Ozma of Oz

Ozma of Oz

First edition cover
Author L. Frank Baum
Illustrator John R. Neill
Country United States
Language English
Series The Oz books
Genre Children's novel
Publisher Reilly & Britton
Publication date
 1907
Media type Print (hardcover)
Preceded by The Marvelous Land of Oz
Followed by Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Billina the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, Tik-Tok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein published on July 30, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was the first in which Baum was clearly intending a series of Oz books.[1]

It is the first Oz book where the majority of the action takes place outside of the Land of Oz. Only the final two chapters take place in Oz itself.[2] This reflects a subtle change in theme: in the first book, Oz is the dangerous land through which Dorothy must win her way back to Kansas; in the third, Oz is the end and aim of the book.[3] Dorothy's desire to return home is not as desperate as in the first book, and it is her uncle's need for her rather than hers for him that makes her return.[4]

It was illustrated throughout in color by artist John R. Neill.

The book bore the following dedication: "To all the boys and girls who read my stories – and especially to the Dorothys – this book is lovingly dedicated."

Plot summary

It has been five years since The Wonderful Wizard of Oz took place. And Uncle Henry has been ordered by his doctor to take a vacation from the stress and labor of having to replace the Kansas farmhouse due to the first one being swept away in a cyclone. He is accompanied by his adolescent niece, Dorothy Gale (this is the first of the Oz books in which the reader learns her last name), while aboard a small steamship headed to Australia while Aunt Em and Dorothy's pet dog Toto, stay behind to look after the newly built farmhouse. While traveling on the sea, a terrible storm suddenly hits, bringing rain and lightning, tossing the little ship violently over the waves. Henry and Dorothy are separated when she is accidentally thrown overboard and cast away into the water along with Billina, a yellow hen that was also on board. The two take refuge in a wooden chicken-coop floating nearby.

The next morning Dorothy and Billina wash ashore to an unknown region. Once on dry land, Dorothy picks something to eat from a lunch-box tree. She guesses that they are in a "fairy country" because lunch boxes do not grow on trees in ordinary countries, and only in a fairy country would an animal like Billina be able to talk. However, Dorothy knows they are not in the Land of Oz because that country has no coastline. After the meal they come across a message inscribed in the sand: "BEWARE THE WHEELERS"! Soon they meet these gaudily dressed, loud-yelling baddies who have wheels instead of hands and feet, and roll around on all fours. Dorothy and Billina climb a small rocky mountain to escape them and find a door carved into its side. Having found the key by the door, they open it and find Tik-Tok, a round copper mechanical man whom they activate by winding up all three of his clockwork motors (one each for thinking, motion and speech) with the key like a wind-up toy.

Tik-Tok informs Dorothy and Billina that they are in the Land of Ev, which has recently lost its royal family due to the King of Ev selling them to the Nome King, who rules in a neighboring underground kingdom. Afterwards, the King regretted what he had done and in despair jumped off a cliff into the sea and was drowned. Tik-Tok protects Dorothy and Billina from the Wheelers and takes them to the royal residence where Princess Langwidere resides. Langwidere is the spoiled and highly vain niece of the deceased king of Ev, and she has many exchangeable, detachable heads. When Dorothy refuses to let Langwidere take her head and add it to her collection, Langwidere has a tantrum and locks Dorothy in a high tower within the palace.

A color illustration from the book.

Luckily, Princess Ozma and her Royal Court of Oz, (many of whom appeared in the two previous Oz books) just happen to cross over the Deadly Desert on a mission to free the royal family from the Nome King. Upon arriving, Ozma takes charge and has Dorothy and Billina and Tik-Tok released from Langwidere's custody. Cheerful reunions ensue with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, and new introductions are made to Ozma and the Hungry Tiger, a massive tiger who desires to eat fat babies, but is prevented from doing so, by his conscience.

The expedition journeys to the underground kingdom of the Nomes, where the Nome King reveals that he has magically transformed the royal family into decor ornaments. When Ozma asks her to release them, he offers a bargain: the Oz people may enter his chambers and try to guess which of the Nome King's many ornaments they are (he does not reveal that they are purple-colored ones), but if they fail to guess correctly, they will also become ornaments themselves. Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and Tik-Tok all suffer this bizarre fate. Dorothy escapes it only by luckily touching a purple ornament in one of her guesses. When the guests from Oz retire one night, Billina sleeps under the King's throne and overhears the King telling his chief steward which of the Nome King's ornaments were once people. She also learns that the King's magic powers reside in the Magic Belt that he wears.

Billina was originally not going to be allowed to guess, but she so infuriates the Nome King by laying an egg under his throne (eggs are poison to Nomes) that he orders her to take her chances of being transformed by guessing. Since she knows the secret of the Evian royal family's transformations, all of her guesses turn out to be right. The enraged Nome King refuses to honor his promise to let the Oz people and the Ev royal family go; he commands his army to recapture all of them by force. But the Scarecrow throws two of Billina's eggs, which he had luckily kept, into the Nome King's face. While the King is blinded by egg in his eyes, Dorothy takes his magic belt, and uses its power to rout his army.

After returning the royal family of Ev (the queen mother, five boys, and five girls) to their rightful forms and place, Ozma, Dorothy, and the others finally return to the country of Oz where a great victory celebration is held in the Emerald City's royal palace. Dorothy is officially made a Princess of Oz, Billina elects to remain in Oz, and Ozma uses the magic belt to send Dorothy to Australia where she is happily reunited with her Uncle Henry.

Adaptations

L. Frank Baum revisited this story for the plot of his 1913 musical The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, starring James C. Morton and Fred Woodward. Aside from Tik-Tok, a princess named Ozma, and a visit to the Nome King's domain, the similarities between the book and the finished play were minimal, allowing Baum to re-adapt the latter as the eighth Oz book, Tik-Tok of Oz, in 1914.

Elements from Ozma of Oz and the previous novel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, were incorporated into the 1985 film Return to Oz, featuring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy. Although most of the plot was taken from Ozma, the action was chiefly relocated to the derelict Emerald City, ruled by Princess Mombi (Princess Langwidere in all but name, as well as keeping Ozma as her slave) and her Wheelers. In the second half of the film, Dorothy, Billina, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Gump traveled to the Nome King's mountain, to rescue the Scarecrow from the King's ornament collection, which were emerald green unlike the book’s royal purple. The 1939 film's famous ruby slippers were used in place of the magic belt.

The 1986 anime adaptation of the first novel included this story. It was later shortened and edited into a single feature for United States VHS and LaserDisc (and later DVD) release.

The book was also made into a Canadian animated feature film in 1987 called Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz. It is a condensed version, running only 28 minutes. A video release features a live introduction by actor Michael Gross.

References

  1. ↑ Peter Glassman, "Afterword," p 271 L. Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz, ISBN 0-688-06632-1
  2. ↑ Michael O. Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, p 135, ISBN 0-7006-0832-X
  3. ↑ Michael O. Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, p 137, ISBN 0-7006-0832-X
  4. ↑ Peter Glassman, "Afterword," p 271 L. Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz, ISBN 0-688-06632-1
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The Oz books
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The Marvelous Land of Oz		 Ozma of Oz
1907		 Next book:
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
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