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Wizards: An Amazing Journey Through the Last Great Age of Magic
A fascinating journey from the days of dried newts and powdered worms to the discoveries of modern physics.
Wizards takes us back to the 1500s and 1600s, when real live sorcerers read the future in crystal balls, when villagers cast spells on their neighbors—when the magical arts were a normal part of everyday life.
Meet 12-year-old Isaac Newton. The year is 1655, and Isaac is boarding with a family that runs an apothecary shop in Grantham, England. Here, he learns to mix his own healing potions and marvels at the secret powers of nutmeg and dried newts. In this atmosphere of magic and mystery, the determined schoolboy sets out to master the hidden powers that make the world work. He’s determined to learn the art of wizardry.
Isaac’s quest takes him deep into the heart of the Great Age of Magic—into the world of sorcerers conjuring cloaks of invisibility, wizards divining the future and alchemists searching for the philosopher's stone.
In 1693, now a famous scientist and mathematician, he has already pushed the world into the Scientific Revolution and turned it upside down with his theory of gravity. Does his quest to learn the art of wizardry lead Isaac Newton from sorcery to science?
Wizards takes us back to the 1500s and 1600s, when real live sorcerers read the future in crystal balls, when villagers cast spells on their neighbors—when the magical arts were a normal part of everyday life.
Meet 12-year-old Isaac Newton. The year is 1655, and Isaac is boarding with a family that runs an apothecary shop in Grantham, England. Here, he learns to mix his own healing potions and marvels at the secret powers of nutmeg and dried newts. In this atmosphere of magic and mystery, the determined schoolboy sets out to master the hidden powers that make the world work. He’s determined to learn the art of wizardry.
Isaac’s quest takes him deep into the heart of the Great Age of Magic—into the world of sorcerers conjuring cloaks of invisibility, wizards divining the future and alchemists searching for the philosopher's stone.
In 1693, now a famous scientist and mathematician, he has already pushed the world into the Scientific Revolution and turned it upside down with his theory of gravity. Does his quest to learn the art of wizardry lead Isaac Newton from sorcery to science?
80 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2000
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37 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 28, 2016
Wizards: An Amazing Journey Through the Last Great Age of Magic is an intriguing, albeit brief, history of natural magic, the dark arts, divination, astrology, and alchemy.
Though the title suggests the book will explore several wizards, the author focuses almost entirely on Sir Isaac Newton:
[Sir Isaac Newton's] secrets remained safe until 1936, when a chest full of his private writings turned up for sale at an auction and were finally made available to the public. When news got around that the great Sir Isaac Newton had been an alchemist, many people were deeply shocked.
The author goes on to explore Newton's life, introducing various methods of practicing magic while charting his journey from boy to man.
What makes the book so alluring is the author's non-fiction approach to wizards and magic. She employs prose that ignites wonder and whimsy:
[The shop] was a treasure house of wonders from around the world. One wall was lined with drawers full of gray-green herbs - chamomile, sage, and thyme - that filled the air with the dusty smell of summer. Beside them were jars of spices from the distant Orient that gave off the sweet, exotic perfume of cloves and cinnamon.
A pinch of cumin seeds - ordinary, ridged, brown seeds - could be slipped into a potion to make people fall in love. A spoonful of powdered emeralds (bright as a twinkling eye) had the power to improve a person's eyesight.
The book is packed with illustrations that further engage the imagination: a bearded man peering at a flask glowing gold, a hunched wizard gazing into a crystal ball, a teacup tipped so its tea leaves can be read, walls lined with glittering bottles, jars marked 'Elixer of Peace' and 'Financial Extract.' It's enough to make one want to run off to the forest and start an apothecary.
The book closes by portraying the shift from the Age of Magic to the Age of Science, noting that while science took the lead, magic can still be found:
Even today, magical ideas are all around us, in stories, in music, in art - in our sense that the natural world is brimming with secrets.
Though the title suggests the book will explore several wizards, the author focuses almost entirely on Sir Isaac Newton:
[Sir Isaac Newton's] secrets remained safe until 1936, when a chest full of his private writings turned up for sale at an auction and were finally made available to the public. When news got around that the great Sir Isaac Newton had been an alchemist, many people were deeply shocked.
The author goes on to explore Newton's life, introducing various methods of practicing magic while charting his journey from boy to man.
What makes the book so alluring is the author's non-fiction approach to wizards and magic. She employs prose that ignites wonder and whimsy:
[The shop] was a treasure house of wonders from around the world. One wall was lined with drawers full of gray-green herbs - chamomile, sage, and thyme - that filled the air with the dusty smell of summer. Beside them were jars of spices from the distant Orient that gave off the sweet, exotic perfume of cloves and cinnamon.
A pinch of cumin seeds - ordinary, ridged, brown seeds - could be slipped into a potion to make people fall in love. A spoonful of powdered emeralds (bright as a twinkling eye) had the power to improve a person's eyesight.
The book is packed with illustrations that further engage the imagination: a bearded man peering at a flask glowing gold, a hunched wizard gazing into a crystal ball, a teacup tipped so its tea leaves can be read, walls lined with glittering bottles, jars marked 'Elixer of Peace' and 'Financial Extract.' It's enough to make one want to run off to the forest and start an apothecary.
The book closes by portraying the shift from the Age of Magic to the Age of Science, noting that while science took the lead, magic can still be found:
Even today, magical ideas are all around us, in stories, in music, in art - in our sense that the natural world is brimming with secrets.
January 24, 2016
Wizards takes us back to the 1500s and 1600s, when real live sorcerers read the future in crystal balls, when villagers cast spells on their neighbours, when the magical arts were a normal part of everyday life and when real live boys studied to become wizards-including Sir Isaac Newton, the great mathematician and scientist.
July 26, 2025
7/25/25: I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this. It looks like a picture book, which is fantastic, there are lots and lots of very interesting pictures. But it isn't a picture book, it is long, there is a ton of writing, and it is a history book. I'm not entirely sure the intended audience of this book. Maybe some older elementary school students who are interested in the topic? Not sure. I did enjoy what I got, I was just very surprised that this is essentially a history of science going through the early days when things like chemistry and physics were looked on as magic. It focuses mostly on Isaac Newton's story from child to adult if you are looking for just one person. Otherwise, it is a look at how people relied on "magic" until they understood how things worked more - or how magic helped the science community think of things in new ways. Again, not at all what I was expecting, but not bad either. I would give this a 3.5 rounded down for Goodreads.
August 15, 2016
What can I say? This is just the history and it is true that these "Wizards" became the initial inventors of many aspects of science and maths. And so also Isaac Newton one of them even caused quite a shock in the establishment after his death. But here is the thing - most scientists now have thrown out all forms of superstition, religion, faith, magic and alchemy out of the window - in a sense denying there roots! And I wonder by myself where will science end becoming all inhuman and anti-spirit and anti-god, anti religion and hide behind the comfortable excuse when something is unexplainable and not rational - we don't know but we reject whatever and we will eventually find out...I think in many ways science is the new religion. The same worshipful tendencies and excitement amongst for example followers of Popular Mechanics and other science magazines etc. Then the other extreme what is science going to deduce from what the modern day wizards, church leaders, religions etc. is experiencing. Taken that initially science came from there, where will the new science then go if the same would happen?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews