Fantasy Lofting, Hugh: The Twilight of Magic. v1. 25 Feb 2019

[GrannyGrump]

THE TWILIGHT OF MAGIC
By Hugh Lofting (1886–1947)

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The Twilight of Magic was first published in 1930. It is the only one of Lofting’s books to be illustrated by another person. Illustrations and cover image by Lois Lenski (1893–1974) have been omitted due to copyright restrictions. The text of this book is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is “Life+70” or less.

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Were no more wonders worked since sprites and fairies left the haunts of Man? Was it the Twilight of Magic? Perhaps. But only today’s. Magic could never die while the sun had the power to rise again and Man had the wish to seek.
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This fantasy for young readers, set in an age when belief in magic is dying and science is beginning, is really two books in one. The first features nine-year-old twins Giles and Anne, who enlist the aid of an old apple-seller (who may or may not be a witch). She provides them with a magic Whispering Shell to help save their parents from crushing debt, and to save the kingdom from traitors. Book Two focuses on Giles from age ten to nineteen in service to the king as his “finder,” and ends with a riff on the Tristan and Isolde tale.
[—“Carmine,” Goodreads review]

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British author Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) is best known for creating the character of Doctor Dolittle, one of the classics of children’s literature. The Doctor first appeared in Lofting’s illustrated letters to his children, written from the trenches while he was serving in the British Army during World War I. The stories (a series of twelve books, the final two completed and published posthumously) are set in early Victorian England. The second in the series, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal.

The first ten Doctor Dolittle books are available from the MobileRead Library.

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Text was obtained from fadedpage.com. Embedded font used for titling. Textual errors were silently corrected; punctuation, diacritics, and italics have been formatted; some spelling and punctuation normalized for consistency. Chapter headers are cross-linked to Table of Contents.

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Something quite different from the Doctor Dolittle books.
Give it a try.

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