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Gregory Maguire

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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years, 1) Mass Market Paperback – Illustrated, September 25, 2007

by Gregory Maguire (Author)

4.4 6,329 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Wicked Years

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The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony-winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande

With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes the inspired inventions of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, while playing sleight of hand with our collective memories of the 1939 MGM film starring Margaret Hamilton (and Judy Garland). In this fast-paced, fantastically real, and supremely entertaining novel, Maguire has populated the largely unknown world of Oz with the power of his own imagination.

Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens.

But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.

Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publication, the novel has inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name—one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. Popular, indeed. But while the novel’s distant cousins hail from the traditions of magical realism, mythopoeic fantasy, and sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgency, Maguire’s Wicked is as unique as its green-skinned witch.

Book 1 of 4

Wicked Years
Print length

560 pages
Language

English
Publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication date

September 25, 2007
Dimensions

4.19 x 1.12 x 6.75 inches
ISBN-10

9780061350962
ISBN-13

978-0061350962
Lexile measure

890L
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Popular Highlights in this book

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“Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.”
Highlighted by 764 Kindle readers
No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst—there is always choice.
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There were more ways to live than the ones given by one’s superiors.
Highlighted by 547 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Maguire did something truly remarkable with this novel, in managing to inhabit, enlarge, deepen and find new dimensions in a world that had been invented by another writer, and in doing so make something entirely new. It’s an astonishing achievement." — Philip Pullman

"Gregory gets the complications and uniqueness of women very well." — Kristen Chenoweth

“At the heart of this remarkable, unforgettable novel is a wildly original premise-- one that only a writer with Gregory Maguire’s intellect and daring could have dreamed up: that the Wicked Witch of the West was a real woman, with an actual name, and her own story to tell. It was radical when Gregory first wrote it, and remains radical. It has the power to reshape one’s view of the world.” — Winnie Holzman, co-writer of Wicked: The Musical

“Long before there was any thought of a musical, I read Wicked. I felt a quiet joy that sisterhood had made its way to the Yellow Brick Road. What happens when a witch, green or otherwise, gets to tell her own story instead of being vilified and misrepresented by dominant cultural authority? We witches know how that turns out!” — Holly Near

“I knew that Gregory Maguire had come up with a genius idea the moment I heard about Wicked. It’s a book that has changed a lot of lives, including mine.” — Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of Wicked: The Musical

From the Back Cover

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0061350966
Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks; Illustrated edition (September 25, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780061350962
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061350962
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 890L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 1.12 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #224,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,221 in Folklore (Books)
- #7,839 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
- #8,056 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 6,329 ratings

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About the author

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Gregory Maguire

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Gregory Maguire received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England. He still serves as co-director of CLNE, although that organization has announced its intention to close after its 2006 institute.

The bestselling author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and the Wicked Years, a series that includes Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. Wicked, now a beloved classic, is the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name. Maguire has lectured on art, literature, and culture both at home and abroad.

He has three adopted children and is married to painter Andy Newman. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

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Kathryn P.

Never Disappoints

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024

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I’ve read this book multiple times and just read it again in anticipation of the movie eventually coming out. If you’re a fan of the Wizard of Oz, you will love it. The backstory and behind the scenes all tie together so neatly. Highly recommend this fantasy to ages 15+

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You'll never look at blue gingham the same way again

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2015

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I was introduced to the music of the Broadway musical Wicked not that long ago, and was immediately intrigued with the idea of the Wicked Witch of the West not being as evil as she was made out to be in The Wizard of Oz. What if it was the Wizard who was the evil one? The idea of turning such a revered story on its head was too much to resist, and I was pleasantly surprised when my friend starbreiz sent me some items from my Amazon wishlist, including Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

::: There Is Always More to the Story :::

Gregory Maguire's first novel turned one of the most established legends of our time on its ear with its premise: what if the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz wasn't so wicked after all, but was actually viewed that way based only on perception? The story surrounds the life of Elphaba, the daughter of a minister and a woman who wasn't the most faithful minister's wife ever. Her unfortunate tale begins with her birth, when she is born with green skin, teeth so sharp she bites her own skin, and an aversion to water. Her mother turns to herbal drugs, and her missionary father believes that Elphaba's condition is somehow his fault. The only stable figure is really Elphaba's mother's former nanny, who comes to take care of the little green girl.

Elphaba's childhood is defined by her father's missionary work in Quadling country, the poorest section of Oz, and a far cry from the upper class of Munchinland to which her mother was born.

Maguire picks up the story when Elphaba is older, and a new student at Shiz, the university of Oz. The university is divided into all-male and all-female colleges, and Elphaba ends up rooming with the very snobby Galinda, much to Galinda's dismay. Elphaba quickly becomes suspicious of the headmistress, Madame Morrible, and after an Animal (the walking, talking, intelligent versions, much like the Cowardly Lion) professor dies under mysterious circumstances, Elphaba finagles an audience with the Wizard for herself and Galinda, where she quickly realizes that the Wizard is not the paternalistic ruler he was believed to be.

Elphaba sends Galinda back to Shiz and begins a life of resistance, first on behalf of the Animals, then with a life in a convent (or mauntery, as they call it), and finally ends up in the land of the Vinkus, where she creates her famed winged monkeys, begins to dabble in sorcery, and her story intersects with the story of Dorothy that we all grew up with.

::: Politics, Social Classes, Despots... Just Like Real Life :::

Trying to sum up the various plots in Wicked is impossible, and I feel impotent even attempting it. Maguire has created an incredible character and the book will leave you unable to watch the movie the same way again. Not only has he created a rich and sympathetic character in Elphaba, but he has also created a world that seems so real that every time I had to put the book down to do something else I felt as if I was being jolted from one world to another.

While at times it might seem as if Maguire is leaving too much out, jumping as he does from one period in Elphaba's life to another, he has chosen the most significant points to focus on; each set of experiences is one that would have shaped the woman who became known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

The hardest part of reading Wicked is knowing how it is going to end. From the start, you know that Elphaba is doomed; that she will die at Dorothy's hand, and nothing will change that. Still, even knowing this, you find yourself hoping against hope that Maguire will change the story and find a loophole for Elphaba, that she won't truly die, but live on, fighting the corrupt Wizard and everything he has created.

::: This Isn't Broadway :::

For those introduced to the softer side of Elphaba through the Broadway show of the same name, the novel will probably be a huge surprise. "Based on" is the operative phrase in the description of the musical, which has a far simpler plot than the novel. It would have been impossible to condense all the political intrigue and vast cast of characters in the novel into a musical, and many of the plot devices were oversimplified, including the love affair between Elphaba and Fiyero. The Boq of the novel is, in fact, a Munchinlander who had a crush on Galinda/Glinda, but he plays a far more important role in helping Elphaba in her research for Doctor Dillamond, and later, in helping Dorothy. While I love the show, the book has a much greater depth than the musical, and requires more of the reader than the audience member.

Wicked is one of the best novels I've read in a long, long time. I find myself reading it over again, still hoping that Elphaba can be saved, and still getting lost in the world of Oz as Maguire sees it. This is a book not to be missed, and I guarantee that you'll never view blue gingham and ruby slippers the same way again.

104 people found this helpful

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E. Smiley

I think I got hit by a tornado

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2012

Verified Purchase

I have a rocky history with this book. Tried to read it as a teen, found it boring, and quit. Then more recently, I saw the musical and loved it! Then I felt like a poser for preferring the lighter and softer version, contrary to my normal tastes, so decided to give the book another try. To my surprise, this time around it was a completely enthralling, intense emotional experience in a way books rarely are for me anymore (and good thing too--I finished more than a week ago and am still recovering).

As the subtitle makes clear, this book tells the backstory of the stock villain from The Wizard of Oz--but (I suspect this has a lot to do with its low rating), it's not much like the original children's tale, nor like its own musical adaptation. Oz here is a dark, ugly and all-too-familiar place, rather than a magical fantasyland; people suffer, fail at their endeavors, and die; it's almost nihilistic, although lightened by some humor and absurdities. Readers should also be prepared for a somewhat unorthodox structure: the book covers almost 40 years, which means some significant time-skips, and we see a large chunk of the story through the eyes of characters who aren't actually important (although they think they are, naturally enough, which may make it jarring for some when they disappear).

I'd talk about the plot, which I did find compelling, but this is a character-driven book and not especially fast-paced, so I'll cut right to the chase: Elphaba is awesome. Seriously, she is a fantastic protagonist. She's smart, prickly, idealistic, sarcastic, passionate, solitary, complicated, very human and also deeply messed up (okay, those last two are redundant). She is not nice, and maybe even becomes wicked, but she's one of the few people in this book who can see past the end of her nose, and does she ever pay for it. She makes her own decisions, based on her own sense of right and wrong, without depending on anyone for help or advice. So basically, I love Elphaba, which made for some painful reading, but says a lot about Maguire's characterization.

Oh, yeah, almost all of the other characters are good too, even if they can't see past the end of their noses most of the time. People are more complicated than they may initially appear, and have complicated relationships, and are anything but black-and-white.

The worldbuilding is also enjoyable; it feels early-20th-century (appropriately enough), which is quite different from your typical fantasy world, and Maguire does a good job of developing the society, especially early in the book. There's a lot of politics, and religion, and social issues, which in itself makes the world feel more real and tangible. In the end, though, Oz is meant to be a reflection of our world, and I found the satire quite well-done and not too heavy-handed. For instance, at first it seemed weird that this is such a brutal world, and yet people either don't notice or don't care.... but wait a minute, that's the point. They're privileged white folks and they don't have to worry about it.

Thematically, much has been made about how this book will "challenge your preconceptions about good and evil"--and it did make me think, although not exactly in the way I expected. After all, if you're old enough to read Wicked, your idea of "evil" is probably not a children's-book villain in a black pointy hat (a white pointy hat would be another story, but that's not a preconception Maguire wants to challenge, and for good reason). And that there are multiple sides to any story shouldn't be challenging either. For me, this book's treatment of good and evil is best summed up by a dinner party scene, where the diners are confronted with a guest who admits to having just murdered an old woman in her bed. They proceed to have a spirited theoretical discussion about the meaning of "evil," and utterly fail to make a moral judgment about the situation at hand, let alone act on it by, say, calling the police. That's the sort of bizarre and, yes, challenging and disturbing material you'll find in this book.

As far as the writing style goes, I've seen it called both great and terrible; I personally found it good in a mostly unremarkable way, but recommend that you sample a couple of chapters before you buy. This will also let you see how you feel about the sometimes grotesque imagery, which seems to be what people are generally referring to when they object to the sex in this book--there are very few actual sex scenes.

So, why am I not giving 5 stars? The dialogue, while mostly good, didn't always quite ring true. There are some elements I find unconvincing and/or lame: the infamous "I don't know if I had a baby"; minor characters claiming late in the book to have manipulated significant parts of the plot; Fiyero's blandness (personality-wise, he totally fails to live up to his role in the plot, which I think is the point, but still). On the positive side, some elements I found lame in the musical (girls fighting over boys, blah) are absent here.

I could keep talking about this book, but you've probably had enough. So here's the condensed version.

Avoid this book if:

- You're looking for something light, uplifting, or appropriate for kids.
- You want lots of action or a fast-paced plot.
- You don't want to see real-world politics, religion or social issues reflected in your fantasy novels.

You might like this book if:

- You're looking for character-driven, adult fantasy.
- You appreciated the darker bits of the musical.
- You like fantasy that can make you think about real-world issues in a different light.

Clearly, it's not for everybody. I'm just glad I finally read it despite all the criticism--even if it did make me cry.

38 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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alex

Excelente

Reviewed in Mexico on June 3, 2023

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Llegó en excelentes condiciones y el libro es fantástico.

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Cliente Kindle

Incrível.

Reviewed in Brazil on April 10, 2023

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Foi recomendação de um amigo. Livro muito bom! Foi entregue em perfeitas condições e no prazo certo.
Vale a leitura!

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Allison

How we got the Wicked witch of the East

Reviewed in Canada on December 1, 2022

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It is a fantastic read, a must read. You should in fact follow Gregory McGuire

Angelphant

Bra bok och fin service

Reviewed in Sweden on December 11, 2023

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Jättebra bok och den levererades snabbt och utan problem. Tusen tack för bra vinterläsning

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Cliente Amazon

On point

Reviewed in Italy on June 7, 2023

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The conditions were as reported in the description and therefore I have no notes.

The layout of this edition is very cluttered and oddly spaced (think the early editions of Goosebumps) so I wouldn't recommend it if this kind of detail bothers your attention span/eyesight.

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