In Charlotte’s Web, the spider gives her full name as “Charlotte A. Cavatica”, revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus. [1]
Charlotte’s Web is a book of children’s literature by American author E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. It is considered a classic of children’s literature, enjoyed by adults as well as children.
The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte who lives in the doorway of Wilbur’s pigpen. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered, Charlotte convinces everyone he is special by spinning words in her web that seem like miracles and this persuades the farmer to let him live. Wilbur and Charlotte despite their differences, show loyalty, devotion, and self-sacrifice within their relationship.
Charlotte’s Web appealed to both children and adults. In her 1952 review in The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote that it was “just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done.”
The book achieved immediate popularity, is regarded as a classic children’s work, and received the John Newbery Medal in 1953. In 1999, Time Magazine named Charlotte’s Web the best children’s book of the 20th century, and in 2000, Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children’s paperback of all time.
Charlotte’s Web was adapted into an animated feature of the same name in 1973 by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions.