Practical MagicBook 1 of 3
Practical Magic
For most adults, fairy tales are among the childish things we've put away. Alice Hoffman, however, feels differently. Practical Magic starts out as a tale of Gillian and Sally Owens, two orphaned girls whose aunts are witches--of a mild sort. For the past two centuries, Owens women have been blamed for all that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town, ever since their ancestor arrived, rich, independent, and soon accused of theft: "And then one day, a farmer winged a crow in his cornfield, a creature who'd been stealing from him shamelessly for months. When Maria Owens appeared the very next morning with her arm in a sling and her white hand wound up in a white bandage, people felt certain they knew the reason why." The aunts are daily ostracized by the same upstanding citizens who sneak to their house at night for magical love cures. To the sisters they are for the most part benevolently absent, though their bell, book, and candle routine makes life a torment for Gillian, beautiful and blonde and lazy, and Sally, who's all too responsible. But when one of the aunts' cures works too well, ending as a curse, the dangers of real love become all too clear. In Hoffman's world being bewitched, bothered, and bewildered is no mere metaphor--and neither is desire. The elbows of one enamored man pucker a linoleum counter, another walks around with singed cuffs. It's difficult to catch the author's power in brief quotes. She needs space and increment to build her exquisite variations of vision and reality, her matter-of-fact announcements of the preternatural. Practical Magic again and again makes one recall the thrill of hearing at bedtime, "Now will I a tale unfold..." --Kerry Fried
1 pages, 35 editions
English edition · First published 1995 by Berkley Pub Group · ISBN 9780425163207
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Editions
35 editions
English
- Practical Magic · Berkley Pub Group · 1998 · ISBN 9780425163207 · 2 readers This page
- Practical Magic (Practical Magic, #1) · Scribner UK · 2017 · ISBN 9781471169205 · 1 reader
- Practical Magic · Penguin USA, Inc. · 2009 · ISBN 9781440666230 · 1 reader
- Practical Magic · Simon & Schuster UK · 2026 · ISBN 9781398566521
- Practical Magic: Deluxe Edition (The Practical Magic Series) · Berkley · 2026 · ISBN 9798217192298
- Practical Magic · G. P. Putnam's Sons · 2023 · ISBN 9780593718148
- Practical Magic · Scribner UK · 2022 · ISBN 9781398515512
- Practical Magic · Oakhill Publishing (CD) · 2018 · ISBN 9781787067899
- Practical Magic · Oakhill Publishing (MP3 CD) · 2018 · ISBN 9781787068254
- Practical Magic (1) · Simon & Schuster Audio · 2017 · ISBN 9781508243878
- Practical Magic · Scribner · 2017 · ISBN 9781471169199
- Practical Magic · Penguin Random House LLC · 2009 · ISBN 9781440671876
- Practical Magic · Simon & Schuster Audio · 2004 · ISBN 9780743545655
- Practical Magic · Berkley Books · 2003 · ISBN 9780425190371
- Practical Magic · Penguin US · 2003 · ISBN 9781440673757
- Practical Magic · Vintage · 2002 · ISBN 9780099429173
- Practical Magic · Ebury Press · 2001 · ISBN 9780091878146
- Practical Magic · Picador · 1998 · ISBN 9780330343848
- Practical Magic · Audioworks · 1998 · ISBN 9780671043322
- Practical Magic · Macmillan · 1996 · ISBN 9780333648254
- Practical Magic · Turtleback · 1996 · ISBN 9780606158220
- Practical Magic · Demco Media · 1996 · ISBN 9780606272827
- Practical Magic · Thorndike Press · 1996 · ISBN 9780745138954
- Practical Magic · Thorndike Press · 1996 · ISBN 9780786205141
- Practical Magic · Berkley Books · 1996 · ISBN 9780425152492
- Practical Magic · Thorndike Press · 1996 · ISBN 9780745138961
- Practical Magic · Picador · 1995 · ISBN 9780330347419
- Practical Magic · Recorded Books · 1995 · ISBN 9780788733963
- Practical Magic · Berkley Books · 1995 · ISBN 9780425168462
- Practical Magic · Penguin Group USA, Incorporated · 1995 · ISBN 9780399143359
- Practical Magic · Putnam · 1995 · ISBN 9780399140556
- Practical Magic · Recorded Books · 1995 · ISBN 9780788703379
- Practical Magic · ISBN 9780425167885
- Practical Magic · G. P. Putnam's Sons · ISBN 9780965387354
- Practical Magic · ISBN 9781121238152
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