The original 1908 cover to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum. Designed by artist John R. Neill, reproduced for a modern facsimile edition. Now out of copyright. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I finished the fourth OZ book by L. Frank Baum this week. It was a fun trip with Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. In this story, Dorothy is joining Uncle Henry in California at Hugson’s Ranch, on their way home from Australia, Dorothy having visited friends in San Francisco. She strikes up an acquaintance with Hugson’s nephew and her second cousin, Zeb of Hugson’s Ranch. Dorothy, Eureka (who is Dorothy’s cat) and Zeb are riding a buggy being pulled by a cab-horse named Jim when an earthquake starts and opens a crevice beneath them that sends them hurtling into the bowels of the earth.  They have some fun, interesting adventures in Baum’s creative inner-world.

It was disconcerting to me that the Wizard was rehabilitated in this book, changing the history of the earlier books. But “the children wanted it!”  This book is a bit darker than the others though.

Here are a few quotes that I particularly liked:

“That is true,” answered the little Wizard; “therefore it will give me pleasure to explain my connection with your country. In the first place, I must tell you that I was born in Omaha, and my father, who was a politician, named me Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, Diggs being the last name because he could think of no more to go before it. Taken altogether, it was a dreadfully long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I just called myself O. Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled ‘pinhead,’ which was a reflection on my intelligence.”

“Surely no one could blame you for cutting your name short,” said Ozma, sympathetically. “But didn’t you cut it almost too short?”

“Perhaps so,” replied the Wizard. “When a young man I ran away from home and joined a circus. I used to call myself a Wizard, and do tricks of ventriloquism.”

Secondly, on meeting the Woggle Bug:

Ah,” said the Wizard; “I’m pleased to meet so distinguished a personage.”

“H. M.,” said the Woggle-Bug, pompously, “means Highly Magnified; and T. E. means Thoroughly Educated. I am, in reality, a very big bug, and doubtless the most intelligent being in all this broad domain.”

“How well you disguise it,” said the Wizard. “But I don’t doubt your word in the least.”

“Nobody doubts it, sir,” replied the Woggle-Bug, and drawing a book from its pocket the strange insect turned its back on the company and sat down in a corner to read.

Now, I move on to Baum’s fifth Oz book–on the bus!

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