wicked the life and times of the wicked witch

People coming to Wicked the book after exposure to the musical might be in for a shock. Since 1995 Maguire has published two other novels set in the 'Wicked-verse': Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men. The critical reception was positive for the most part, though (you can check out a variety of reviews of the novel in our 'Best of the Web' section), and sales have actually gone up over time, which speaks to the book's staying power. Given all of this 're-imagining,' it's not surprising that Wicked garnered some mixed reviews upon its release. In Wicked, the Witch is misunderstood, the Witch of the East is a religious zealot, Munchkins are prone to mob violence and bigotry, the Wizard is a dictator, and animals can talk ( C.S. Wicked actually flips Oz on its head and, in a lot of places, departs entirely from Baum's novel and the 1939 movie. But even Wicked fits into a larger tradition of retelling popular stories from the perspective of secondary characters, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (an absurdist retelling of Hamlet), Grendel ( Beowulf from the monster's perspective), and Wide Sargasso Sea (a retelling of Jane Eyre).īut Wicked does a lot more than just tell The Wizard of Oz from the Witch's point of view (which is probably a good thing, since that book would have read something along the lines of 'Chapter 20: More Exciting Times With Those Creepy Flying Monkeys'). Wicked was Maguire's first novel for adults (he'd written children's books before). Maguire himself has made a career out of re-imagining classic stories, from Snow White in Mirror, Mirror to Cinderella in The Ugly Stepsister. It's not a clone it's something else.' ( source)

I recognize that it's another generation. but that's not to say that I disapprove of them. It does do some things to the story that I wouldn't have done myself, and that I didn't do myself. 'I feel like I stand in an avuncular, grandfatherly relation to the Broadway play. He explains that both his novel and the subsequent musical are just two things in a long line of creative productions that inhabit the world of Oz. It came out in 2003 and it's still being performed all over the place, which isn't all that common for Broadway shows.īut author Gregory Maguire doesn't really mind that Wicked the novel is overshadowed by its musical adaptation. But the musical Wicked is a sort of pop cultural icon. Not to say that the novel hasn't done extremely well it's sold over 2.5 million copies since its publication in 1995. The same thing happens with Wicked the novel is kind of overshadowed by its own spinoff, in this case a Broadway musical entitled Wicked. Frank Baum's original novel, published in 1900 and entitled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. When people think of The Wizard of Oz, they probably think first of the classic 1939 movie starring Judy Garland, not L. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Introduction

Wicked the life and times of the wicked witch