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55-741: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is an American novel published in 1995, written by Gregory Maguire with illustrations by Douglas Smith. It is the first in The Wicked Years series, and was followed by Son of a Witch (published in September 2005), A Lion Among Men (published in October 2008), and Out of Oz (published in November 2011). Wicked is

110-445: A convent . Seven years later, she visits Fiyero's family at their castle, Kiamo Ko, in hopes of gaining their forgiveness. She brings along a boy named Liir, her son by Fiyero. Fiyero's family allow her to stay as their guest, but his wife Sarima refuses to hear her apology. While there, Elphaba begins to study sorcery and gains a reputation as a witch . Elphaba's father asks for her help with her sister Nessarose, who has also become

165-541: A bad name, how much of that would you internalize? How much of that would you say, all right, go ahead, I'll be everything that you call me because I have no capacity to change your minds anyway so why bother. By whose standards should I live? He was also inspired by the 1993 murder of James Bulger , in which both victim and perpetrators were young children. Everyone was asking: how could those boys be so villainous? Were they born evil or were there circumstances that pushed them towards behaving like that? It propelled me back to

220-551: A bucket of water on her to save her. Instead, the water (which Elphaba is allergic to) melts her away. Dorothy returns to the Wizard with a green bottle, which he recognizes as the potion he used to drug Melena years earlier. He hastily departs the Emerald City for his own world mere hours before a coup would have overthrown and killed him. The book ends with political chaos reigning over Oz. According to author Maguire, Wicked

275-493: A darker and more adult-themed revisionist exploration of the characters and setting of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum , its sequels, and the 1939 film adaptation . It is presented as a biography of the Wicked Witch of the West , here given the name "Elphaba". The book follows Elphaba from her birth through her social ostracism, school years, radicalization , and final days. Maguire shows

330-662: A local orphanage when he was six months old. He was reclaimed from the orphanage at age two, after his father's remarriage. Maguire has three half-siblings from his father's second marriage. Schooled in Catholic institutions through high school, he received a BA in English and art from the State University of New York at Albany , an MA in children's literature from Simmons College , and a PhD in English and American literature from Tufts University . His doctoral thesis

385-500: A newspaper that chronicled the city's political, financial and cultural elites, frequently referred to New York as the "Emerald City." In 1987, David Williamson —whose brother-in-law scripted the musical film Oz (1976)—wrote the play Emerald City in which the character Elaine Ross describes Sydney metaphorically as "the Emerald City of Oz." Sydney is where people go expecting their dreams to be fulfilled only to end up with superficial substitutes and broken dreams. In 2006,

440-554: A plain, subsuming unto itself much of the Midwestern creative aspiration so that it becomes the Garden of the West that has long struggled in its prairies. This interpretation focused on the affirmative descriptions of the city, which reveal the benefits and rewards of the new culture, particularly urban abundance and the economy of consumption . More recently it has been speculated that the name “Emerald City” may be referring to

495-444: A political allegory see the Emerald City as a metaphor for Washington, D.C. , and unsecured " greenback " paper money. In this reading of the book, the city's illusory splendor and value are compared with the value of fiat money , which also has value only because of a shared illusion or convention . Here, Dorothy gains entry to the Emerald City (Washington, D.C.) wearing the witch's silver slippers (the silver standard ) and taking

550-479: A quick emotional reaction from young readers. Wondering whom to write about, he envisioned the Wicked Witch of the West, as played by Margaret Hamilton in the MGM film, delivering her iconic line, "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!" Maguire had a lifelong fascination with The Wizard of Oz , both Baum's original novel and the film, which he watched every year during its annual broadcast. He decided to tell

605-469: A storm visits Munchkinland, dropping a farmhouse on Nessarose and killing her. The farmhouse's passengers are a little girl named Dorothy Gale and her little dog, Toto . Elphaba and Glinda reunite for the first time in years shortly after Nessarose's death. Upon learning Glinda sent Dorothy off with Nessarose's shoes, for fear of their power igniting a civil war in Munchkinland, Elphaba is furious, as

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660-502: A student at Shiz University, where the murder of her favorite professor, Dr. Dillamond, inspires her to join the cause of Animal rights. As the story progresses, she deepens her commitment to her cause, becoming a political exile for her beliefs. Wicked is on its face a revisionist parallel novel for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . The Independent compared it to Wide Sargasso Sea and Wild Wood as part of "a fascinating sub-genre of novels that revisit well-known stories as much in

715-410: A witch and has taken Elphaba's hereditary position as ruler of Munchkinland . Tired of being used as a pawn in other people's agendas and having no interest in ruling, Elphaba instead renounces her claim. Nessarose promises to give Elphaba her enchanted silver shoes after she dies. When Elphaba returns to Kiamo Ko, she discovers the Wizard's troops have taken Fiyero's family prisoner. Seven years later,

770-492: A wonderfully spontaneous world of fantasy into a lugubrious allegorical realm, in which everything and everyone is labeled with a topical name tag." In 2003, the novel was adapted as the Broadway musical Wicked by composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and librettist Winnie Holzman . The musical was produced by Universal Pictures and directed by Joe Mantello , with musical staging by Wayne Cilento . The Broadway production

825-579: Is destined to become Glinda . While at Shiz, the two girls discover that Oz is rife with political tension. Headmistress and Ozian power broker Madame Morrible suggests that Elphaba and Glinda work for her from behind the scenes to help stabilize the political situation in Oz. Preferring more direct action, Elphaba and Glinda travel to the Emerald City , where they meet the Wizard and plead their case. When

880-451: Is primarily about identifying with someone who is ostracized. The Gazette called Wicked "a cautionary tale...about what happens when we as a society decide to label anyone who differs from the norm as evil." Prior to writing Wicked , Maguire became interested in examining the nature of evil from the perspective of someone considered evil. He noted that while Baum had deliberately avoided using traditional fairy tale characters in writing

935-436: Is yet another " humbug " created by the Wizard . One scene of the Emerald City is of particular note in the development of Oz: Dorothy sees rows of shops that sell green articles of every variety and a vendor who sells green lemonade that children buy with green pennies. This contrasts with the later description of Oz, in which money does not feature. Interpreters have argued that the Wizard may have introduced money into

990-897: The New York Times bestseller list . Maguire met American painter Andy Newman in 1997 at the Blue Mountain Center, an artists' and writers' colony. Within a month of meeting, they had fallen in love. They adopted three children: Luke and Alex, originally from Cambodia , and Helen, originally from Guatemala . Maguire and Newman were married in June 2004, shortly after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. They have lived in Concord, Massachusetts since 1999. On April 13, 2009, Maguire and his family were featured on Oprah . Emerald City Located in

1045-666: The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia building on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, at Circular Quay . The firm was named after Baum's book and the David Williamson play. Fittingly, the word "Oz" can refer to "Australia" in colloquial Australian speech. A long-running gossip column in the Sydney Morning Herald , the city's flagship newspaper, is named "Emerald City." Muntinlupa is nicknamed as

1100-479: The Yellow Brick Road (the gold standard ). There, she met the Wizard ( President William McKinley ), whose power was eventually revealed to be an illusion. There are also scholars who interpret the Emerald City as a benevolent vision of America with its new priorities and values that emerged with the onset of the industrial order . Some claim, for instance, that it is 1890s Chicago , which rose on

1155-647: The first one released on November 22, 2024 and the second part to be released on November 22, 2025. In March 2025, William Morrow Paperbacks will publish the first volume of a graphic novel adaptation of Wicked , with illustrations by Scott Hampton . Gregory Maguire Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked , Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister , and several dozen other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are inspired by classic children's stories. Maguire published his first novel, The Lightning Time , in 1978. Wicked , published in 1995,

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1210-472: The second film expected in November 2025. Maguire began contemplating the nature of evil while living in London in the early 1990s. He noticed that while the problem of evil had been explored from many different perspectives, those perspectives were seldom synthesized together. He wondered whether calling a person evil might be enough to cause a self-fulfilling prophecy . If everyone was always calling you

1265-632: The "Emerald City of the Philippines " by the Department of Tourism . In Gregory Maguire 's revisionist Oz novels, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) and Son of a Witch (2005), the Emerald City is a much darker place than in Baum's novels. It does have splendid palaces and gardens, but sections are also beset by crime and poverty . Son of a Witch introduces Southstairs, an extensive political prison located in

1320-550: The Emerald City, and the region has been known as the "Emerald Empire" as early as 1928. Greenville, North Carolina is called the Emerald City by locals and tourists alike. The city has an art loop in the uptown district that is called the emerald loop, and on New Years Eve, the city drops an Emerald in the Town Common Park. Peter Kaplan , a media icon and the former editor of the New York Observer ,

1375-594: The Gale Force, which uses violence to carry out his totalitarian agenda. Elphaba similarly uses terrorism to combat them, though she shies away from targeting children. A lifelong Catholic, Maguire remembered the nuns who taught in the Catholic schools of his boyhood home of Albany, New York . He admired their sense of purpose and dedication to their cause, saying that their integrity and inscrutability made them witches in his mind. Elphaba discovers her own purpose as

1430-515: The Land of Oz itself, changing what he saw as an insular, parochial world into one where different groups and their political agendas intersect and overlap. Wicked received mostly positive reviews. Publishers Weekly called it a "fantastical meditation on good and evil, God and free will" which combined "puckish humor and bracing pessimism." Kirkus Reviews called it "A captivating, funny, and perceptive look at destiny, personal responsibility, and

1485-666: The White City. Denslow was familiar with the exposition as he had been hired to sketch and document it for the Chicago Times . Likewise, the quick building of the real-life White City, in less than a year, may have contributed to the quick construction of the Emerald City in the first book. Others believe Baum may have based his description of the city on the Hotel del Coronado , where he supposedly did much of his writing. Scholars who interpret The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as

1540-497: The Wicked Witch's life story using the same large scale and broad moral messages found in the novels of Charles Dickens . In the Land of Oz , a minister's wife, Melena Thropp, gives birth to a daughter, Elphaba. Elphaba has green skin, sharp teeth, a savage demeanor, and a fear of water. The story details Elphaba's difficult childhood before flashing forward to show her at Shiz University with her social climbing roommate Galinda, who

1595-520: The Wizard dismisses their concerns, Elphaba takes matters into her own hands. She goes into hiding and joins an underground terrorist group working out of the Emerald City. Five years later, Elphaba reconnects with former schoolmate Prince Fiyero, now married with three children, and the two begin an illicit affair. Fiyero is caught in Elphaba's hideout and arrested by the Wizard's secret police force. Blaming herself for his capture, Elphaba takes refuge in

1650-467: The Wizard had usurped the crown of Pastoria , the former king of the city, and from the Wizard the crown had passed to him. The book quickly concerns itself with finding the rightful heir to the crown of the city. Princess Ozma remained the king's heir, though both she and the original king were transformed to the ruler of all Oz. The story reverted to the Wizard's having built the city in Dorothy and

1705-643: The Wizard in Oz (1908), with the four witches having usurped the king's power before the Wizard's arrival. The only allusions to the original conception of Emerald City among the Oz sequels appeared in The Road to Oz (1909), where the Little Guardian of the Gates wears green spectacles—though he is the only character to do so. The Emerald City of Oz (1910), the sixth book in the Oz series , describes

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1760-598: The annual Sydney New Year's Eve was entitled "A Diamond Night in Emerald City", where the "Diamond Night" alluded to the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge . Subsequently, "Emerald City" has occasionally been used as an unofficial nickname for the City of Sydney. The head office of the Sydney-based merchant banking and private equity firm Emerald Partners is located on top of

1815-434: The caves below the Emerald City. The green glasses worn by the citizens are often used as a way to stop them from seeing what is going on around them. The video game Emerald City Confidential (2009) portrays the Emerald City as a film noir place with private detectives, widespread corruption, mob bosses, smugglers, and crooked lawyers. Set 40 years after the events of The Wizard of Oz , its described as "Oz, seen through

1870-648: The center of the Land of Oz, the Emerald City is the end of the famous yellow brick road , which begins in Munchkin Country . In the center of the Emerald City is the Royal Palace of Oz. The Oz books generally describe the city as being built of green glass, emeralds , and other jewels. In the earlier books, it was described as completely green . However, in later works, green was merely the predominant color while buildings were also decorated with gold, and people added other colors to their costumes. In

1925-489: The characters are required to wear the glasses at first, but, contrast to the preceding Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), halfway through the book, no more eyeglasses appear and no more mention is made of the brilliance, but the city is still described as green. This is continued throughout the series. Although at one point the character Tip describes the city as being built by the Wizard, the Scarecrow later explains that

1980-458: The child of two different worlds and thus destined never to fit in anywhere. When Dorothy and her friends arrive at Kiamo Ko, she tells Elphaba that while the Wizard sent her with orders to "kill the Wicked Witch of the West," Dorothy came to apologize for killing Nessarose. Furious that Dorothy is asking for the forgiveness she herself has been denied, Elphaba waves her burning broom in the air and inadvertently sets her skirt on fire. Dorothy throws

2035-488: The city as having exactly 9,654 buildings and 57,318 citizens. Baum may have been partly inspired in his creation of the Emerald City by the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, nicknamed the "White City," which he visited frequently, having moved to Chicago in anticipation of the event. W. W. Denslow , who illustrated the original Oz book, also incorporated elements that may have been inspired by

2090-458: The city of Seattle , Washington . This is incorrect as the American city gained its “Emerald City” nickname in 1982, over 80 years after the publication of Baum's first book. The City of Seattle has used "The Emerald City" as its official nickname since 1982. There is also a drink known as "Emerald City" that is associated with the city of Seattle. Eugene, Oregon is also referred to as

2145-421: The city, but this is not in the text itself. In this book, the Wizard also describes the city as having been built for the Wizard within a few years after he arrived. It was he who decreed that everyone in the Emerald City must wear green eyeglasses, since the first thing he noticed about Oz after he landed in his hot air balloon was how green and pleasant the land was. In The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904),

2200-404: The first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), the walls are green, but the city itself is not. However, when they enter, everyone in the Emerald City is made to wear green-tinted spectacles . This is explained as an effort to protect their eyes from the "brightness and glory" of the city, but in effect makes everything appear green when it is, in fact, "no more green than any other city". This

2255-547: The not-always-clashing beliefs of faith and magic." Library Journal recommended the book to "good readers who like satire, and love exceedingly imaginative and clever fantasy." The Los Angeles Times favorably compared Wicked with other "fantasy novels of ideas" such as Gormenghast and Dune . The New York Times was a notable outlier, criticizing the novel's strident politics and moral relativism. Reviewer Michiko Kakutani argued that Maguire "shows little respect for Baum's original story." Wicked , she felt, "turns

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2310-532: The original novel, the Wicked Witch of the West was the sole exception, being depicted as the stereotypical "witch in her castle" figure, with wickedness her single defining character trait. The novel raises the question of whether evil is inborn or acquired . Elphaba is a social outcast despite being of noble birth, which makes her question how much power she truly has over her own life. Writing for The American Experience , Rebecca Onion called Wicked "an extended meditation on power and politics." Maguire has noted

2365-492: The question of evil that bedevils anybody raised Catholic . Up to that point strictly a children's author, Maguire had difficulty finding an effective way to write about evil, since in his mind, there were no truly evil characters in children's literature. In what he later described as "the one great revelation of my life," Maguire realized that there were in fact villains in children's books; however, they were usually written as one-dimensional stock characters in order to provoke

2420-437: The rights to ABC to make an independent non-musical TV adaptation of Wicked . It would not be based on Winnie Holzman 's script. On January 9, 2011, Entertainment Weekly reported that ABC would be teaming up with Salma Hayek and her production company to create a TV miniseries of Wicked based solely on Maguire's novel. The miniseries never entered production. In September 2010, Filmshaft disclosed that Universal Pictures

2475-500: The shoes were rightfully hers. Elphaba meets with the Wizard to beg for the release of Fiyero and his family. The Wizard explains that he has killed them all except for Fiyero's daughter Nor, whom he keeps as a slave. He explains that he comes from a different world and is not bound by the laws of Oz. After the unsuccessful meeting, Elphaba learns from the Time Dragon Clock that the Wizard is her biological father, making her

2530-424: The similarities between the words "wicked" and " Hitler ," calling it "no accident" that he chose this title for his book. He recalled reading a newspaper headline in 1991 comparing Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler and feeling firsthand the emotional power of propaganda. Maguire "set out to examine the language and propaganda used to marshal brute force against individuals or minorities that might have been opposed to

2585-461: The spirit of criticism as homage." While previous authors had accepted the existing moral framework of the Oz stories, Wicked showed affection for the originals while simultaneously questioning everything they stood for. Maguire presents a sympathetic view of a villainous character by detailing her life story and helping the reader understand how "an innocent if rather green and biting child" can become "a still moralistic terrorist." He also transformed

2640-463: The traditionally villainous character in a sympathetic light, using her journey to explore the problem of evil and the nature versus nurture debate, as well as themes of terrorism, propaganda, and existential purpose. In 2003, it was adapted as the Tony Award -winning Broadway musical Wicked , in-turn adapted into a two-part feature film, with the first film released in November 2024 and

2695-420: The war." In the book, one major plank of the Wizard's agenda involves the subjugation of sentient Animals and Madame Morrible promotes this idea using a type of moralistic poem called a "quell." Elphaba instantly sees the propaganda for what it is. Tor noted that terrorism , committed both by and against the state, plays a major role in the second half of the book. The Wizard keeps an SS -like secret police ,

2750-413: Was beginning work on a film adaptation of the stage musical. In December 2012, following the success of Les Misérables , Marc Platt , also a producer of the stage version, announced the film was going ahead, later confirming the film was aiming for a 2016 release. Universal announced in 2016 that the film would be released in theaters on December 22, 2021, with Stephen Daldry directing. After production

2805-566: Was co-director for twenty-five years. He has lived in Dublin, London, and the greater Boston area. In 1995, Maguire published his first adult novel, Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West . Though the novel was initially unsuccessful, it sold 500,000 copies by the time the Broadway adaptation opened in 2003. In 2005, ten years after its publication, Wicked spent 26 weeks on

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2860-617: Was followed by long-running productions in Chicago, London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in the United States, as well as Germany and Japan. It was nominated for ten Tony Awards , winning three, and is the 4th longest-running Broadway show in history, with over 7,400 performances. The original Broadway production starred Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. In a 2009 interview, Maguire stated that he had sold

2915-585: Was his first novel for adults. It was adapted into a popular Broadway musical in 2003. Maguire is married to American painter Andy Newman, in one of the first same-sex marriages performed in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. They have three children. Born and raised in Albany, New York , Gregory Maguire is the youngest of four children born to Helen and John Maguire. His mother died from complications suffered giving birth to him, which prompted his father to send him to live with an aunt. His aunt relinquished him to

2970-550: Was on children's fantasy written from 1938 to 1989. In 1978, at the age of 25, Maguire published his first novel, The Lightning Time . Around the same time, he began to realize he was gay. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979 to 1986. In 1987, Maguire co-founded a nonprofit educational charity, Children's Literature New England, Inc., and

3025-602: Was shut down during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic , Daldry left the production due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by Jon M. Chu . Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were cast as Elphaba and Galinda, respectively, with rehearsals set to begin in July 2022. Michelle Yeoh was announced for the Madame Morrible role in December 2022. In April 2022, it was announced that the film will be released in two parts, with

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