6 h 53 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a wardrobe, a hedge, or a pond holds just enough magic to turn your day upside down?
In The Magic World, E. Nesbit brings wonder into ordinary places through twelve short fantasy tales. Maurice discovers what life looks like from a cat's point of view. Amabel steps into a magical land and must learn its odd rules. Elsewhere, a princess has a prickly companion, and familiar surroundings become the starting points for adventures.
These stories explore transformations, awkward wishes, and children who think quickly while grown-ups struggle to understand. Magic grants wishes in odd, literal ways, leaving the wishers to live with the results. Nesbit speaks straight to you, sharing dry jokes, offering warnings, and sometimes pausing to give her opinion of her own characters.
What you’ll discover
- Wonder close to home Find adventures beginning in wardrobes, hedges, and ponds rather than only in distant kingdoms.
- A cat's point of view Follow Maurice into cat-hood, where a different body brings a practical change of perspective.
- Rules worth puzzling over Join resourceful Amabel as she enters a magical land with its own strange rules.
- Wishes with awkward consequences Discover how getting exactly what you ask for can leave you with unexpected problems.
- A teasing storyteller Enjoy a narrator who draws you close with direct remarks and small, sharp jokes.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy fairy tales with a sense of humour, talking animals, enchanted objects, and a narrator who chats with you as a clever friend would.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Maurice learns life from the cat's side
- A telescope that grows what it sees
- Quentin and the stone of Stonehenge
- A princess, a curse and a hedgehog
- Seeking fortune with the wind and a china cat
- Bells that tell a secret to lovers
- Courage in a dragon's park and a burning hall
- Understanding in a wardrobe and a moat
- The magician who cannot be good
Who’s who
- Maurice BasingstokeA thoughtless boy who torments the family cat and is sent away to school, then finds out what it is like to be the cat.
- Lord HughThe family's stout black cat, who is tired of being teased and offers Maurice a dare that he soon regrets.
- EdwardA quiet boy from a neat villa who finds a magic telescope on the beach and wants a friend to share it.
- GustusA sharp, brave boy from a poor home who works out how the telescope behaves and dreams of making a fortune.
- Quentin de WardA clever ten-year-old who knows all about Atlantis and Stonehenge, and runs away from a school that does not understand him.
- Princess OzylizaA strong, quick-witted princess cursed to face her enemies alone, who must win back her kingdom.
- ElsieA lonely girl in black, locked in an attic, who wants to be as brave as the martyrs she reads about.
- AmabelAn eight-year-old in disgrace for trying to please her aunt, who finds a railway timetable that leads somewhere unexpected.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 53 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Die Zauberwelt in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Die Zauberwelt
by E. Nesbit · 1912
A boy becomes a cat, a girl faces a dragon, and a princess is cursed to stand alone.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Magic World is a book of twelve tales by E. Nesbit, the English writer who died in 1924.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Maurice learns life from the cat's side
The first tale, The Cat-Hood of Maurice, begins with a boy who treats the family cat as a toy. Maurice Basingstoke trims the whiskers of Lord Hugh, throws him into ponds, and ties a sardine tin to his tail. He insists he never meant to be cruel. His mother is in tears, and his father sends him off to Dr. Strongitharm's school for backward and difficult boys.
Just before the cab leaves, Maurice runs back for his stamp album and finds Lord Hugh on the schoolroom table. The cat speaks. He asks a sharp question: if cats have such an easy life, why not be one? A secret word does the work, and the storyteller will not repeat it, in case you say it by accident. Maurice thinks of his father's sorrow and agrees.
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What is The Magic World by E. Nesbit about?
It is a collection of twelve tales in which children meet magic. A boy becomes a cat, a girl is sent to face a dragon, and a princess is cursed to stand alone. Each story ties its magic to a lesson in kindness or honesty.
Who wrote The Magic World?
E. Nesbit wrote it. She was an English author who died in 1924 and is best known for The Railway Children and Five Children and It. Her tales mix humour, family life and fairy magic.
Is The Magic World a book for children or adults?
It was written for children but reads well aloud to any age. The language is plain, the tales are short, and the narrator jokes with the reader, which makes it easy to enjoy in one sitting or one tale at a time.
The author
E. Nesbit
1858–1924 · English children's writer and poet
Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) was an English author and poet who published as E. Nesbit. She was born in London and later lived in Kent. Her children’s books include The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Railway Children (1906).
More by E. Nesbit
All 13 booksMore like this
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