The Story of the Amulet(1906) is a children's fantasy novel by English
writer Edith Nesbit. The final book in Nesbit's beloved Psammead
Trilogy--which also includes Five Children and It (1902) and The
Phoenix and the Carpet (1904)--The Story of the Amulet is a tale of
time travel, adventure, and the power of imagination. Described by
American critic Gore Vidal as "a story of considerable beauty," The
Story of the Amulet follows a group of children who use the powers of
an Egyptian artifact to travel through time in order to bring their
family back together.
Siblings Robert, Anthea, Cyril, and Jane live in central London with an
old Nurse named Mrs. Green and her boarder, an Egyptologist named Jimmy.
Their father, a war correspondent, has traveled to Manchuria for work,
while their mother has taken their youngest brother to the Madeira
islands off the coast of Portugal in order to recover from an illness.
One day, the children go to the markets near the British Museum, where
strange and rare objects are sold daily. There, they find their old
friend "It," the sand fairy known as the Psammead, who has been captured
and is up for sale as an exotic monkey. The children free It, who
advises them to purchase a magical Egyptian amulet with the power of
time travel. Hoping to use the amulet to reunite their family, the
children journey across time to such places as Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, and
ancient England in search of the missing piece that will allow them to
fulfill their wish.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet is a classic of
English children's literature reimagined for modern readers.