Other editions of book The magic City

The Magic City is one of the best stories by E. Nesbit. It was first published in 1910 in The Strand Magazine, but it is a fresh and entertaining reading for kids even today. The hero in the story is Philip Haldane, an orphaned boy who lives with his half-sister, Helen. Helen gets married and goes on honeymoon to Europe, removing Philip from his usual environment and from his circle of friends and placing him in the care of strangers.Philip takes comfort in his long-time hobby, building, and so it happens that he discovers the Magic City – his Magic City, full of secrets to be discovered and mysteries to be explored by Philip, the Creator. The extraordinary world of the Magic City is, of course, the product of Philip’s imagination, a magic place where he takes refuge from his dreary life. He populates the city with fantasy creatures as well, creatures that test his abilities to see whether he is indeed their savior. He is informed by soldiers about a legend among locals: they all believe there will be two strangers visiting the city, a Destroyer and a Deliverer and Philip is presented with 7 challenges to rove that he is indeed on the good side, that he is indeed the Deliverer.Dream and fantasy mixes with reality as Lucy, the daughter of Philip’s new hosts, somehow joins him in the Magic City and wants to become his partner, causing Philip much distress. The challenges include slaying a dragon, disentangling the Mazy Carpet, slaying fear and lions, supplying food and others – tasks accomplished by Philip and Lucy together.The events make Philip more responsible and more mature – Philip who used to be a spoilt and whining mama’s boy in the beginning, is becoming braver and kinder with each adventure and emerging as a much more loyal character after all his exploits.

First published in 1910, “The Magic City” is a children's novel by Edith Nesbit. Philip's world is turned upside down when his older sister and only remaining family member marries, forcing him to move in with his new step sister, Lucy. When his sister is off honeymooning, Philip entertains himself by building a miniature city out of household objects including books, game pieces, bowls, etc. However, when he finds himself inside the city and the city seemingly teeming with life, he must embark on a quest to prove himself as a 'Deliverer' and save the magical metropolis from destruction. A wonderful example of Nesbit's fantastic children's literature, “The Enchanted Castle” would make for perfect bedtime reading and is worthy of inclusion in any family collection. Edith Nesbit (1858 – 1924) was an English poet and author. She is perhaps best remembered for her children's literature, publishing more than 60 such books under the name E. Nesbit. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, which had a significant influence on the Labour Party and British politics in general. Other notable works by this author include: “The Prophet's Mantle” (1885), “Something Wrong” (1886), and “The Marden Mystery” (1896). Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.