Rereading: THE MAGIC CITY by E. Nesbit

Illustrated by H. R. Millar

Here’s a rare first edition Nesbit from my library, it’s even signed, bought at a London rare book dealer’s shop many years ago. I don’t think I appreciated it as much when I first read it then as I did on this rereading.

Philip (also called Pippin or Pip) lives with his much older sister Helen, their parents having died when he was small, and she is a mother to him. Pip thinks his life is quite perfect, but that changes one day when a young man appears at their doorstep, and he and Helen have a long conversation. Pip fears something terrible has happened, and for him it has. Mr. Peter Graham had been a childhood friend of Helen’s, but married someone else. Now his wife has died, and he has come to ask Helen to marry him. Helen said yes, and their happy home is no more. They will go to live at The Grange, a large house owned by Mr. Graham, where he lives with his daughter from the previous marriage, Lucy, and several servants. After the wedding, and while the couple is on a European honeymoon, Pip will live at The Grange and be cared for by a nanny already employed for Lucy.

When this happens, it all goes wrong, partly because Philip is so unhappy and lashes out angrily at Lucy and the servants. They all decide to leave him alone, and he spends his time building a magic city. This is something well-off children did at the time, making a model city out of building blocks, books, dishes, candlesticks, and anything around the house they could find. Pip has made them before, but all the grand things in The Grange make this magic city the largest and best he’s ever done. The nanny, who has been rather nasty to Pip, is horrified when she sees it, and vows to take it all down the next day, but that night Pip can’t sleep and he goes down to look at his city. Somehow he is magically shrunk and able to enter the place, which is now large and even more complex, and has inhabitants, animals, and plants. So begins a series of magical adventures in which Lucy also takes part. They are required to do seven difficult tasks, after which Philip can become the king of this magical land. Another visitor, who remains hidden behind a veil, has other ideas, and tries to thwart them at every turn.

While the structure of this book is episodic, the tasks and the enemy help bring it together, and both Pip and Lucy learn a lot from their adventures and each other. Nesbit’s ideas about magic and exciting adventures are as creative as ever. Recommended.

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