 | |
| Author | John Buchan |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton [1] |
Publication date | 1932 [1] |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 215 [1] |
The Magic Walking Stick is a 1932 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, his only novel for children. The first edition was illustrated by John Morton Sale.
The novel relates the adventures of Bill, an English schoolboy from a wealthy family. When Bill returns home from his boarding school for his autumn half-term break, his father's keeper offers to take him duck shooting on the family's estate. On the way, he meets a little wizened old man in a green coat sitting under a hornbeam – apparently invisible to the keeper – who sells him a stick for a farthing. Bill discovers that by twisting the stick and making a wish he has the power to go magically wherever he desires.
Bill rises early to try out the stick again and wishes himself in the Solomon Islands. He finds himself on a beautiful beach of blinding white sands, though the natives are unfriendly and Bill has to return home in a hurry. His next chance to try the stick is in the Christmas holiday, and this time Bill takes his younger brother Peter and a pet dog with him to the family's Scottish estate. The dog is accidentally left there, and Bill has to return to rescue him.
At home in his library, Bill's father discovers an old volume with a 12th century tale which tells of the two staves mentioned in the Book of Zechariah 11:7, [2] one called "Beauty", which favours the pursuit of pleasure, and the other "Bands", which should be used only for serious purposes. According to the Latin text, these two staves were real sticks with magical power. They looked alike but each had to be used for its own appointed purpose. If one were used with the wrong motive, it would simply disappear. Bill is sure his stick must be one of the two lost staves, but he cannot decide which.
Bill plays a prank on some selfish neighbours, rescues his uncle Bob, an aviator whose plane has been lost over the Sahara, and visits an elephants' graveyard.
From a picture paper, Bill learns of young prince Anatole, heir to the throne in the Balkan kingdom of Gracia, who has been imprisoned by the ambitious Prime Minister, Kuno. Over several adventures, Bill rescues Anatole and helps him to take his rightful place as Gracia's king. But when Bill starts to think himself clever and quite proud of what he has been able to achieve, the stick disappears on his next trip home. He comes to believe that his staff was "Bands", and that it did not approve of his thinking too much of his own amusement.
The novel ends with a call to readers to look out for the stick, or failing that for the man who sold it. It is wise, the author says, "always to have a farthing in your pocket, for he won't give change".
The novel was first published in 1932 by Hodder & Stoughton, [1] in an edition illustrated by John Morton Sale. [3] In 1935, [4] Associated Newspapers published The Magic Walking-Stick and Stories from the Arabian Nights, combining Buchan's novel, illustrated by Vernon L Soper, with Frances Jenkins Alcott's re-telling of the Arabian Nights tales, illustrated by Monro S Orr. [5]
The Magic Walking Stick is Buchan's only novel for children. [6] An early short version of the story was contained in a contribution that Buchan had made to Lady Cynthia Asquith's short story collection Sails of Gold (1927). [7] [8] Its genesis was a game that Buchan used to play with his own children. [7]
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition, which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.
Nigel Tranter OBE was a writer of a wide range of books on castles, particularly on themes of architecture and history. He also specialised in deeply researched historical novels that cover centuries of Scottish history.
Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, despite not being part of the original text; it was added by the Frenchman Antoine Galland, based on a folk tale that he heard from the Syrian Maronite storyteller Hanna Diyab.
Sinbad the Sailor is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate. In the course of seven voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south of Asia, he has fantastic adventures in magical realms, encountering monsters and witnessing supernatural phenomena.
A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction. It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its user(s) to their destination.
The Wishing-Chair is a series of two novels by the English author Enid Blyton, and a third book published in 2000 compiled from Blyton's short stories. The three children's stories are as follows:
This is a list of the books written by G. K. Chesterton.
Kay Rasmus Nielsen was a Danish illustrator who was popular in the early 20th century, the Golden Age of Illustration which lasted from when Daniel Vierge and other pioneers developed printing technology to the point that drawings and paintings could be reproduced with reasonable facility. Nielsen is also known for his collaborations with Disney for whom he contributed many story sketches and illustrations, not least for Fantasia.
Edmund Dulac was a French-British naturalised magazine illustrator, book illustrator and stamp designer. Born in Toulouse, he studied law but later turned to the study of art at the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to London early in the 20th century and in 1905 received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters. During World War I, Dulac produced relief books. After the war, the deluxe children's book market shrank, and he then turned to magazine illustrations among other ventures. He designed banknotes during World War II and postage stamps, most notably those that heralded the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.
A magic ring is a mythical, folkloric or fictional piece of jewelry, usually a finger ring, that is purported to have supernatural properties or powers. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. Magic rings are found in the folklore of every country where rings are worn. Some magic rings can endow the wearer with a variety of abilities including invisibility and immortality. Others can grant wishes or spells such as neverending love and happiness. Sometimes, magic rings can be cursed, as in the mythical ring that was recovered by Sigurð from the hoard of the worm Fáfnir in Norse mythology or the fictional ring that features in The Lord of the Rings. More often, however, they are featured as forces for good, or as a neutral tool whose value is dependent upon the wearer.
Victor Rousseau Emanuel was a British writer who wrote novels, newspaper series, science fiction and pulp fiction works. He was active in Great Britain and the United States during the first half of the 20th century.
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is a graphic novel prequel to the comic book series Fables written by series creator Bill Willingham with a variety of artists. It was released on October 18, 2006 by Vertigo.
Patricia Holm is the name of a fictional character who appeared in the novels and short stories of Leslie Charteris between 1928 and 1948. She was the on-again, off-again girlfriend and partner of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint", and shared a number of his adventures. In addition, by the mid-1930s, Holm and Templar shared the same flat in London, although they were unmarried. Although such co-habitation between unmarried partners is commonplace today, it was rare, shocking in the 1930s. The two also appeared to have a somewhat "open" relationship, with Holm accepting Templar's occasional dalliances with other women.
Claud Eustace Teal is a fictional character who made many appearances in a series of novels, novellas and short stories by Leslie Charteris featuring The Saint, starting in 1929. A common spelling variation of his first name in reference works and websites is Claude, however in his works Charteris uses the spelling without the 'e'.
Anna Masterton Buchan was a Scottish novelist who wrote under the pen name O. Douglas. Most of her novels were written and set between the wars and portrayed small town or village life in southern Scotland, reflecting her own life.
Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights, also known as Doraemon Nights, is a 1991 Japanese animated science fantasy film which premiered on 9 March 1991 in Japan, based on the 11th volume of the same name of the Doraemon Long Stories series. It's the 12th Doraemon film.
The story of Little Muck is a fairy tale written by Wilhelm Hauff. It was published in 1826 in a collection of fairy tales and tells the story of an outsider called Little Muck.