things to other people when she gets emotional about a cause she feels strongly about. References ^ Jump up to : Serena Allott ( 26 November 2010 ) Waltzing Matilda : Dahl 's classic dances on to the stage The Daily Telegraph ^ Jump up to : `` Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make up stories... '' The Independent ( Sunday, 12 December 2010 ) ^ Jump up to : `` Roald Dahl 's Matilda Audio CD - read by Kate Winslet ''. Roald Dahl.com. 20 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` Episode 1, Matilda, Classic Serial - BBC Radio 4 ''. BBC. Retrieved 2016 - 06 - 04. Jump up ^ Bird, Elizabeth ( 7 July 2012 ). `` Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results ''. A Fuse # 8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal ( blog.schoollibraryjournal.com ). Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 26. Jump up ^ Sturrock, Donald, Storyteller : The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p. 287. Simon & Schuster, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Matilda ''. rottentomatoes.com. 2 August 1996. Retrieved 4 September 2015. Jump up ^ `` The ' Other ' Matilda Musical Safety Curtain ''. Safetycurtain.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2013 - 09 - 20. Jump up ^ `` RSC Sets Dates for Dahl 's Matilda Musical, 9 Nov ''. What'sOnStage.com. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 2010 - 04 - 07. Jump up ^ `` Play about maths genius equals Matilda 's record ''. The Guardian. 29 April 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013. Jump up ^ `` Odyssey Award winners and honor audiobooks, 2008 - present ''. ala.org. Retrieved 1 July 2014. Jump up ^ Long, Dorothy. Revolting recipes. Roald Dahl Children 's fiction The Gremlins ( 1943 ) James and the Giant Peach ( 1961 ) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ( 1964 ) The Magic Finger ( 1966 ) Fantastic Mr Fox ( 1970 ) Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator ( 1972 ) Danny, the Champion of the World ( 1975 ) The Enormous Crocodile ( 1978 ) The Twits ( 1980 ) George 's Marvellous Medicine ( 1981 ) The BFG ( 1982 ) The Witches ( 1983 ) The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me ( 1985 ) Matilda ( 1988 ) Esio Trot ( 1990 ) The Vicar of Nibbleswicke ( 1991 ) The Minpins ( 1991 ) Children 's poetry Revolting Rhymes ( 1982 ) Dirty Beasts ( 1983 ) Rhyme Stew ( 1989 ) Adult novels Sometime Never : A Fable for Supermen ( 1948 ) My Uncle Oswald ( 1979 ) Adult short story collections Over to You : Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying ( 1946 ) Someone Like You ( 1953 ) Kiss Kiss ( 1960 ) Lamb to the Slaughter ( 1953 ) Switch Bitch ( 1974 ) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More ( 1977 ) The Best of Roald Dahl ( 1978 ) Tales of the Unexpected ( 1979 ) More Tales of the Unexpected ( 1980 ) The Roald Dahl Omnibus ( 1986 ) Two Fables ( 1986 ) Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life : The Country Stories of Roald Dahl ( 1989 ) The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl ( 1991 ) The Roald Dahl Treasury ( 1997 ) The Great Automatic Grammatizator ( 1998 ) Skin and Other Stories ( 2000 ) Roald Dahl : Collected Stories ( 2006 ) Non-fiction The Mildenhall Treasure ( 1946 ) Boy : Tales of Childhood ( 1984 ) Going Solo ( 1986 ) Memories with Food at Gipsy House ( 1991 ) Roald Dahl 's Guide to Railway Safety ( 1991 ) My Year ( 1993 ) Film adaptations 36 Hours ( 1965 ) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ( 1971 ) Danny, the Champion of the World ( 1989 ) The BFG ( 1989 ) The Witches ( 1990 ) Four Rooms ( 1995 ) James and the Giant Peach ( 1996 ) Matilda ( 1996 ) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ( 2005 ) Fantastic Mr. Fox ( 2009 ) Roald Dahl 's Esio Trot ( 2015 ) The BFG ( 2016 ) Revolting Rhymes ( 2016 ) Tom and Jerry : Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ( 2017 ) Film scripts The Bells of Hell Go Ting - a-ling - a-ling ( 1966, unfinished ) You Only Live Twice ( 1967 ) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ( 1968 ) The Night Digger ( 1971 ) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ( 1971 ) Television series ' Way Out ( 1961 ) Tales of the Unexpected ( 1979 -- 88 ) Musicals and plays The Honeys ( 1955 ) James and the Giant Peach ( 2010 ) Matilda ( 2010 ) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ( 2013 ) Fantastic Mr Fox ( 2016 ) See also Quentin Blake Roald Dahl bibliography Roald Dahl short stories bibliography Roald Dahl 's Book of Ghost Stories ( 1983 ) List of Tales of the Unexpected episodes Related Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre Roald Dahl Children 's Gallery Patricia Neal ( wife ) Tessa Dahl ( daughter ) Ophelia Dahl ( daughter ) Lucy Dahl ( daughter ) Sophie Dahl ( granddaughter ) Phoebe Dahl ( granddaughter ) Books I Love Best Yearly : Younger Readers Award Matilda by Roald Dahl ( 1990 ) The BFG by Roald Dahl ( 1991 ) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl ( 1992 ) Blabber Mouth by Morris Gleitzman ( 1993 ) Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl ( 1994 ) The Pagemaster by David Kirschner ( 1995 ) When the Wind Changed by Ruth Park ( 1996 ) Matilda by Roald Dahl ( 1997 ) Polar the Titanic Bear by Daisy Corning Stone Spedder ( 1998 ) Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase by Bruce Whatley and R. Smith ( 1999 ) Just Stupid ! by Andy Griffiths ( 2000 ) Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling ( 2001 ) Just Crazy ! by Andy Griffiths ( 2002 ) The Saddle Club series by Bonnie Bryant ( 2003 ) Just Disgusting ! by Andy Griffiths ( 2004 ) The Bad Book by Andy Griffiths ( 2005 ) Just Crazy ! by Andy Griffiths ( 2006 ) Roald Dahl 's Matilda Characters Matilda Wormwood Miss Trunchbull Adaptations Matilda ( 1996 film ) Matilda the Musical ( 2010 musical ) BNF : cb13168311d ( data ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Matilda_(novel)&oldid=842675080 '' Categories : Children 's books by Roald Dahl Matilda ( novel ) 1988 British novels British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into plays British fantasy novels BILBY Award - winning works British children 's novels Novels by Roald Dahl Jonathan Cape books Telekinesis in fiction Novels set in Buckinghamshire 1988 children 's books Hidden categories : Use British English from April 2018 Use dmy dates from December 2012 Pages to import images to Wikidata Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano עברית മലയാളം Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Português Simple English Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 10 more Edit links This page was last edited on 23 May 2018, at 23 : 07. 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Question: when was the book matilda by roald dahl published
Answer: 1988