Children Nesbit, Edith: The Magic City (Illustrated). v2. 01 September 2015

[GrannyGrump]

THE MAGIC CITY
by Edith Nesbit (1858–1924)
With all 27 original illustrations by Harold R. Millar (1869–1940)

First published in 1910. The text and illustrations of this book are in the public domain in countries where copyright is “Life+70” or less, and in the USA.

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Edith Nesbit Bland, English author and poet, published approximately 40 books for and about children under the name of E. Nesbit. She created an innovative body of work that combined realistic, contemporary children in real-world settings with magical objects and adventures. In doing so, she influenced many subsequent writers, including P. L. Travers (creator of “Mary Poppins”), Edward Eager (the “Magic” series), Diana Wynne Jones (“Chrestomanci”), J. K. Rowling (“Harry Potter”), and C. S. Lewis (“Narnia”).

When young Philip Haldane and his new step-sister Lucy (whom he resents) are magically transported to a magic city (created by Philip from odds and ends from about the house), they find themselves on an incredible enchanted adventure complete with talking dogs, winged horses, ancient buildings and magic islands. How Philip and Lucy come to forge a friendship and work together to save the Magic City from impending disaster makes for a riveting, entrancing story.

The Magic City is more fanciful and dreamlike than her earlier books about children and magic, rather like the Oz universe, with toys that come to life, imaginary creatures, talking animals, and an adult guide (Mr. Noah from the Noah’s Ark playset) to advise and aid the children in their seven great deeds. Recommended for ages 7–14, but great fun for readers of all ages.

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Notes on the text:
I have added a glossary for some terms which are rather obscure, or in use primarily in Great Britain. Some definitions are simplified for children’s comprehension.
Caveat: The meanings of slang and idiomatic terms have evolved over the past century: some words, which were completely innocent then, have changed to more vulgar usage. Concerned parents may review the glossary for words they find objectionable, and edit the text accordingly.

The spoiler below contains the problematic words, and their actual meanings within the book, as listed in the glossary:

Spoiler:

Gay:
Bright and pleasant; colorful.

Pecker:
British usage: Old slang for a (hungry) mouth. To "peck" is to eat.

Keep your pecker up:
A common British phrase: one’s pecker is one’s nose. Equivalent to “keep your chin up,” “be brave.”

The “child-safe” version has been edited for young readers. Due to changes in meaning in different times and locations, a problematic word has been changed. (Thanks for editing assistance from GMcG, MobileRead forum member.) Individual edits are not footnoted, as I believe this kind of attention would negate the purpose of the editing. If you feel that this editing damages the book, you may download the unedited version.

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Text and images obtained from gutenberg.org. Images were very small, so low-res illustrations again this time. Embedded fonts for titling and drop-caps. Dynamic cross-linked Table Of Contents and List Of Illustrations.

This is yet another rare book --- I only found the Gutenberg edition (and its clones) available anywhere for free download. So, grab this --- “While supplies last!”

Happy reading!
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EDIT: Uploaded child-safe version (see spoiler above, and post #4 for the reasons). I would love feedback on this subject, I think this kind of situation will be popping up again.

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This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

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[PandathePanda]

Thanx granny.

[kwork]

I'm done trying to give you reputation to no avail. This system is flawed. Please know that I'm truly grateful for this one. This is one of my favorites from Ms. Nesbit. So delightful!

[GrannyGrump]

I always felt I would never edit the text of a public domain book before uploading, but that was before I started working with children's books. Consideration for child readers opens a whole new perspective on the question of "cleaning up the text". After much cogitation and discussion (this thread generated 44 replies and 1550+ views), I decided to upload a "child-safe" version of this book.

Here is the quote from the book's editing notes:

This ebook version has been edited for young readers. Due to changes in meaning in different times and locations, a problematic word has been changed. (Thanks for editing assistance from GMcG, MobileRead forum member.) If you feel that this editing damages the book, you may download the unedited version.

I would love feedback --- please share your opinion, keeping in mind that this book is intended for children as young as 7 years old.

See the first post for the child-safe edition, v.2.

[doubleshuffle]

I think it's perfectly legitimate (and sometimes advisable) to change some words in books for younger chldren to reflect changed meanings/connotations/sensibilities.

Not being a native speaker of English, I can't make any judgements on which words are really not child-safe. I can't stop wondering, though, about the problems that gay seems to cause. It is so common in older texts that everybody is going to come across it in its older meaning sooner rather than later; so I think it should not be edited out and instead serve as an early example to teach children about language change.

[GrannyGrump]

Well, I feel the same way about the word "gay". it's not one I would over-write, simply because the problem lies with "political correctness," and I do believe that is a conversation a parent *should* be having with their child ("gay" is left as-is in the text of The Magic City, with an annotation).

However, the edit I made here was because of the *obscene* connotation for this specific word in some mileus. I believe many American parents would not even be aware that there might be any other meaning for that word.

And I am a wimp -- I don't want to get a reputation for uploading salacious children's books. So I did not even make an annotation naming the specific word in the child-safe version (that would make no sense to me --- why edit out the word in the narrative text, and then make a footnote to draw attention to it?). It is annotated in the download post, and in the unedited version.