The Up-To-Date Sorcerer

Synopsis

"The Up-to-Date Sorcerer" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the July 1958 issue of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1969 collection Nightfall and Other Stories. Requested and encouraged by editor Anthony Boucher, the story is a deliberate attempt by the author to write something humorous that incorporates Asimov's love of the complex yet logical plots of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It consists largely of a series of puns on their opera The Sorcerer. Quotes from Gilbert and Sullivan operas occur frequently in Asimov's stories; also in some of his verses explaining how he thinks up new plots for his stories. The words "up-to-date" in the title refer to the titles of musical burlesques of the 1880s and early 1890s like Faust up to date. In 1894, also, George Augustus Sala wrote a book called London Up to Date.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Book

Release date

January 1, 1958

Genres

science fiction

Created by

Isaac Asimov

Countries

United States