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| Several centuries (or so) ago, in a country whose name doesn't matter, there was a tall, skinny, straggly-bearded old wizard named Prospero, and not the one you are thinking of, either.
Prospero lived in the South Kingdom in a ridiculous doodad-covered house filled with the paraphernalia of a practicing sorcerer.... He's hero Number 1. Hero Number 2 is Roger Bacon, Prospero's longtime friend and learned necromancer.... In the frosty North Kingdom lived the wizard Melichus. The story begins in Prospero's home when he and Roger Bacon are reunited after a long separation. The two old friends should have been enjoying themselves, but actually they were both scared silly. Outside, inside, seeping around them in the weird, wailing night, was a Presence as cold as hell itself. The wizards tried chant after chant in corrupt Coptic but nothing did any good. The Thing was closing in. |
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The magic mirror's cheerfully demented song: "O-ver-head the moon is SCREEEEAMING..." |
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M. Milhorn, junk dealer, handyman, and student of the Kabbala shows up just in the nick of time.... |
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He looked absently around the cellar as he waited for the pitcher to fill, and suddenly his eye was caught by the fluttering of an old cloak hanging on a wooden peg. And in that instant Prospero got the odd notion that the cloak was not his, and might not be a cloak at all. He stared intently at it as the fluttering of the garment became more agitated. And then it turned to meet him. With empty flopping arms it floated across the cellar floor, swaying in a sickening nightmare rhythm. Prospero clenched his fist and felt his pulse beating in his palms; he fought the rising fear as the cloak flapped nearer, for with all his heart he did not want it close to him. As it closed the gap between them, all the spells against apparitions ran through his mind, but he had the queasy feeling that none of them would work.... |
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| "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" courtesy Jonathan Abucejo. |
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| The first and only book to feature the wizards Prospero and Roger Bacon. It was written during Bellairs’ stay England
Bellairs's projected title for the book was simply, Prospero.
A rumored prequel written by Bellairs for author Lin Carter's juvenile fantasy anthology, Magic Kingdoms, was to explain how Prospero and Roger Bacon were first introduced to each other. As best we can tell, Carter's anthology was never released and Bellairs' short story is presumed lost.
John's son, Frank, believed a notebook existed that had his father's hand-drawn map and notes for a second book about Prospero and Roger Bacon, according to Brad Strickland. Frank and Brad toyed around with a sequel that would have been called The Voice from the Fog.
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| Did you know: There is a Five Dials Inn in Horton village, in Somerset, England – an area Bellairs may have visited during his travels overseas? |
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| Stats |
Author: John Bellairs (31)
Published: 1969
Chapters: 11
Pages: 174
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Recorded Books |
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| Allusions |
In his debut novel, The High House (1998), James Stoddard pays tribute to many classic works of fantasy and includes references to such authors as Lord Dunsany, Mervyn Peake, C.S. Lewis, and George MacDonald. Bellairs is paid tribute with reference to Stefan Schimpf's dreaded Krankenhammer. The main protagonist, Carter Anderson, is exploring a magical house's library and is surprised at some of the titles shelved in its history collection:
Carter, who had moved farther down the aisle, gave a chuckle. "You should see the HISTORY section. Vathek by Beckford, The World's Desire, even the Orlando Furioso, fantastic books all. Why, here's even the dreaded Krankenhammer of Stefan Schimpf, the mad cobbler of Mainz, a book of magic outlawed in most countries. Bad filing, you think, or an odd sense of humor?" [48]
Brad Strickland makes note in 2003's The Whistle, the Grave and the Ghost to Prospero's card-throwing, bridge-breaking scene [117-9]:
"Lewis Barnavelt glanced up at the magic window, a stained-glass oval that Uncle Jonathan kept enchanted so that it was always changing. Tonight it showed a tall wizard standing in front of a strange arched bridge, with stone sculptures like giant chess pieces at its corners. The magician was flinging a handful of playing cards through the air toward the bridge" [The Whistle, the Grave and the Ghost, 83].
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| Dedication |
To the Memory of my Mother.
Virginia Bellairs died in the late 1960s. |
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