A Wrinkle In Time + A Wind In the Door + A Swiftly Tilting Planet + Many Waters

Time Quintet #1-4

by Madeleine L'Engle

Wrinkle in time series from Easton press. All leather with gold gilt.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Childrens, Classics, Science Fiction Fantasy

Leather Bound

First published August 1, 1989

About the author

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I didn’t rate all of the stories in this volume 5 stars, the volume gets them all for its beautiful format and additional materials. The appendix includes several other writings by L’Engle—speeches, essays, and deleted scenes from her first novel. My favorite of those was a speech she gave to the Library of Congress on creativity and “daring to disturb the universe.” As usual with The Library of America editions, a fine chronology of the author is provided; some entries so tantalizing you want to know more.

I’ve reviewed the four novels separately:

A Wrinkle in Time
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A Wind in the Door
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A Swiftly Tilting Planet
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Many Waters
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sunshine Somerville · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books make me sad to know what kids are reading today. Very few "children's books" quote Euripides, Goethe, and include sayings in Portuguese or Welsh. These stories (A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which is my favorite, in particular) are largely responsible for the shaping of my imagination as far as time-travel, space, and the interplay between parts of history is concerned. And I always forget how beautifully anti-war they are. I also love how L'Engle weaves significant matters of faith into each story, and as a kid this definitely helped me understand that you didn't have to exclude God/faith from Fantasy/Sci-Fi. The only real complaint I have is that they all end rather abruptly, A Wrinkle in Time especially.

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please do note that my five star review for Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters is NOT AT ALL about the actual contents and the specific thematics of Madeleine L'Engle's four Time Quartet novels. Because while I did read A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters in this here omnibus, in Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters I in fact and actually have reviewed each of the four books individually and as I finished with them. And therefore, if you go to the individual novels, you will be able to see and read my reviews for each of them, with A Wrinkle in Time receiving a three star rating, A Wind in the Door four stars, A Swiftly Tilting Planet once again three stars and Many Waters five stars (and with Many Waters most definitely being my hands-down favourite of Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet and probably after Meet the Austins my favourite L'Engle novel, period).

However, I do want to point out that if you are indeed interested in reading the stories Madeleine L'Engle has penned about the Murry Family and concerning their fantastical science fiction and fantasy imbued exploits and adventures in one all encompassing volume, you should in my opinion very seriously consider Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters (and no, neither the Murrys nor Calvin O'Keefe really play all that significant thematic roles in the four novels Madeleine L'Engle has written about Polly O'Keefe, with characters like Meg and Calvin O'Keefe generally simply textually existing and that the twins, that Sandy and Dennys Murry also very briefly appears in A House Like a Lotus, so if you want to read about the Murry Family in any amount of specific detail, well, you totally do need to read the four Time Quartet novels for that).

So yes, with regard to Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters, not only does this omnibus feature all four of the Time Quartet novels unabridged and complete, the fact that editor Leonard S. Marcus has also decided to add an informative timeline about Madeleine L'Engle's life, notes on the featured stories and a number of interesting articles (essays) penned by L'Engle about her work and how she views the universe, for and to me, this totally and majorly increases the reading pleasure and interest value of Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters exponentially and certainly does render me really happy and delighted to have read A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters in Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters and not separately, not individually. And honestly, truly, how Leonard S. Marcus shows and features Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters (and with all of the appreciated and wonderful supplementals), this all is certainly and spectacularly wonderful, superb and is in my opinion most well deserving of a five star rating simply and just for layout and set-up alone.

[Rhiannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. On rereading, I discovered that I had definitely forgotten the way Christian symbols and metaphors kind of beat you over the head in this book. It and A Wind in the Door (which, like the other three books in this omnibus, I had never read before), could definitely benefit from some subtlety. Both books are fun, but also frustrating.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet really made up for this, though. The symbolism and overarching themes are balanced by an awesome story. I love the way the time travel elements are used, and the common threads among the generations Charles Wallace visits and their ties to mythology are handled really well. I also felt like the message of " 'gifted' people are a completely separate species from the rest of humanity and will never be accepted by 'normal' people" was tempered in this story.

When I started reading Many Waters, I had a real "what the hell" reaction when I realized what the primary story was going to be about. But I really enjoyed it. The twins are fun characters and more accessible than Meg and Charles Wallace ever are, to me at least. Her treatments of the seraphim and the nephilim really appealed to me, and I thought she dealt well with issues of puberty and sexuality here.

Overall, I really enjoyed the second two books and I really liked seeing the development of writing style and themes over the course of many books and much time.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is by all accounts from other readers a fine juvenile read. i found it when my children were already grown...adults...on their own, but finding I had enjoyed other "youth reads" I picked it up anyway. I found it nice. It's reader friendly and I think it will stretch and involve younger readers well. If you have younger readers this is one you should try. As a book that holds on over for older readers I don't think it works as well, though if you read it young and loved it that might be another story.

I really couldn't get involved in the story, but I wish I'd found itr when my kids were young enough to have it read to them.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The naked intellect is an extraordinarily inaccurate instrument.

I read the first story a long time ago; it was interesting to read it again this much later (I’m mainly doing so in preparation for reading the next two.)

A Wrinkle in Time is a very nice combination of fantasy and science fiction—in some ways, very much like Star Maker in that not only does it posit a universal divinity but that stars are also intelligent; unlike in Star Maker, however, stars do take part in the great fight between good and evil (though they have only a backstory role here).

The story is very much focused on Meg Murry, the oldest child in a family of four children, whose father has disappeared. He works for the United States government, and they say he’s fine but he hasn’t contacted them in a long time—I’m not sure they ever say exactly how long, but I get the impression for over a year. Everybody else in the community thinks he’s never coming back.

Meg would probably be a trouble-maker even without that burden; with it, she’s miserable.

IT, the incarnation of evil, offers solace and relief from that kind of pain by enforcing equality as uniformity. But it’s a lie. “IT could only give pain, never relieve it.” But IT has convinced those it takes over that the pain it gives is better than the pain that comes from knowing that other people have different opinions about you.

A Wind in the Door continues on the same theme, introducing strange new beings and traveling inward, rather than across the universe (though there’s a little bit of that, too, at least in imagination).

Both evil and good have new allies, and evil’s message is similar to that of IT in A Wrinkle in Time. Evil makes nothingness sound awfully nice, stating that “We are the ones who are glorious.”

When everything is nothing there will be no more war, no illness, no death. There will be no more poverty, no more pain, no more slums, no more starvation…

Stated like this, it is very reminiscent of a story or two in Stanislaw Lem’s The Cyberiad, though here it is deadly serious. Evil is unNaming the world a piece at a time, and while this puts everyone in eventual danger it puts Charles Wallace in immediate danger. So Meg must join the song of life and Name or reName what evil endangers.

We are the song of the universe. We sing with the angelic host. We are the musicians. The farae and the stars are the singers. Our song orders the rhythm of creation.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet starts more clumsily than the first two, getting us caught up with all of the changes in the characters’ lives; where A Wind in the Door happened a year after A Wrinkle in Time, this third book takes place seven to ten years later. Oddly, where the previous books seemed to be placed somewhere in the near future, this one seemed to be more in the present or near past. The creatures are less imaginative, more standard fantasy, and Charles Wallace appears to have forgotten what happened in previous books.

I noted the similarity between A Wrinkle in Time and Star Maker, and here the similarity comes from a different direction: this is a series of travels through time, some real and some “projections”, which are mostly observational. To the extent that Charles Wallace affects the story, it is by shuttling information across generations, and the information is not exactly hidden from the people he’s shuttling it to anyway. Still an interesting story, but (a) confusing, and (b) less intriguing than the previous two.

My take on Many Waters is that it takes place around 1998 or so (“half a century” after the atomic bomb was first used) when scientists routinely travel to outer space. In this case that’s mostly just a frame around the real story which unravels in a different time and place altogether. It was a little hard to get into at first, because of the semi-paradisal nature of the place and time—it took me a couple of chapters to ignore the ahistorical elements. But once I realized what the author was doing, it made sense and turned into a very good story in a world halfway between an initial paradise and the modern mundane world.

The creatures are also interesting, again; though they draw on familiar ideas, L’Engle gives them all an interesting twist; and she also combines science with fantasy in a very nice way to both get the story going and to end it.

[Peter J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read a couple of these before, but did not remember them very well. Here's my book by book breakdown:

Wrinkle in Time: I remembered this one much more than I thought I did when I started. It is still probably the best of the bunch and the only one that might be called 'required reading'.

Wind in the Door: Probably my favorite of the books. Easily the most thematically satisfying and intriguing. I found the concept of 'naming' and the development of Mr. Jenkins especially relevant to our modern world.

Swiftly Tilting Planet: Easily my least favorite (at least time time around in which they were read in closer proximity to each other for reasons that'll become apparent as I go into why I liked Many Waters.

Many Waters: I can see why this is many people's least favorite. It is the most slowly plotted and least thematically intricate. However, as time went on, I appreciated it. In particular, I appreciated that it is one of the few works about the flood that realizes it's a story about the end of the world. I enjoyed that Sandy and Dennys got to be front and center as they, in later books, became the most interesting characters as they never got to do much (although Meg & Calvin remain my favorite characters) and, after three books in a row, I had grown sick of Charles Wallace.

[K. E. Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though A Wrinkle in Time is my favorite of these, all the books in the series were very well done, and kept me interested throuought.

Apparently I have a love for books written for the younger set - teenagers. Seems that many of the authors just seem to work harder in that genre to produce a good book that also has literary merit. Must be all those "newberry-like" medals they're all striving for, but whatever it is, these fit.

If you've never read them, you've missed out.

[Magda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teresa’s review sums it up perfectly.

[Sierra Kilpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many Waters was quite good considering how difficult it must have been to write. Maybe it wasn't difficult to write for L'Engle, to be fair, but I found myself constantly thinking about how hard it would have been to try and avoid any claim of blasphemy. I found myself wanting more from it, but again, due to the nature of the story, it's difficult to expect more when a standard has already been set. I still think my favorite book out of the four was A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but I enjoyed rereading all of these stories more than I expected to!

[JG (Introverted Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read A Wrinkle in Time. 4 stars this time around.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read the first book this time. I ready it to my two youngest. They loved it.

[Megan Brumley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This library of America edition is worth getting solely for the essays, notes, and appendix in the back of the book. Mrs. L’Engle is somebody I look forward to meeting one day. I hope she likes me.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having finally finished reading this series, I now sit here utterly dumfounded as to how people can straight-facedly refer to them as classics. The first book in the series, A WRINKLE IN TIME, I thought was sort of OK, but that was because I expected the events of the story to be continued and expounded upon in the next book. When I saw that such wasn't the case, my appreciation for it deteriorated to the point that I'm no longer even happy I read it. The rest of the series is hardly even worth mentioning. Sure, they're creative and do a great job of challenging the normal boundaries of YA literature, but...BUT...they are also a big, steaming pile of poorly-written nonsense. For example, in the second book, the main character takes a tour of her brother's mitochondria while riding a magic unicorn and using telepathy to communicate with her school principle. The science in these books is highly suspect, the continuity is near non-existent, and L'Engle's philosophy is...well, in some ways, I'm still trying to get my head around it. L'Engle follows in C.S. Lewis' footsteps by incorporating creatures from pagan mythology into what are, essentially, Christian fantasy stories--only L'Engle's tales also contain a surprising amount of Darwinian ideas, as well. Also, the fourth book in the series reminded me a lot of TWILIGHT for some reason. More specifically, TWILIGHT mixed together with the story of Noah's flood. It featured lots of seductive young men who were half human and half angel and could transform into such things as dragons and lions--whenever they weren't hitting on virginal young maidens, that is. As with the third book in the series, I couldn't even bring myself to finish it.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have finally finished the series that many kids in this country grew up on. But being 26 didn't negate the fact that I really loved this series. I didn't rate all the books a five, and I was constantly annoyed with her random writing style (look who's talking...), and there were times I was confused as to who was who and when (not where) we were. But they were truly amazing. Especially the last two. I guess Many Waters was never a part of the original trilogy, and chronologically, it actually happens before A Swiftly Tilting Planet. For actual reviews, see each book individually on my bookshelf.

I will say this though. There are so many wonderful Christian truths in these books, and characters that are real. They actually struggle, or get frusterated, or chose sin because it's easy, and deny the truth because it's not logical. And I like that, but she always brings it back to God's Word. She just interweaves Christian theology so effortlessly into her stories that you walk away with very profound truth. I won't let my kids make the same mistake I did by not reading these books until later in life. They will most certainly be a staple alongside Narnia and the Penderwicks. A true classic.

[CarolAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The very first book that I read in my teen years that was fantasy was "A Wrinkle in Time". I got hooked. So when I came across this book by Madeleine L'Engle I purchased it. I did not know that it is a quartet of her books that starts out with "A Wrinkle in Time" and carries the same characters through the next three stories. I'm excited to start this series. I hope that I won't be disappointed because what one likes in there youth may change in adulthood. So here goes...

Well, I was disappointed. "A Wrinkle in Time" was ok but "A Wind in the Door" was horrendous. "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" just bounced from here to there and I was bored. The only saving grace was "Many Waters". I like it and it saved the whole book. It was about the twins going back in time. It had a plot that was interesting and it left out all that metaphysics jargon.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Madeline L'Engle is possibly one of the most thoroughly brilliant people ever to turn hand to novel-writing. The depth, scope, and passion in each of her books is thrilling; her characters are not only believable, but the sort who become your friends. I frequently find myself coming back to these books just to spend more time with Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin. The science that weaves its way through these gems of literary perfection just heightens their believability and depth. Nobody can make me cry quite like Madeline L'Engle.

[Karlissa J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'Engle was an odd but creative author. When reading her, I often find myself asking whether I agree with her; but she gives me things to think about, and imaginative stories to muse over.

[Alicea · Rating 2 out of 5]

For many years, when people would ask me about my favorite book I would promptly say that it was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Recently, I started to wonder if my love for the novel had stood the test of time so I picked up the 4 book series entitled the Time Quartet (I have the box set that I got years ago) from my shelf and dove in headfirst. Reading the first book in the series, A Wrinkle in Time, completely transported me back to middle school when I first discovered the delightful writing of L'Engle. The book was just as fantastic as I remembered but with the passing of time I see more clearly the overt references to Christianity which were lost on me as a child. (She's a bit like C.S. Lewis in the way that she writes for children about Christianity but instead of fantasy devices she uses science fiction and fantasy.) This literary device would increase as the series continued and in a lot of ways it took away some of the enjoyment of the books for me. One of the bonuses of L'Engle's writing is that it is never 'dumbed down' for her child audience. She uses technical terminology and speaks of scientific endeavors as if the reader should already be aware of them. When I first read that book, this was a foreign concept to me as I didn't think I was any good at the sciences when I was in school. (Now look at how many scientific books I've read and reviewed!)

The main character in the first book is Meg, eldest sister of the Murry clan, and we see everything from her point of view. A large portion of why I loved this book was that Meg wasn't a typical girl of her age and I strongly identified with her (and I had a crush on Calvin). A Wrinkle in Time focuses on Meg's relationship with herself, her family, and her peers (especially Calvin). She sees herself as 'other' except when she's with Charles Wallace or her mother (or Calvin...yes, I'm enjoying myself). It doesn't help that their father has been missing for so long that the postman in town has started asking impertinent questions. (The whole town is gossiping or so it seems.) While Meg plays a large role in A Wind in the Door, the main part of the plot is written with Charles Wallace (youngest Murry son) as the main character. Both books are full of adventure and self-discovery. Both Murry children come into their own and use their unique strengths to help them accomplish their goals. The stakes are always set extremely high and the pace is alternately rushed no-holds-barred action and so lackadaisical as to seem stagnant. (Note: If you don't enjoy books with a lot of descriptions and copious amounts of symbolism then I'm afraid this isn't the series for you.) By A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I felt almost overwhelmed by the underlying religious messages and the conclusion, Many Waters, which focuses on the twins, Sandy and Dennis, was so far-fetched as to be ridiculous. (Books 3 and 4 are so convoluted that I don't feel like I can talk about them in detail other than to say they are out there.) Part of me wishes that I had stopped reading at A Wrinkle in Time (as I had done for so many years) so as to not shatter the illusion of what this series meant to me but part of the reason I started this blog was to explore new books and to give as honest a review as possible. The hope is that even if I don't enjoy a book it might interest someone else. With that being said, A Wrinkle in Time remains in my top 50 all-time faves but the others...not so much. 9/10 for book 1 and a 3/10 for the series overall.

A/N: I just did a little Google search and discovered that although I have the box set which is called the Time Quartet there was actually a fifth book written called An Acceptable Time and which called for a new set to be created, the Time Quintet. I feel like I've been hoodwinked! Does this mean I need to find a copy of this book to complete the experience?! (Spoiler alert: I am probably not going to do this.)

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a great set of fiction. These contain that sense of wonder and awe at the beauty and mystery of God and His ways. Each book is a world within a world, and sometimes worlds within worlds.

I’m still reflecting on how sudden each book ends and how that’s representative of each characters actual experience from book to book. Each of their journeys end as suddenly as they start, and well, that’s the essence of only a “wrinkle” in time right? Uh, so great. These make me want to go back and do some literary analysis on all the things L’Engle did in each book. That kind of nerdy English student stuff I tasted when I was in college. If a set of books make me want to do that, that’s how I personally know they were exceptional.

After fully reading this series, it is my opinion that Madeline L’Engle belongs right up there with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien and would’ve easily fit in with the rest of The Inklings. If you’ve only ever read A Wrinkle In Time, I can’t recommend pressing on to read the others in this series as they are now some of my most cherished stories. These are not just kid stories, these are wonderful fun reads for any age.

[Michael Sypes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit that the original "Wrinkle in Time" didn't really hold up as well as I expected it to. I read it back in elementary school, and remembered it was one of the greats. However, as an adult, I found being bashed over the head with Christian mythology, which I didn't recall from childhood, annoying. Also, I got the impression that Ms. L'Engle got to 120 pages and suddenly realized she was under some contract to write no more than 132 pages, so rushed the ending. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think it was terrible, just not nearly as great as I remembered.
The other books, however, were great sequels, maintaining the storyline, even though there's little need of prior knowledge. The quality of writing is consistent, and the tales are generally well told, although the last's ("Many Waters") ending is also rushed.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorite books as a young reader. I decided to reread it after my adult daughter, Elise, recently read it. I felt a bit like my mother, who loved the Narnia books and discovered their religious underpinnings years after reading them. I had the same experience with L'Engle's Quartet which, to be honest, detracted from my enjoyment of them a bit. Each book seemed a bit preachier and scriptural which is not my cup of tea. This is not to say that the lessons preached - kindness, understanding, being caring custodians of our planet, the importance of science - are not worth learning! They are indeed, which is why I still love the first book in the series best of all.

[Claudia Schulze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these books when I was 11 or 12, it was right after I finished all of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley kids/High/college and Babysitter's club..... THESE BOOKS OPENED MY EYES!!! I first read Madeleine's books as the Austin Family in the book of "A Ring of Endless Light", and I enjoyed it!! I found her other books.... and this was it! These books opened my eyes to sci-fi, multi-universe and fantasy books! Now I can say my genre of reading are mostly this. (I'll sometimes read a rom-com or mystery thriller, but I love fantasy now).

I RECOMMEND FOR ANYONE WITH A YOUNG KID, NIECE or NEPHEW.

[Kate H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madeleine L'Engle is one of my all time favorite authors. Both her characters and storylines are thoughtful, well written and intriguing. She writes books that I can read again and again. These particular novels are some of my absolute favorites and I have enjoyed them both as a written books and as an audios.

[Rainbow Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these books back in the "day." They're one of the few books from my childhood that I still think about to this day. I cannot recommend them enough and have made my children read them, as well as my nieces and nephews, and anyone else I can convince to do so. They're even enjoyable for adults, as I discovered when I re-read them with my daughter a few years back.

[Rajkhul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was easy to read and engaging. I recommend to anyone who enjoys a good book. I was sad to see it end and I look forward to seeing what else I can find from this author. This story was easy to read and engaging. I recommend to anyone who enjoys a good book. I was sad to see it end and I look forward to seeing what else I can find from this author.

[.pl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timeless

I have read this quartet more times than I can remember. It is indeed timeless in the issues it addresses. The beauty of L’Engle’s writing pulls at my heart & makes me one with her story. It gives me hope as we enter 2024 with all the chaos & violence surrounding us.

[Mythlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alas, I did not love the other novels as much as the first. And the deleted sections of A Wrinkle in Time would not have improved it, I fear. Of the additional materials, I liked best the essay on fantasy and science fiction (her remarks on receiving the Newbery Award).

[Gerald R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

a nice series to read

[Kevin Casto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful books for any age that will give your imagination something to grow on. Great books to discuss as well.