The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit (important books to read txt) 📕
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In this conclusion to the Psammead Trilogy, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, and Jane are reunited with the cantankerous Sand-fairy. While the old creature can’t grant them wishes anymore, it points them towards an old Egyptian amulet that can grant their hearts’ desire—in this case the return of their parents and baby brother. While their amulet is only half of a whole, it still acts as a time portal which they use to visit locales like Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Atlantis, and even a utopian future in search of the missing other half.
Perhaps one of E. Nesbit’s most personal works, The Story of the Amulet benefited from her interest in the ancient world, particularly Egypt. With the help of A. E. Wallis Budge, to whom the book is dedicated—then Head of the Assyrian Departments of the British Museum and translator of the Egyptian Book of the Dead—she conducted extensive research on the topic and is thus able to bring an exquisite attention to detail. For example, the titular amulet is shaped after the tyet, an Egyptian symbol also known as the “knot of Isis.” Likewise, the inscription at the back of the amulet is written in authentic Egyptian hieroglyphs.
A staunch supporter of democratic socialism and a founding member of the Fabian Society, E. Nesbit cultivated friendships with other like-minded writers, such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, whose influence on this book is easy to notice. She practiced what she preached, so much so that despite her literary successes, her acts of charity brought her close to bankruptcy.
These political beliefs are prominently displayed in the book. The children encounter memorable characters during their adventures, chief among them the Queen of Babylon, who causes quite a stir when she later pays them a call in their contemporary London. When the visiting Queen witnesses the squalid living conditions of the London working class, she’s amazed at how poorly they’re treated compared to the slaves of her own Babylon. Likewise, the utopian future—which features a wink to her friend H. G. Wells, the “great reformer”—is a striking contrast in terms of the happiness, care, and education of the general populace.
The book’s legacy can be found in the works of other writers. Most notably, C. S. Lewis incorporated several elements in his Chronicles of Narnia: the Calormene civilization of The Horse and His Boy draws heavily from The Amulet’s Babylon, and the episode in The Magician’s Nephew where Jadis, the White Witch, causes chaos during her short stay in London is also a direct homage to the aforementioned visit from the Queen. The format of these stories, where a group of people take their audience on adventures through time and space to learn about distant cultures, is an uncanny precursor to the popular British TV series Doctor Who.
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- Author: E. Nesbit
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And suddenly it was good daylight and the December sun shone. The fog has passed away like a dream.
The Amulet was there—little and complete in Jane’s hand, and there were the other children and the Psammead, and the learned gentleman. But Rekh-marā—or the body of Rekh-marā—was not there any more. As for his soul …
“Oh, the horrid thing!” cried Robert, and put his foot on a centipede as long as your finger, that crawled and wriggled and squirmed at the learned gentleman’s feet.
“That,” said the Psammead, “was the evil in the soul of Rekh-marā.”
There was a deep silence.
“Then Rekh-marā’s him now?” said Jane at last.
“All that was good in Rekh-marā,” said the Psammead.
“He ought to have his heart’s desire, too,” said Anthea, in a sort of stubborn gentleness.
“His heart’s desire,” said the Psammead, “is the perfect Amulet you hold in your hand. Yes—and has been ever since he first saw the broken half of it.”
“We’ve got ours,” said Anthea softly.
“Yes,” said the Psammead—its voice was crosser than they had ever heard it—“your parents are coming home. And what’s to become of me? I shall be found out, and made a show of, and degraded in every possible way. I know they’ll make me go into Parliament—hateful place—all mud and no sand. That beautiful Baalbec temple in the desert! Plenty of good sand there, and no politics! I wish I were there, safe in the Past—that I do.”
“I wish you were,” said the learned gentleman absently, yet polite as ever.
The Psammead swelled itself up, turned its long snail’s eyes in one last lingering look at Anthea—a loving look, she always said, and thought—and—vanished.
“Well,” said Anthea, after a silence, “I suppose it’s happy. The only thing it ever did really care for was sand.”
“My dear children,” said the learned gentleman, “I must have fallen asleep. I’ve had the most extraordinary dream.”
“I hope it was a nice one,” said Cyril with courtesy.
“Yes. … I feel a new man after it. Absolutely a new man.”
There was a ring at the front-door bell. The opening of a door. Voices.
“It’s them!” cried Robert, and a thrill ran through four hearts.
“Here!” cried Anthea, snatching the Amulet from Jane and pressing it into the hand of the learned gentleman. “Here—it’s yours—your very own—a present from us, because you’re Rekh-marā as well as … I mean, because you’re such a dear.”
She hugged him briefly but fervently, and the four swept down the stairs to the hall, where a cabman was bringing in boxes, and where, heavily disguised in travelling cloaks and wraps, was their hearts’ desire—threefold—Mother, Father, and The Lamb.
“Bless me!” said the learned gentleman, left alone, “bless me! What a treasure! The dear children! It must be their affection that has given me these luminous aperçus. I seem to see so many things now—things I never saw before! The dear children! The dear, dear children!”
List of IllustrationsA human-shaped amulet of primitive design with a hole where the face should be.
A diagram of the sacred place. It consists of two concentric circular shapes. The outer one has a small opening at the bottom and the inner one is similarly open at the top. In the middle of the whole structure is a small, complete circle with several lines.
Letters in chain stitches spelling the words “Psams Travel Car.” Each word is on its own line in all-caps. The letters are all of different sizes and not properly aligned.
ColophonThe Story of the Amulet
was published in 1906 by
E. Nesbit.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
François Grandjean,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1997 by
Jo Churcher and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.
The cover page is adapted from
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon,
a painting completed in 1890 by
Edward John Poynter.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
April 1, 2021, 11:31 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/e-nesbit/the-story-of-the-amulet.
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