Tue 14 Mar 2017
Selected by Jonathan Lewis: Stories I’m Reading — H. G. WELLS “The Magic Shop.”
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[11] Comments
H. G. WELLS “The Magic Shop.” The Strand Magazine, June 1903. First collected in Twelve Stories and a Dream (Macmillan, UK, hardcover, 1903) and The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (Thomas Nelson, US, hardcover, 1911). Reprinted and anthologized many times. Adapted for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour by John Collier, 10 January 1964, with David Opatoshu as Mr. Dulong. Readable online here.
One of the many tropes in early science fiction was that of a shop or a building that is there one day, but gone the next. The very notion that one could randomly happen upon a commercial establishment one day and that it would be literally gone the next day is one of those quirky concepts that speculative writers play with so well.
So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that when I began reading H.G. Wells’s “The Magic Shop,†that one of the first things I thought of was whether the eponymous shop would exist one day and vanish the next. Lo and behold, I was not disappointed. For in this rather whimsical tale, a father and his son visit a magic shop in London wherein they discover a wide array of magical and mystical items for sale. The father, a skeptic, and his son Gip encounter a proprietor who may not be lying when he tells them that he deals in real magic.
There is something charmingly innocent about this story. The dialogue in particular harkens back to an almost fairy tale like innocence. Indeed, it’s Wells’s ability to conjure up a sense of wonder that makes this story about a magic shop doing its own disappearing act a short, but pleasurable read. Recommended.
March 14th, 2017 at 9:15 pm
Edmond Crispin may have had the best non magical version with THE MOVING TOYSHOP, while A.E. Van Vogt had the best Science Fictional take with THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER.
These stories always remind me of walking in London, Paris, or New York with all those mysterious little shops you so seldom have time to explore.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:53 pm
THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER was one of the first SF novels I ever read, and it brings back lots of good memories whenever anyone reminds me of it.
I wonder exactly how old the idea is of magical shops that are there one day and gone the next might be. Could Wells have been the first?
March 14th, 2017 at 10:28 pm
As Jonathan notes, “The Magic Shop” was adapted for TV on the ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR series. I remember liking this episode a lot which is available on dvd and online. However it moved away from the H.G. Wells story and stressed the terror elements.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:48 pm
I don’t remember ever seeing it on the Hitchcock show, Walker, but I’d like to. I’m far behind on watching the series, which I’m trying to do in order. I don’t even own any of the Hitchcock Hour DVDs. Have there been official US releases?
March 14th, 2017 at 11:59 pm
The ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR series is available as a British dvd release. PAL non-USA so a multi region dvd player is required. But my set is a bootleg production that I got from Martin Grams.
March 15th, 2017 at 3:49 am
I’m afraid these days the store that disappears overnight has become an increasingly common reality.
March 15th, 2017 at 6:28 am
Not surprisingly, David beat me to the one that immediately came to mind, Crispin’s THE MOVING TOYSHOP.
March 15th, 2017 at 7:18 pm
It’s been a rich vein for exploration…Dennis Lien recommends Avram Davidson’s anthology MAGIC FOR SALE elsewhere, in response to this post, and I endorse that…and there are such fine, too-obscure stories as Liz Hufford’s “This Offer Expires” (anthologized, but too infrequently).
March 15th, 2017 at 8:13 pm
Thanks, Todd (and Denny, elsewhere). Here’s a list of the contents of the Davidson anthology, thanks to ISFDb:
ix • Introduction (Magic for Sale) • essay by Avram Davidson
1 • Junk Shop • (1976) • short story by John Brosnan (variant of The Junk Shop)
5 • Of Time and Third Avenue • (1951) • short story by Alfred Bester
15 • Bottle Party • (1939) • short story by John Collier
25 • As Is • (1968) • novelette by Robert Silverberg
43 • The Cloak • (1939) • short story by Robert Bloch
61 • Touchstone • (1964) • short story by Terry Carr
75 • Dr. Bhumbo Singh • (1982) • short story by Avram Davidson
87 • The Cheese Stands Alone • (1982) • short story by Harlan Ellison
101 • The Malaysian Mer • (1982) • short story by Jane Yolen
111 • The Bazaar of the Bizarre • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • (1963) • novelette by Fritz Leiber (variant of Bazaar of the Bizarre)
139 • Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds • (1976) • short story by Ray Bradbury
153 • Elephas Frumenti • [Gavagan’s Bar] • (1950) • short story by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
161 • Shottle Bop • (1941) • novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
189 • The Crystal Egg • [The War of the Worlds] • (1897) • short story by H. G. Wells
207 • Woman in the Designer Genes • (1981) • short story by Daniel Gilbert
March 15th, 2017 at 9:12 pm
In his reply to my inquiry on the FictionMags group, Denny also listed the contents, then added “…some but not all of the stories in it qualify.”
From the titles, some of which I’m happy to say I recognize, I’d agree that that’s the case. You can’t go wrong with the stories, that’s for sure. This is my kind of fantasy. Magic with rules. Most of the time, at least.
March 15th, 2017 at 8:48 pm
I think Lord Dunsany did one of these, though I keep thinking the origin may be in THE 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS or European folklore.