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At the beginning of this book the children's father, a journalist, has gone overseas to cover the war in Manchuria. Their mother has gone to Madeira to recuperate from an illness, taking with her their younger brother, the Lamb. The children are living with an old Nurse who has set up a boardinghouse in central London. Her only remaining boarder is a scholarly Egyptologist who has filled his bedsit with ancient artifacts. During the course of the book, the children get to know the "poor learned gentleman" and befriend him and call him Jimmy. Cook's house is in Fitzrovia, the district of London near the British Museum, which Nesbit accurately conveys as having bookstalls and shops filled with unusual merchandise. In one of these shops the children find the Psammead. It had been captured by a trapper, who failed to recognize it as a magical being. The terrified creature cannot escape, for it can only grant wishes to others, not to itself. Using a ruse, the children persuade the shopkeeper to sell them the "mangy old monkey," and they free their old friend. Guided by the Psammead the children purchase an ancient Amulet in the shape of an Egyptian Tyet (a small amulet of very similar shape to the picture can be seen in the British Museum today), which should be able to grant them their hearts' desire: the safe return of their parents and baby brother. But this Amulet is only the surviving half of an original whole. By itself, it cannot grant their hearts' desire. Yet it can serve as a portal, enabling time travel to find the other half. In the course of the novel the Amulet transports the children and the Psammead to times and places where the Amulet has previously existed, in the hope that — somewhere in time — the children can find the Amulet's missing half. Among the ancient realms they visit are Babylon, Egypt, the Phoenician city of Tyre, a ship to "the Tin Islands" (ancient Cornwall), and Atlantis just before the flood. In one chapter, they meet Julius Caesar on the shores of Gaul, just as he has decided that Britain is not worth invading. Jane's childish prattling about the glories of England persuades Caesar to invade after all. In each of their time-jaunts, the children are magically able to speak and comprehend the contemporary language. Nesbit acknowledges this in her narration, without offering any explanation. The children eventually bring "Jimmy" along with them on some of their time trips. For some reason, Jimmy does not share the children's magical gift of fluency in the local language: he can only understand (for example) Latin based on his own studies.

There were once four children who spent their summer holidays in a white house, happily situated between a sandpit and a chalkpit. One day they had the good fortune to find in the sandpit a strange creature. Its eyes were on long horns like snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes. It had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur—and it had hands and feet like a monkey's.

"Here we have what we may call 'Alice in Wonderland in excelsis.' A family of children, whose father has gone as a war correspondent, while their mother is on a health voyage, discover a wonderful creature called a Psammead. By his help, together with the amulet which figures in the title, they are transported to various scenes in the past, after the fashion of the King who lived a life while he was dipping his head in a pail of water. They go to pre-dynastic Egypt, when Paleolithic man was in the Nile Valley; they see Babylon, whose Queen has an opportunity of expressing her views about social conditions in London; they see the vanished Atlantis, and Julius Caesar when he was in Britain, and then, by a backward leap, a Pharaoh, one of the special devotees of the Amen-Ra. There are other complications which we have not space to describe, and the general result is a very clear extravaganza, which an intelligent young person will hardly be able to read without acquiring, unconsciously, or even against his or her will, a certain amount of knowledge. Miss Nesbit is not new to this kind of writing, and does it very well." -The Spectator "A delightful book, destined to be read and reread by (or to) her small admirers, before a glowing fire on many a chill winter's day." -The Academy "The name of 'E. Nesbit' appearing as the author of a book for children is a guarantee that it will be thoroughly enjoyed by young folk. 'The Story of the Amulet' is the sequel to 'Five Children and It,' by the same author, and continues to relate the strange adventures of five children, with the help of the Psammead, or Sand-fairy. The story is delightfully interesting and impossible - thus doubling its charm." -The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record "A most enthralling tale of the strange adventures of Cyril, Robert, Anthea and Jane in ancient Egypt....A fascinating narrative, and one which has beneath the surface a gentle satire and also a kindly human sympathy....The appearance of a new story for children by Mrs. Bland (E. Nesbit) always interests the reviewer, because he always wants to read it himself." The Outlook "When it is considered that it is that most charming of writers - E. Nesbit - who carries the four children through their amusing and wonderful adventures, no further praise for a book for the young person need be added." -T. P.'s Weekly "Every little reader will be sure of a glorious time." -Publishers Weekly Contents CHAPTER 1. THE PSAMMEAD CHAPTER 2. THE HALF AMULET CHAPTER 3. THE PAST CHAPTER 4. EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS AGO CHAPTER 5. THE FIGHT IN THE VILLAGE CHAPTER 6. THE WAY TO BABYLON CHAPTER 7. 'THE DEEPEST DUNGEON BELOW THE CASTLE MOAT' CHAPTER 8. THE QUEEN IN LONDON CHAPTER 9. ATLANTIS CHAPTER 10. THE LITTLE BLACK GIRL AND JULIUS CAESAR CHAPTER 11. BEFORE PHARAOH CHAPTER 12. THE SORRY-PRESENT AND THE EXPELLED LITTLE BOY CHAPTER 13. THE SHIPWRECK ON THE TIN ISLANDS CHAPTER 14. THE HEART'S DESIRE

The final novel in the beloved series about the adventure-seeking Bastable children, The Story of the Amulet follows the group as they are sent away to live at a boarding house while their parents are abroad. There, the children discover a mysterious charm that enables them to travel back in history. This magical tale will delight readers young and old alike.

The final novel in the beloved series about the adventure-seeking Bastable children, The Story of the Amulet follows the group as they are sent away to live at a boarding house while their parents are abroad. There, the children discover a mysterious charm that enables them to travel back in history. This magical tale will delight readers young and old alike.

The Story of the Amulet is a novel for children, written in 1906 by English author Edith Nesbit. It is the final part of a trilogy of novels that also includes Five Children and It (1902) and The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904). In it the children re-encounter the Psammead—the "it" in Five Children and It. As it no longer grants wishes to the children, however, its capacity is mainly advisory in relation to the children's other discovery, the Amulet, thus following a formula successfully established in The Phoenix and the Carpet. Gore Vidal writes, "It is a time machine story, only the device is not a machine but an Egyptian amulet whose other half is lost in the past. By saying certain powerful words, the amulet becomes a gate through which the children are able to visit the past or future. ... a story of considerable beau

The Story of the Amulet is a novel for children, written in 1906 by English author Edith Nesbit.It is the final part of a trilogy of novels that also includes Five Children and It (1902) and The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904). In it the children re-encounter the Psammead—the "it" in Five Children and It. As it no longer grants wishes to the children, however, its capacity is mainly advisory in relation to the children's other discovery, the Amulet, thus following a formula successfully established in The Phoenix and the Carpet.Gore Vidal writes, "It is a time machine story, only the device is not a machine but an Egyptian amulet whose other half is lost in the past. By saying certain powerful words, the amulet becomes a gate through which the children are able to visit the past or future. ... a story of considerable beauty."

The final novel in the beloved series about the adventure-seeking Bastable children, The Story of the Amulet follows the group as they are sent away to live at a boarding house while their parents are abroad. There, the children discover a mysterious charm that enables them to travel back in history. This magical tale will delight readers young and old alike.

There were once four children who spent their summer holidays in a white house, happily situated between a sandpit and a chalkpit. One day they had the good fortune to find in the sandpit a strange creature. Its eyes were on long horns like snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes. It had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur—and it had hands and feet like a monkey's. It told the children—whose names were Cyril, Robert, Anthea, and Jane—that it was a Psammead or sand-fairy. (Psammead is pronounced Sammy-ad.) It was old, old, old, and its birthday was almost at the very beginning of everything. And it had been buried in the sand for thousands of years. But it still kept its fairylikeness, and part of this fairylikeness was its power to give people whatever they wished for. You know fairies have always been able to do this. Cyril, Robert, Anthea, and Jane now found their wishes come true; but, somehow, they never could think of just the right things to wish for, and their wishes sometimes turned out very oddly indeed. In the end their unwise wishings landed them in what Robert called 'a very tight place indeed', and the Psammead consented to help them out of it in return for their promise never never to ask it to grant them any more wishes, and never to tell anyone about it, because it did not want to be bothered to give wishes to anyone ever any more. At the moment of parting Jane said politely— 'I wish we were going to see you again some day.' And the Psammead, touched by this friendly thought, granted the wish. The book about all this is called Five Children and It, and it ends up in a most tiresome way by saying— 'The children DID see the Psammead again, but it was not in the sandpit; it was—but I must say no more—' The reason that nothing more could be said was that I had not then been able to find out exactly when and where the children met the Psammead again. Of course I knew they would meet it, because it was a beast of its word, and when it said a thing would happen, that thing happened without fail. How different from the people who tell us about what weather it is going to be on Thursday next, in London, the South Coast, and Channel! The summer holidays during which the Psammead had been found and the wishes given had been wonderful holidays in the country, and the children had the highest hopes of just such another holiday for the next summer. The winter holidays were beguiled by the wonderful happenings of The Phoenix and the Carpet, and the loss of these two treasures would have left the children in despair, but for the splendid hope of their next holiday in the country. The world, they felt, and indeed had some reason to feel, was full of wonderful things—and they were really the sort of people that wonderful things happen to. So they looked forward to the summer holiday; but when it came everything was different, and very, very horrid. Father had to go out to Manchuria to telegraph news about the war to the tiresome paper he wrote for—the Daily Bellower, or something like that, was its name. And Mother, poor dear Mother, was away in Madeira, because she had been very ill. And The Lamb—I mean the baby—was with her. And Aunt Emma, who was Mother's sister, had suddenly married Uncle Reginald, who was Father's brother, and they had gone to China, which is much too far off for you to expect to be asked to spend the holidays in, however fond your aunt and uncle may be of you.