7 h 53 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if an ordinary tobacco shop opens the way to magic, pirates, and dangers no sensible adult expects?
Freddie is a little boy with a lively interest in the world around him. In William Bowen's The Old Tobacco Shop, a familiar shop gives his curiosity somewhere to settle—and somewhere to begin. What starts among the ordinary things of daily life becomes a journey beyond their rules.
Magic opens possibilities that sensible grown-ups would dismiss, and Freddie finds himself caught up with pirates and unfamiliar dangers. Yet the adults belong to the adventure too. They do not stand safely outside it with every answer. Travel, unusual company, and unexpected encounters give this children's fantasy its pull.
What you’ll discover
- An ordinary doorway Discover a shop where recognizable life gives way to the possibilities of magic.
- Curiosity as a compass Follow Freddie's ready interest in his surroundings as it leads him toward strange adventures.
- Pirates beyond the familiar Enter an adventure of travel and danger, where magic changes the rules of the journey.
- Grown-ups full of surprises Meet adults who share the adventure rather than simply explain its wonders from outside.
- Wonder close at hand Enjoy the sense that another unexpected encounter waits just beyond the familiar world.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy comic fantasy, quirky talkers, pirates and sea shanties will love this tale of a shop corner opening onto a whole world. It suits those drawn to warm humor.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wooden man guards the shop door
- Toby and Aunt Amanda keep a strange household
- A theatre afternoon and a grown up party
- One small puff calls up a sailor
- A map promises that wrongs can be set right
- The Sieve sails and a raft rides a fish
- A cave of treasure and a very polite pirate
- Two towers and a city built of towers
- Everyone in the shop is hoping to be mended
- A comic voice, a clock and a child's eye
Who’s who
- FreddieA small, shy boy sent to buy tobacco who is drawn into a great adventure and wants to grow up.
- Toby LittlebackThe hunchbacked shopkeeper who teases, sings and bosses everyone, and who is kinder than he sounds.
- Aunt AmandaToby's lame, sharp tongued seamstress aunt with pins in her mouth, who longs to be wanted.
- Mr. PunchA wooden figure by the shop door who steps down to join the voyage and loves to talk.
- Lemuel MizzenA one eyed able seaman who speaks in rhymes, arrives whenever the magic tobacco is smoked and navigates The Sieve.
- The ChurchwardenA fat, hesitant man who carries a bottle of Odour of Sanctity and cannot finish an opinion.
- Mr. HanlonA silent stage performer in white who survives imps and swords with cheerful skill.
- Captain LingoA courteous, scarred pirate who guards a hidden hoard and cannot let any visitor leave alive.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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The Old Tobacco Shop
by William Bowen · 1921
A boy sent for pipe tobacco meets a wooden hunchback, a magic jar and a map to an island that mends what is wrong.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
A boy is sent out to buy pipe tobacco and told to hurry. He does not hurry, because beside the shop door stands a wooden hunchback holding out a bundle of black cigars.
The Old Tobacco Shop at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 25 min3 h 30 min fast, 5 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 62,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1921by William Bowen
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wooden man guards the shop door
Freddie clutches his money and has been told to hurry back with tobacco for his father's pipe. Instead he stops dead before a wooden figure beside the door of the Old Tobacco Shop. It is a little hunchbacked man on a low box, with a hooked nose and a bundle of black cigars in his hand.
Then a living man speaks from the doorway, and he looks just like the wooden one. He warns Freddie to keep away from Mr. Punch. Mr. Punch's father lives in the church tower, he says, and when the clock hands lie one on top of the other, the old man calls his son up for a feast of plump little boys.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1921
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Bowen, William. The Old Tobacco Shop. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-tobacco-shop.
Bowen, W. (2026). The old tobacco shop. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-tobacco-shop (Original work published 1921)
Bowen, William. The Old Tobacco Shop. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-tobacco-shop.
@book{bowen2026old,
author = {Bowen, William},
title = {The Old Tobacco Shop},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-old-tobacco-shop},
note = {First published 1921}
}
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What is The Old Tobacco Shop about?
A small boy named Freddie goes to a corner shop for tobacco and meets a hunchbacked shopkeeper, his seamstress aunt and a magic jar. The magic brings a sailor, a map to Correction Island, a voyage and pirates.
Who is Mr. Punch in The Old Tobacco Shop?
Mr. Punch is the wooden figure holding cigars beside the shop door. Toby tells Freddie that his father lives in the church clock tower, and Mr. Punch later turns up as a talkative, fussy and polite character.
What is the Chinaman's head in the story?
It is a white porcelain jar shaped like a head that holds magic tobacco. Anyone who smokes it calls up the sailor Lemuel Mizzen, who has to come when the pipe is lit.
The author
William Bowen
1877–1937 · American children's writer
William Bowen was an American attorney and children's writer who lived in the United States. He was born in 1877 and died in 1937. Alongside his work in law, he wrote books for young readers. His children's book The Old Tobacco Shop was published in 1921.
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