INM
AN unseen chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory deemed too subversive for young British children has finally been released, 50 years after Roald Dahl's classic children's novel was first published.
Dahl's book, released in the US in 1964 and UK in 1967, has sold an estimated 50 million copies in the UK and is currently available in 59 languages. The book has never been out of print.
The fifth chapter 'Charlie Bucket', from a 1961 draft, describes an extra room in the factory called the "Vanilla Fudge Room," which features a "colossal jagged mountain" made of fudge.
It has been published in The Guardian, alongside new illustrations by Sir Quentin Blake.
It was discovered among Dahl's paper's following his death in 1990 and reveals new characters and the original names of those featured in later drafts.
The excerpt shows Dahl originally plotted to send Charlie into the chocolate factory with eight children instead of four, while familiar characters such as Augustus Gloop given different monikers, such as Augustus Pottle.
Characters named Tommy Troutbeck and Wilbur Rice meet a sticky end when they ignore Wonka's warnings and ride railway waggons carrying fudge to The Pounding and Cutting Room.
It also reveals Charlie originally went into the factory with his mother rather than his grandfather.
Quentin Blake, best known for illustrating Dahl's novels, told the BBC: "I know that he rewrote and rewrote many times. For this last chapter about the vanilla fudge mountain he is leading a group of people who are not in the final book.
"It is interesting to see something at an earlier stage, you know, what happened in the cooking as it were. That's rather fascinating."
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