[作者简介] 李曼•弗兰克•鲍姆（L. Frank Baum，1856-1919），你可能一时想不起他是谁，但是一提到他的代表作《绿野仙踪》（The Wonderful Wizard of Oz），你肯定会如雷贯耳。 除了《绿野仙踪》，弗兰克•鲍姆还创作了包括《鹅妈妈故事集》、《美国童话故事集》等广受欢迎的作品。而除了作家，弗兰克•鲍姆还曾做过报纸编辑、演员和独立电影的电影监制。 [内容简介] 《万能钥匙》（The Master Key）是弗兰克•鲍姆的另一部科幻童话代表作，曾被评为“二十世纪二十年代最受读者欢迎图书”。 该作品的主人公是一个叫罗伯特的小男孩。罗伯特是一个电气科学爱好者，有一天，为了让一座纸板房子亮起来，他全凭想象地把各种电线连在一起。突然，随着一道刺眼的亮光，出现了一个自称为“电精灵”（Demon of Electricity）的生物。“电精灵”告诉罗伯特，他在无意中触碰到了“电之万能钥匙”（Master Key of Electricity），为此，罗伯特可以连续三周从他那要求三件礼物。罗伯特说，他不知道要什么礼物好，让“电精灵”自己决定要送给他什么礼物…… “电精灵”会送给罗伯特什么礼物呢？故事该会怎么发展呢？ 在书的开始，弗兰克•鲍姆写了一小篇题为《谁知道呢？》（Who Knows?）的小序，他说： These things are quite improbable, to be sure; but are they impossible? Our big world rolls over as smoothly as it did centuries ago, without a squeak to show it needs oiling after all these years of revolution. But times change because men change, and because civilization, like John Brown's soul, goes ever marching on. The impossibilities of yesterday become the accepted facts of to-day. Here is a fairy tale founded upon the wonders of electricity and written for children of this generation. Yet when my readers shall have become men and women my story may not seem to their children like a fairy tale at all. Perhaps one, perhaps two—perhaps several of the Demon's devices will be, by that time, in popular use. Who knows? 全文字数：35,044 试译字数：534 如果你希望看到自己喜欢的公共版权图书的中译本，欢迎推荐图书选题：g.yeeyan.org