(Read from The Complete Stories of Oz)
Started: March 1, 2022
Finished: February 28, 2022
(This review is written using my new format for book reviews.)
Background Information
Originally published in 1917, this is the 11th book in the Oz series.
The Plot (***SPOILERS***)
Ozma, the princess of Oz, has disappeared, and nobody knows where she went.
Well, nothing to do but sent out a search party. Dorothy and her friends decide to go wandering through the land of Oz and hope that they bump into Ozma somewhere in their journey.
And along the way, they encounter many strange lands and strange creatures.
So, yes, this is another journey story in the Oz series. Most of the books are journey stories in which the characters go along the road, and encounter wacky adventures as they go.
This book is somewhat unique in that our primary group of adventurers are all old characters. Usually L. Frank Baum introduces several new characters to go on the journey, but this time it's all familiar faces: Dorothy, Toto, Button Bright, Trot, Hank the Mule, the Little Wizard, Woozy, Betsy Bobbin, the Cowardly Lion, the Saw Horse, and The Patchwork Girl all set out in one huge party.
It's a lot of characters to juggle in the narrative, but L. Frank Baum does a decent job of balancing them all out.
There is, however, a secondary plot, and in this secondary plot L. Frank Baum fills his usual quota of new characters. In the secondary plot, Cayke the Cookie Cook loses her magic cookie dishpan, and she sets out to find it with Frogman (a giant anthropomorphic frog), and along the way the are joined by Lavender Bear (the king of the teddy bears) and the magic Pink Bear.
Both groups converge near the end, and realize that their quests are one and the same (the same person who captured Ozma also stole the magic dishpan).
The Reading Experience / Evaluation
So, 11 books into the Oz series now, and what is there left to say? My comments about this book are going to be remarkably similar to my comments about all the other Oz books in the series.
On the negative side:
--There's no real plot development. The characters just wander around and stumble upon various things.
--The continuity in this series is inconsistent. There's a lot of things established in previous books that are contradicted in this one.
--Even within this book, there's some inconsistencies. (Can creatures die in the Land of Oz or not? This book seems to go back and forth on it.)
On the positive side:
--The characters are fun and delightfully wacky. And at this point in the series, we've now got a large ensemble of characters (most of which were introduced in previous books), so we've got a lot of fun characters to play around with.
--Some of the lands and creatures that are encountered along the way are fun to imagine.
Links
As always, I'm reliant on the analysis of Mari Ness. Her review of this book can be found here: Wandering in Fairyland: The Lost Princess of Oz.
To quote from parts of her review:
The Lost Princess of Oz is, at its heart, a tale of truth, deception and illusion, taking a subtle look at the methods used by rulers to maintain control. Nearly every ruler and authority figure in this book tells a lie of one kind or another, actively building a net of deception. Those who do not are oddly powerless. Throw in a classic quest story, a hint of mystery, and lessons on the differences between reality and illusion, and you have one of the better of the latter Oz books.
Oh, and a village of gun-toting teddy-bears. What’s not to love?
As you can see from the above quotation, Mari Ness picks up on a theme that (I admit) I did not pick up on when I read it. I read this book as just another typical Oz, but Mari Ness notes that there's a theme of deception and control throughout the book. And upon reflection, I think she's got a good point. To see her develop this argument further, read her full review.
Mari Ness also comments:
And indeed, this is the book where Toto finally starts talking.
The book is not without its flaws. I was displeased to see the return of the deux ex machina Magic Belt, especially given that every other magical item of Oz was stolen. So why not that one? The usual inconsistencies and minor detours abound, along with yet another example of how the Tin Woodman’s relentless focus on kindness can result in a potentially serious miscarriage of justice, as in Patchwork Girl. A side plot about Toto’s supposedly stolen growl gets annoying.
Yes, I agree.
As usual, I'm doing this book as a Buddy Reads with Dane. At the time of this writing, Dane hasn't posted his video review yet, but his written review is HERE:
After reading so many of the Oz books with Joel Swagman on YouTube, I was starting to feel a little jaded by the series. Luckily, this one brought things back up, although not quite to their former levels.I think part of that is because the last few books have just felt as though Baum was just shoehorning Oz in, rather than using the land and his original cast of characters to their full extent. The fact that this one centres on Dorothy and friends instead of just bringing them in at the end to say hello made for a much more engaging read.The plot itself was pretty interesting too, because it basically centred around a bunch of characters teaming up to try to track down Ozma, who’s gone missing. What’s not to like about that?All in all then, it’s restored my faith a little in what the Oz series has to offer, and I’m looking forward to finishing it off. Good times.
Odds and Ends
This has been a long time coming. It's been established since book 3 that any ordinary animal who enters the Land of Oz is able to talk. Of course the continuity in these books is famously loose, but this is a point that's come up over and over again: Billina the Hen, Hank the Mule, Jim the Horse, Eureka the Kitten. So eventually it became a bit glaring that Toto was the only animal who never talked.
It was then established in book 8 that Toto could talk, he just didn't want to. But L. Frank Baum apparently changed his mind on this, so in this book, Toto is talking just as much as the other characters.
It was then established in book 8 that Toto could talk, he just didn't want to. But L. Frank Baum apparently changed his mind on this, so in this book, Toto is talking just as much as the other characters.
After spending so much time with Toto as just a normal dog, it's a bit odd to see him talking all the time now. As Dane says, "I'm not sure whether I'm up for that!" It feels strange, but it's also new and interesting.
* This book gets an extra point from me for having an anthropomorphic frog as a main character.
I couldn't tell you why, but I always associate anthropomorphic frogs with delightfully charming children's stories. I guess it's just association from childhood--stories like The Wind in the Willows (and its Disney - adaptation), songs like Froggie Went A-Courting, Frog and Toad are Friends, etc.
Extended Quotation
From Chapter 10: Toto Loses Something
"I've lost my growl!" said Toto, who had been very silent and sober all that day. "What do you suppose has become of it?"
"I've lost my growl!" said Toto, who had been very silent and sober all that day. "What do you suppose has become of it?"
"If you had asked me to keep track of your growl, I might be able to tell you," remarked the Lion sleepily. "But, frankly, Toto, I supposed you were taking care of it yourself."
"It's an awful thing to lose one's growl," said Toto, wagging his tail disconsolately. "What if you lost your roar, Lion? Wouldn't you feel terrible?"
"My roar," replied the Lion, "is the fiercest thing about me. I depend on it to frighten my enemies so badly that they won't dare to fight me."
"Once," said the Mule, "I lost my bray, so that I couldn't call to Betsy to let her know I was hungry. That was before I could talk, you know, for I had not yet come into the Land of Oz, and I found it was certainly very uncomfortable not to be able to make a noise."
"You make enough noise now," declared Toto. "But none of you has answered my question: Where is my growl?"
"You may search me" said the Woozy. "I don't care for such things myself."
"You snore terribly," asserted Toto.
"It may be," said the Woozy. "What one does when asleep one is not accountable for. I wish you would wake me up, some time when I'm snoring, and let me hear the sound. Then I can judge whether it is terrible or delightful."
"It isn't pleasant, I assure you," said the Lion, yawning.
"To me it seems wholly unnecessary," declared Hank the Mule.
"You ought to break yourself of the habit," said the Sawhorse. "You never hear me snore, because I never sleep. I don't even whinny, as those puffy meat horses do. I wish that whoever stole Toto's growl had taken the Mule's bray and the Lion's roar and the Woozy's snore at the same time."
"Do you think, then, that my growl was stolen?"
"You have never lost it before, have you?" inquired the Sawhorse.
"Only once, when I had a sore throat from barking too long at the moon."
"Is your throat sore now?" asked the Woozy.
"No," replied the dog.
"I can't understand," said Hank, "why dogs bark at the moon. They can't scare the moon, and the moon doesn't pay any attention to the bark. So why do dogs do it?"
"Were you ever a dog?" asked Toto.
"No, indeed," replied Hank. "I am thankful to say I was created a mule—the most beautiful of all beasts—and have always remained one."
The Woozy sat upon his square haunches to examine Hank with care.
"Beauty," said he, "must be a matter of taste. I don't say your judgment is bad, friend Hank, or that you are so vulgar as to be conceited. But if you admire big waggly ears, and a tail like a paint-brush, and hoofs big enough for an elephant, and a long neck and a body so skinny that one can count the ribs with one eye shut—if that's your idea of beauty, Hank—then either you or I must be much mistaken."
"You're full of edges," sneered the Mule. "If I were square, as you are, I suppose you'd think me lovely."
"Outwardly, dear Hank, I would," replied the Woozy. "But to be really lovely one must be beautiful without and within."
The Mule couldn't deny this statement, so he gave a disgusted grunt and rolled over so that his back was toward the Woozy. But the Lion, regarding the two calmly with his great yellow eyes, said to the dog:
"My dear Toto, our friends have taught us a lesson in humility. If the Woozy and the Mule are indeed beautiful creatures, as they seem to think, you and I must be decidedly ugly."
****END QUOTATION****
I choose this quotation because it illustrates a number of things:
* It's a perfect illustration of how much Toto is talking now in this book.
* It's the introduction of one of the book's subplots about how Toto has lost his growl--a subplot that will be mentioned all throughout the remainder of the book, but will ultimately go nowhere. (I agree with Mari Ness that this subplot is one of the book's weaker points.)
* It's also a good example of how the main plot of this book will simply stop to allow the animals to talk to each other--L. Frank Baum has a lot of characters he's juggling on this journey, and to keep them from becoming superfluous, he frequently stops the plot to allow them to talk with each other. There are positives and negatives to this. (I admit to feeling some frustration during these sections.)
* Although speaking of Mari Ness, she actually sees these conversations as part of the book's larger theme about deception versus reality. "He’s not the only one who has to study deception versus reality. To find Ozma, Dorothy and the gang must learn the difference between illusion and reality, and the deceptiveness of appearances, as they move through a series of traps set by a sorcerer, and try to deduce Ozma’s location. In yet another twist on the theme, the Lavender Bear’s magic allows him to do illusions—illusions that show the truth. And the animals have several conversations about appearance versus reality as they argue over which of them—Hank, the Woozy, the Cowardly Lion, Toto or the Sawhorse—is the most beautiful."
As you can see from my links above, Mari Ness and Dane both rate this book as a better than average Oz story. I am tempted to just rate this as average. But upon reflection, it perhaps does have enough charming moments to push it just slightly above average. And it also has an anthropomorphic frog. 6 out of 10 it is.
March 6, 2022: p.1100-1112
March 13, 2022: p.1112-1136
Video Review (Playlist HERE)
No comments:
Post a Comment