Conjure Wife
#6723.79 adjusted 3.84 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 1943 Reading commitment Low Fritz Leiber Last reviewed 2026-09-05
Overview
A standalone dark-fantasy novel: a small-college sociology professor discovers that his wife has secretly been protecting his career with witchcraft -- and that every faculty wife on campus is quietly doing the same. Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife was first published as a novella in the pulp magazine Unknown Worlds in April 1943, then expanded for its first standalone book edition a decade later in 1953. The novel treats academic career politics as a hidden battlefield of competing domestic witchcraft, with the professor's rationalist skepticism increasingly undermined as he is forced to reckon with the reality of what his wife and her rivals can do. It received a 1944 Retro Hugo Award nomination and has been adapted for film multiple times, most notably as Weird Woman (1944) and Burn, Witch, Burn (1962), extending its influence well beyond its original pulp publication.
Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Conjure Wife (1943) core · 3.79 (2,913 ratings); First published as a novella in Unknown Worlds (April 1943); expanded and published as a standalone book by Twayne Publishers in 1953, the edition now generally read. Per this project's print-edition-first convention, the true first PRINT edition (the 1953 Twayne book) is the recorded first edition; the 1943 magazine publication is the recorded original-publication year.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Conjure Wife? Conjure Wife's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Conjure Wife finished? Complete (1943).
- How much reading does Conjure Wife take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~210 pages).
- How is Conjure Wife ranked? #672 in this site's official ranking, based on 2,913 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #672?
Ranked #672 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.79 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (2,913 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.04 behind #671, Un Lun Dun.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 1 book · Complete · 3k ratings · Ranks #672 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Retro Hugo Award (Best Novel), 1944: won: Conjure Wife; Awarded retroactively in 2019 for the 1944 Hugo year (covering works first published in 1943), verified directly against the Hugo Award's own official announcement, not a secondary summary.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.79 across 2,913 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit Conjure Wife (Fritz Leiber) accepted 2026-09-05
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-09-05
Rule: Core Canon = the single novel; a complete, self-contained work with no sequel or further installments.