 Front cover by Dave McKean | |
| Author | Neil Gaiman |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Dave McKean |
| Cover artist | Dave McKean |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Dark fantasy |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) HarperCollins (US) |
Publication date | 2 July 2002[1] |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print,e-book,audiobook |
| Pages | 210 |
| ISBN | 0-06-113937-8 |
| OCLC | 71822484 |
| 813 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.G1273 Co 2002 |
Coraline (/ˈkɒrəlaɪn/)[2] is a 2002 Britishfantasy horrorchildren'snovella by authorNeil Gaiman. Gaiman started writingCoraline in 1990, and it was published in 2002 byBloomsbury andHarperCollins. It was awarded the 2003Hugo Award for Best Novella,[3] the 2003Nebula Award for Best Novella,[4] and the 2002Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers.[5]The Guardian rankedCoraline #82 in its list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.[6] It was adapted as a2009 stop-motion animated film, directed byHenry Selick under the same name.
A young girl named Coraline Jones and her parents move into an old house that has been divided into flats. The other tenants include former actresses, April Spink and Miriam Forcible, and Mr. Bobo (commonly referred as the "Crazy Old Man Upstairs"), who claims to be training amouse circus. The flat beside Coraline's, which lies behind a big brown door, remains empty.
During a rainy day she discovers a locked door in the living room, which has been bricked up. As she goes to visit her neighbors, Mr. Bobo relays her a message from the mice warning her against going through the door. Spink and Forcible read Coraline's fortune on tea leaves and agree that she is in danger before giving her a luckyadder stone that is "good for bad things". Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door when she is home by herself and finds the brick wall behind the door gone. In its place is a long passageway, which leads to a flat identical to her own, inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father,button-eyed and exaggerateddoppelgängers of her parents. In this “Other World”, Coraline finds everything to be better than her own – the Other Parents are attentive, her toy box is filled with sentient toys, and the world's counterparts of Spink and Forcible perform a cabaret show in their flat. She even finds the feralblack cat that wanders around the house in the real world can talk, however she learns he is not of the Other World; he only travels from one world. He warns Coraline of the imminent danger, but Coraline pays him no heed.
The Other Mother offers Coraline a chance to stay in the Other World forever, if Coraline will allow buttons to be sewn over her eyes. Coraline is horrified and returns back through the door to go home. Upon her return to her flat, Coraline finds her real parents are missing, eventually discovering that the Other Mother has kidnapped them. Though frightened of returning, Coraline goes back to the Other World to confront the Other Mother and rescue her parents. In the garden, the Cat advises Coraline to challenge the Other Mother, as “her kind of thing loves games and challenges”. The Other Mother tries to convince Coraline to stay, but she refuses and is detained behind amirror as a punishment.
In the darkness, she meets a trio of ghost children, each from a different era, who had allowed the Other Mother, truthfully an evil being known as "TheBeldam", to lure them into her world and sew buttons over their eyes. The ghost children recount how she eventually stopped loving them and cast their spirits aside. They implore Coraline to avoid their fate and to help find the essences of their souls so that they can finally escape the Other World and move on to theafterlife. After the Beldam releases Coraline from the mirror, Coraline proposes a game in which she must find the essences of the ghost children’s souls and her parents, which are hidden throughout the Other World. If Coraline wins, she, her parents and the ghost children may go free; if not, Coraline will stay and finally accept the Beldam's offer of having buttons sewn over her eyes.
Coraline goes through the Other World and overcomes all the Beldam’s obstacles, using her wits and the adder stone to locate the souls' essences. At the close of the game, the ghost children warn her that even if Coraline wins, the Beldam will not let them go. Having deduced her parents are imprisoned in asnow globe nearby, Coraline tricks the Beldam by saying her parents are behind the door in the drawing room. As the sorceress opens the door, Coraline throws the cat at her, grabs the snow globe, and escapes to the real world with the key. In doing so, she forces the door shut on one of the Beldam's hands, amputating it. Back in her home, Coraline finds her parents safe and have mysteriously forgotten about their capture.
That night, Coraline has a dream in which she meets the ghost children before they are allowed to finally rest in peace. They warn her that her task is still not done as the Beldam's amputated hand is in the real world, attempting to steal the key needed to unlock the door that connects the two worlds. Coraline goes to an old and bottomlesswell in the woods by her house, luring the hand there with the key and casting both down the well. Coraline returns home, victorious, and prepares to go about the ordinary life she has come to accept and love.
Gaiman has acknowledgedLewis Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland and "The New Mother" byLucy Clifford as major influences on the novella.[7][8] In his study of the novella, David Rudd argues that the work plays and riffs productively onSigmund Freud's concept ofUnheimlich ("the Uncanny").[9]
A graphic novel adaptation byP. Craig Russell, lettered byTodd Klein and colored byLovern Kindzierski, was published in 2008.[10]
With the help of the animation studioLaika, LLC, directorHenry Selick released astop motion film adaptation in 2009 that received much critical acclaim, and moderate box office success. At the82nd Academy Awards, the film was nominated forBest Animated Feature but lost toPixar'sUp. Although the 2009 film has several differences (one example is the Beldam turning the Other Father into apumpkin), it still manages to hold relatively strong to the original plot of the book. In the film, Coraline is depicted as having short blue hair and freckles. In the movie, there was an added new character namedWyborn "Wybie"Lovat, a boy about Coraline's age who frequently annoyed Coraline at first, but over time, they grow on each other. In the Other World, his copy cannot speak but is an ally to Coraline, and gets punished by the Other Mother when he helps Coraline escape the Other World. At the end of the film, Coraline reaches out to help Wybie tell his grandmother what is behind the little door. The sister of Wybie's grandmother was one of the ghost children lost to the Beldam.
A theatrical adaptation, with music and lyrics byStephin Merritt and book byDavid Greenspan, premiered on 6 May 2009, produced byMCC Theater and True Love ProductionsOff-Broadway at The Lucille Lortel Theatre.[11] Nine-year-old Coraline was played by an adult,Jayne Houdyshell, and the Other Mother was played by David Greenspan.[11]
Another theatrical adaptation, a stage opera byMark-Anthony Turnage based on the novella, made its world premiere at theBarbican Centre in London on 27 March 2018.
On 22 May 2024, it was announced that a new musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Louis Barabbas and book byZinnie Harris, would premiere at theLeeds Playhouse on 11 April 2025, before embarking on a tour to theHOME (Manchester), theBirmingham Repertory Theatre, and theRoyal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.[12] On 29 January 2025, the new adaptation was cancelled,[13] with ongoing allegations againstNeil Gaiman being cited as the reason.[14]
It was set to be directed by James Brining, set and costume designed by Colin Richmond, puppet design and direction by Rachael Canning and choreographed by EJ Boyle.[15][16]
A 2009 video game adaptation, based on the film, was published and developed by D3 Publisher of America. The game was released on 27 January 2009 for thePlayStation 2,Nintendo DS andWii platforms and contains features such as playing as Coraline, interacting with other characters, and playing minigames. The game received mostly negative reviews, and little success.[17][18]
Coraline inspired the "Coralisa" segment ofThe Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII", which aired on 22 October 2017. Neil Gaiman provided the voice of the Simpsons' cat,Snowball V.[19]
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