Fans of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory can finally enjoy a lost chapter deemed too subversive to print.
The work, which ran in the Guardian on Saturday, was found in the deceased author’s papers and was originally intended to be the fifth chapter.
Among the material deemed subversive for children is a description of a “pounding and cutting room” where knives and machines threaten to cut and pound a child instead of fudge.
“[A] whole lot of knives come down and go chop chop chop, cutting it up into neat little squares, ready for the shops,” the chapter quotes Willy Wonka saying, after two ill-behaved children have wound up in the room.
The new excerpt also references eight children who have been selected to tour the factory, four more than in the final version of the book.
[Guardian]
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