Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Pages: 150
Finished: January 29, 2017
First Sentence: Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife.
Summary: A cyclone whisks Dorothy away from her Kansas life and drops her in the magical land of Oz. Of course, the little girl wishes to go home right away, but to do so, she must travel to the Emerald City and speak to the Wizard. Along they way she makes many friends and overcomes many great obstacles.
Thoughts: I've reviewed this once before, and my thoughts are similar to what I thought then. I appreciate the book for what it is, but as my first experience was the wonderful movie/musical version, I have a hard time reconciling the two.
Perhaps it is the fact that this book is so child oriented. Baum himself adds in the introduction that Fairy Tales have changed, and so this is a fairytale "in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out." It shows. The nightmares, when encountered, are very watered down, last incredibly short amounts of time, and are overcome so very quickly. The Wicked Witch of the West is extremely disappointing to me. I suppose Baum didn't want to make her too scary, but it left her to be a dry husk of a villain.
I also find the people of Oz to be rather too trusting and a bit dim. It seems a lot can be carried by rumor and no one tries to prove that rumor right or wrong. But that might be a modern way of looking at the book.
I did like that the flying monkeys were slaves to the owner of the cap and had rules on how often they could be used.
Some things to mention here as, if I recall correctly, the books suffer from some continuity issues:
The Scarecrow is set to rule Oz at the end of the book.
The Tin Man rules the Winkies at the end of the book.
The Lion becomes King of the Beasts in a Quadling forest.
You're right, the Wicked Witch was a little bit of a letdown, as far as beings scary goes.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the rest of the series (or if I have it was so long ago that I can't remember a thing), so I'm interested in the continuity errors you're talking about. Something for me to keep an eye out for!
Thanks for exploring Oz along with us. :)
I'm excited to read these again. I've made it partially through the series many times and finished it once about 12 years ago (though that number is hard to believe...) Hopefully reading at the pace of one a month will keep me interested!
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