The Magic World (1909) is a collection of twelve children’s fantasy stories by English writer Edith Nesbit. Using elements of magic and mystery familiar to readers of her beloved Bastable and Psammead Trilogies, Nesbit crafts tales of wonder and adventure for children and adults alike. In “The Cat-hood of Maurice,” a young boy learns firsthand the consequences of mistreating the family cat. One day, Maurice attaches an empty sardine can to Lord Hugh’s tail, terrifying and traumatizing the poor cat. When his father gets home, Maurice is told that he will be spending the next week at Dr. Strongitharm’s school for wayward boys. At the last moment, Maurice discovers Lord Hugh in his room, who reveals to the boy a magic word that will turn him into a cat. In “Accidental Magic,” a boy named Quentin is sent to school in Salisbury. Immensely interested in archaeology and history, Quentin is excited to learn that he will be able to visit Stonehenge while at school. After getting in a fight with a bully, Quentin runs away in fear of expulsion and escapes through the fields toward Stonehenge. There, he searches for the fabled altar stone, where, exhausted and scared, he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds he has been transported to the lost world of Atlantis, where the people call him the “Chosen of the Gods,” but fail to reveal what it is he is chosen for. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Edith Nesbit’s The Magic World is a classic of English children’s literature reimagined for modern readers.

FANTASY ROLEPLAYING IN WORLDS OF EPIC ADVENTURE Enter a world of fantastic adventure, where your destiny is limited only by your imagination. Where powerful sorcerers manipulate the very essence of reality, and where warriors decide the fate of kingdoms with blade and spear. A world of magic, myth, and menace... A MAGIC WORLD! Magic World is a self-contained fantasy roleplaying game using the classic Basic Roleplaying system. The game allows you to play characters in a world of fantasy, adventure, and excitement. The rules of Magic World are simple to grasp, while having enough options and complexity to suit any gaming style. Characters grow in experience organically, without relying on artificial constructs such as classes, levels, etc. Any sort of fantasy character you can imagine, you can play. Magic World contains: Full rules for creating characters in a world of magic and fantasy. A robust magic system with nearly one hundred spells. Any character may become a spell caster with the right combination of raw talent, and training! Detailed, yet streamlined skills and combat rules. Complete rules for nautical adventures. A bestiary of more than sixty creatures to use as foes for the characters, or as the characters themselves! Play as any species imaginable: Human, Elf, Orc, Centaur, Troll, Talking Beast, and more! Gamemaster advice, and resources. A gallery of enchanted items which might be found in your characters adventures. A complete sample campaign setting, "the Southlands", to jump start your adventures. And more!

An extraordinary memoir about finding wonder in everyday life, from magician Nate Staniforth. Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder--what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don't have to be frivolous. Magic doesn't have to be about sequins and smoke machines--rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment. But after years on the road as a professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit. Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth's evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment--and the importance of wonder in everyday life--during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us--to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.

In the vein of Neil Strauss’ The Game and Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein comes the fascinating story of one man’s colorful, mysterious, and personal journey into the world of magic, and his unlikely invitation into an underground secret society of revolutionary magicians from around the world. Magic Is Dead is Ian Frisch’s head-first dive into a hidden world full of extraordinary characters and highly guarded secrets. It is a story of imagination, deception, and art that spotlights today’s most brilliant young magicians—a mysterious club known as the52, who are revolutionizing an ancient artform under the mantra Magic Is Dead. Ian brings us with him as he not only gets to know this fascinating world, but also becomes an integral part of it. We meet the52’s founding members—Laura London, Daniel Madison, and Chris Ramsay—and explore their personal demons, professional aspirations, and what drew them to their craft. We join them at private gatherings of the most extraordinary magicians working today, follow them to magic conventions in Las Vegas and England, and discover some of the best tricks of the trade. We also encounter David Blaine; hang out with Penn Jillette; meet Dynamo, the U.K.’s most famous magician; and go behind the scenes of a Netflix magic show. Magic Is Dead is also a chronicle of magic’s rich history and how it has changed in the internet age, as the young guns embrace social media and move away from the old-school take on the craft. As he tells the story of the52, and his role as its most unlikely member, Ian reveals his own connection with trickery and deceit and how he first learned the elements that make magic work from his poker-playing mother. He recalls their adventures in card rooms and casinos after his father’s sudden death, and shares a touching moment that he had, as a working journalist, with his childhood idol Shaquille O’Neal. “Magic—the romanticism of the inexplicable, the awe and admiration of the unexpected—is an underlying force in how we view the world and its myriad possibilities,” Ian writes. As his journey continues, Ian not only becomes a performer and creator of magic—even fooling the late Anthony Bourdain during a chance encounter—he also cements a new brotherhood, and begins to understand his relationship with his father, fifteen years after his death. Written with psychological acuity and a keen eye for detail, Magic Is Dead is an engrossing tale full of wonder and surprise.

Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic to achieve personal goals. Magical rites were seen as a route for direct access to the gods, for material gains as well as spiritual satisfaction. In this survey of magical beliefs and practices from the sixth century B.C.E. through late antiquity, Fritz Graf sheds new light on ancient religion. Graf explores the important types of magic in Greco-Roman antiquity, describing rites and explaining the theory behind them. And he characterizes the ancient magician: his training and initiation, social status, and presumed connections with the divine world. With trenchant analysis of underlying conceptions and vivid account of illustrative cases, Graf gives a full picture of the practice of magic and its implications. He concludes with an evaluation of the relation of magic to religion.

Original and comprehensive, Magic in the Ancient Greek World takes the reader inside both the social imagination and the ritual reality that made magic possible in ancient Greece. Explores the widespread use of spells, drugs, curse tablets, and figurines, and the practitioners of magic in the ancient world Uncovers how magic worked. Was it down to mere superstition? Did the subject need to believe in order for it to have an effect? Focuses on detailed case studies of individual types of magic Examines the central role of magic in Greek life

In this articulate and insightful book, D. Michael Quinn reconstructs the world view of an earlier age in America, finding ample evidence for treasure seeking and folk magic in Joseph Smith's formative years. Folk magic was not unusual for the times and is important in understanding how Mormons may have interpreted developments. Quinn's impressive research provides a much-needed background for the environment that produced Mormonism's founding prophet.