Wicked (Maguire novel) Wicked (Maguire novel) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a novel published in 1995 written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. It is a revisionist exploration of the characters and land of Oz from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", its sequels, and the 1939 film adaption "The Wizard of Oz". Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not for children; it contains adult language and content, including violent imagery and sexual situations. The novel presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was exposed to many people, so the inspiration for the story could have been taken from many different aspects of his life. In the introduction to the story, Baum writes that "it aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out." This is one of the explanations that he gives for the inspiration for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Baum, a former salesman of china, wrote in chapter 20 about china that had sprung to life. The original illustrator of the novel, W. W. Denslow, could