Sunday, October 10, 2021

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

(Book Review--Land of Oz, Classics, Fantasy, Children's Books)  

Started: September 27, 2021
Finished: October 5, 2021
(This review is written using my new format for book reviews.)

My History With this Franchise

* I saw the movie on TV with my mother when I was very young.  (5? 6?)  I don't think I've ever seen it since then.
* The Disney film Return to Oz actually made more of an impression on me.  (It was shown on The Disney Channel in the 1980s.)
* I discovered The Marvelous Land of Oz in my aunt's old room when I was sleeping over at my grandparent's house one night, and I read it.  I recognized many of the characters in The Marvelous Land of Oz from Return to Oz.
* I've also seen the movie Oz The Great and Powerful 

Why I Wanted To Read This Book

Ever since I was an elementary school student, I've been aware that there was a long series of Oz books.  (My school library used to have several of them.)  And I was fascinated by the idea of a long running fantasy series.  But, aside from The Marvelous Land of Oz, I never bothered to read them.
I have this weird personality, where I'm interested in long running fantasy series in the abstract--I love the idea of a long running story and continually evolving fantasy world--but usually lack the patience to read through them.  So I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia reading about these series, but never actually getting down to reading them.  
This isn't just true with Oz, this is true with a lot of series.  That, plus, living abroad all these years has made it hard to track down and read a whole fantasy series in order.  
But then, in a bookstore in Saigon, I stumbled across The Complete Stories of Oz, a collection of the first 14 L. Frank Baum stories in the Oz series. (The series kept going after L. Frank Baum's death, so it's not the complete canonical stories of Oz--see Wikipedia HERE--but at least it's all the stories published by the original author.)  So I bought the book, and decided to set to work on it.
I initially was going to read the whole book and then review it as one collection.  But I ended up only reading the first 5 stories, and then getting stalled out in the middle of the 6th story.  So I abandoned the book in 2020 with the intent of coming back to it again, but starting from the beginning and reviewing each story separately.  I started it again in September, and here I am.

Summary of the Book

This is one of those books that really needs no summary.  Everyone knows the basic premise of this book already.
The basic plot of the book is similar to the movie.  It's a journey story in which our heroes encounter things along the way.  However, there are also a lot of differences from the movie.  For example, there are some more strange creatures and some more strange lands that are not included in the movie.
I'm tempted to list all the differences from the movie, but I've decided that this would just spoil the pleasure of the book.  Check it out for yourself, and discover what is different in the book.

The Reading Experience

The narration is in a very simple style--L. Frank Baum is consciously imitating fairy tales like The Brothers Grimm.  It's very easy to read, although at times I found the style a bit too simplistic, and my brain would switch off.  (Sometimes a more challenging style can help to keep you awake.)  
According to Wikipedia, the illustrations in this book have always been considered an important part of the reading experience, so it's unfortunate that my edition, The Complete Stories of Oz, doesn't contain any illustrations.  (I guess that's the trade-off for putting all 14 books in one volume--no room for pictures.)  I'm sure I missed out on a lot of the charm of the original illustrations, but the lack of illustrations didn't stop me from understanding the story.  (Although someday, I might consider doing a re-read of this series if I can track down volumes with proper illustrations.)

Extended Quotation

Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothy lying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were a long distance off, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in her country; so she blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck.
At once there came running to her from all directions a pack of great wolves. They had long legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth.
"Go to those people," said the Witch, "and tear them to pieces."
"Are you not going to make them your slaves?" asked the leader of the wolves.
"No," she answered, "one is of tin, and one of straw; one is a girl and another a Lion. None of them is fit to work, so you may tear them into small pieces."
"Very well," said the wolf, and he dashed away at full speed, followed by the others.
It was lucky the Scarecrow and the Woodman were wide awake and heard the wolves coming.
"This is my fight," said the Woodman, "so get behind me and I will meet them as they come."
He seized his axe, which he had made very sharp, and as the leader of the wolves came on the Tin Woodman swung his arm and chopped the wolf's head from its body, so that it immediately died. As soon as he could raise his axe another wolf came up, and he also fell under the sharp edge of the Tin Woodman's weapon. There were forty wolves, and forty times a wolf was killed, so that at last they all lay dead in a heap before the Woodman.  (from Chapter 12)
This quotation illustrates a couple of things very well:
1) The fairy tale esque style narration, as well as the fairy-tale logic at play during this story.  (I mean, obviously in the real world, the other 38 wolves would have torn the others apart while the Tin Woodman was still fighting the first couple, but this is fairy tale logic here.)
2) The high body count that is in this first book.  (Something that will not be true of the sequels, as L. Frank Baum will later change his mind about how he feels about death in Oz.  But we'll talk about the sequels on another day)

External Links

* I like Tor.com's reviews of all the books in this series.  I found their reviewer very smart and insightful.  See her review of this first book entitled: Fabulous Journeys: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
* My Booktuber friend Dane Reads reviewed this book back in 2018.  See his review HERE.  (Possibly Dane and I will be trying to do a read-along together of the following books, since he is also interested in finishing this series.)

Connections to Other Books I've Read

* According to Wikipedia, this book was influenced by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  
* L. Frank Baum mentions The Brothers Grimm as an inspiration in his introduction.  

Odds and Ends

Back in my college days, one of the guys in my college dormitory once went through a phase where he was reading up on articles about how "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was really an allegory for the gold standard.  The rest of us were a little skeptical, but he explained everything so well that we were half-convinced by the end of it.  Has anyone else ever heard this theory? 
In the years since, I've googled this on the Internet, and I think most of the evidence seems to point to the fact that it was never an allegory for anything.  And yet, the people who believe it was an allegory for the gold standard have so many interesting points that it's kind of fun to read up on this theory anyway.

I got into a Twitter discussion with an old college friend about this very point a couple years ago:



Also, Dane informs me that Tin doesn't rust


Rating:
6 out of 10 stars.  (A very easy and light book to read, but something that is obviously a book that is more for children's sensibilities than for adults'.)

October 3, 2020 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum p.1-54
October 10, 2021 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum p.54-96

Video Review (Playlist HERE)


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