The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
22 chapters
4.00from 524,317 ratingson Goodreads
A cyclone carries a Kansas farmhouse, with Dorothy and her dog inside it, into a country of witches, and drops it on one of them. To get home she must walk the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and ask the Wizard, and she picks up on the way a scarecrow, a tin woodman and a lion, each convinced he is missing the one thing he plainly has.
About the book
Published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz follows Dorothy, a Kansas girl swept away by a cyclone with her dog Toto. Her arrival in the Land of Oz begins a journey towards the Emerald City, where she hopes the Wizard can send her home. Along the road she meets the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion, each seeking something he believes he lacks. L. Frank Baum presents a self-contained American fairy-tale world filled with witches, strange peoples and changing landscapes. Beneath the episodic adventures runs a simple pattern: the travellers repeatedly demonstrate qualities they do not recognise in themselves while depending on friendship and cooperation to continue.
Characters
Dorothy — Protagonist
A practical Kansas girl carried by a cyclone into Oz, determined to find a way back to Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.
Toto — Dorothy’s dog
Dorothy’s small dog and constant companion, accompanying her from Kansas throughout the journey in Oz.
Scarecrow — Travelling companion
A straw man who joins Dorothy because he believes the Wizard can give him the brain he lacks.
Tin Woodman — Travelling companion
A man made of tin who hopes the Wizard can provide the heart he believes he no longer possesses.
Cowardly Lion — Travelling companion
A powerful lion ashamed of his fearfulness and convinced that what he needs most is courage.
The Wizard of Oz — Ruler of Emerald City
The mysterious ruler of the Emerald City, sought by Dorothy and her companions for different forms of help.
Wicked Witch of the West — Antagonist
A powerful witch who rules in the west of Oz and becomes an obstacle to Dorothy’s journey.
About the author
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) was an American author who set out to write a fairy tale that owed nothing to Europe — no moral at the end, no punishment, and an American girl from Kansas at the centre of it. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz appeared in 1900 with colour illustrations by W. W. Denslow and was the best-selling children's book of its first two years. Baum wrote thirteen more Oz books, several of them because his readers demanded them, and the series was continued by other hands after his death. He had failed at shopkeeping, chicken-breeding, acting and newspapers before any of it.