Wicked

Wicked by Gregory Maguire — trade paperback. ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins. Full title: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The novel that became the musical and the films. Maguire takes the green-skinned villain of L. Frank Baum's Oz and asks the obvious question nobody had asked: where did she come from, and what makes someone "wicked"? The answer is Elphaba — a smart, prickly, misunderstood girl who grows up to become the most infamous figure in Oz. Part fantasy, part political cautionary tale, part psychological study.

John Updike in The New Yorker called it "amazing." Kirkus: "Save a place on the shelf between Alice and The Hobbit — that spot is well deserved." The Los Angeles Times: "a staggering feat of wordcraft... one of the great heroines in fantasy literature."

Cover price $15.00. ISBN 0-06-098710-3. Reader's Group Guide inside.

Edition note, stated plainly: this is the trade paperback, not the 1995 first-edition hardcover. The copyright page reads "A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1995 by ReganBooks" and "First paperback edition published 1996, reissued 2000," with a 04 05 printer's key — so it's a mid-2000s printing of the reissue.

Condition: fair to good, well read. There is soiling and light staining to the cream covers and edge wear, visible in both photos. Text block clean and binding sound. Priced as a reading copy, not a collector's copy.

What you get: 1 trade paperback, exactly as shown.

Ships promptly, securely packed. Smoke-free. Happy to bundle with my other novels — message me and I'll set it up.

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