The Marvelous Land of Oz, Chapters Seven to Nine

In which our old friend His Majesty the Scarecrow meets Jack Pumpkinhead and they enact a proto-Abbott-and-Costello routine, whilst Tip encounters a revolting army setting out for conquest, and a daring escape is made; and in which our narrator assures you ahead of time that the required "revolting" joke is made, though not by him.



Oh, General Jinjur, how I love you. Perhaps not very surprisingly, she has become somewhat of a fan favorite among lovers of the Oz books, and often use her in a somewhat more positive, less satirical light than Baum does. I actually have rather a lot to say about the General's straw feminism (which, yes, we will be seeing more of), but it will have to wait so as not to spoil the ending (of this 110-year-old book). Politics aside for the moment, she's still a badass who stone-cold conquers the city while barely breaking a sweat.

Before we get to the illustrations, the only real note I have is at 10:05, when the Scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead go to play a game of quoits, which is essentially the game of horseshoes but with a full ring instead of, well, horseshoes. In reality, the game of horseshoes most likely evolved as a cheap alternative to quoits in the first place, but I would most definitely say that horseshoes is now by far more well-known, at least in American culture.

All righty, illustrations!

More after the jump!

The Marvelous Land of Oz, Chapters Four to Six

In which our heroes discover a need for a conveyance of some sort and thus dabble in the dark arts, producing another member of the company; it is demonstrated that said member both walks and swims well, and runs perhaps too well, and the Emerald City is reached.



No notes, though I suppose I should point out that we've got our very first returning characters on Rob Reads to You, with the arrival of (or, more properly, at) the Guardian of the Gates and the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. I had to go back and listen to myself to make sure that, yup, I was basically using the Guardian of the Gates's voice for the Saw-Horse, so he might now sound somewhat more clipped and official than on our last visit.

Anyway, lots of illustrations again!

 More after the break!

The Marvelous Land of Oz, Chapters One to Three

In which a young boy makes a pumpkin-headed man to scare his wicked guardian and is surprised what she does with him, following which he runs away to escape her somewhat harsh punishment; and in which our narrator goes on at rather extreme length before we even get to the story.



The Marvelous Land of Oz was published in 1904, four years after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and two years after Baum's highly successful stage version of the latter. As such, there are definitely elements of this book that seem to be written with an eye towards the stage. The book is notable among Baum's fourteen original Oz books as one of the few to have a male protagonist, and the only one not to feature Dorothy at all.

This book is also notable for bringing on board a new illustrator. Apparently, Baum and W. W. Denslow, the illustrator of the original, argued over royalties to that 1902 stage version. Denslow had designed the sets and costumes and was co-holder of the copyright of the book, and thus thought he deserved an equal share with Baum and the music composer. Baum disagreed and decided not to work with him again. Don't feel too bad for Denslow, though. The royalties he did receive from the book and the musical were enough for him to purchase an island in Bermuda and declare himself King Denslow I. (Though it seems he sold it again by 1908. So much for the dynasty.)

Thus, instead of Denslow, this book is illustrated by John R. Neill, who would go on to illustrate more than forty different Oz books, including all of the rest of the "Famous Forty" canonical Oz books, minus four that came out after his death in 1943 but including three that he wrote himself. Neill's style rather obviously became the "definitive" style that at least influenced all other Oz illustrators who followed, if they didn't mimic him outright.

Now, while Denslow's illustrations were all in color (even if it was usually only one or two colors), Neill's illustrations here are mostly line drawings, with sixteen full-color plates throughout. The quantity of illustrations, though, remains quite large. AS such, much with the last book, I won't be time-tagging them, as they come a little too thick and fast.

The color plates here come from Old Book Art, the full-page black and white illustrations come from the facsimile of the first edition at OpenLibrary.org, and the remaining line drawings are all from Classics Illustrated (but no, not that Classics Illustrated.) And since this is the first installment, I've included the preliminary illustrations:

Above is the copyright page, showing play posters being pasted up, presumably as a nod to the stage version.

See more after the jump!

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair," by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In which a Jazz Age wallflower from Eau Claire gets some good advice from her cousin, who gets upset when it works a little too well, and revenge is had via haircut; and in which you should be thankful that our narrator decided against attempting a Wisconsin accent.



So, as mentioned in the recording, this installment is largely in honor of my AP English teacher, Mr. Denis Linehan, who would put his hand to his heart when he spoke fondly of "Bernice." Yes, he was on a first-name basis with the story. So, Mr. Linehan, wherever you are now (probably at the track), this one's for you.

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" was one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first big stories, published in the May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, making this the most modern work we've featured so far (and, barring any permissions I get from authors, one of the most modern we're likely to feature.) Fitzgerald had published in the Post before, but this marked the first time he got his name on the cover. The cover painting itself has nothing to do with the story, though; it's titled "Ouija," and is by the legendary Norman Rockwell.

More covers and notes after the jump!

The Time Machine Deleted Text: "The Grey Man"

In which the author gives in to editorial demands and then fixes it when publishing it on his own, and where we see "the ultimate degeneracy of man."



And here is the promised "bonus feature" for The Time Machine. Wells wrote this at his editor's request but took it back out first chance he got, and it really was rather the right choice, in my opinion. It makes for a weird flow to the chapter to have the Time Traveler's escape take him to the far distant future, and then the even farther distant future. But, I like letting you have the option. To listen properly, stop the main recording at about 9:30, then pick it back up after you're done with "The Grey Man" here at 12:05, and continue on from there.

No notes on this one, but a couple of bonus covers for you, from non-English language editions

This first one hails from Germany in 1951, and is interesting to me as it appears to depict the giant centipede-like creature that appears in "The Grey Man," but not in the main text. I wonder if translated version tend to include that more than English-language versions? Or maybe it's not in this text either, and it's just another confusing choice on the part of the artist.

Like this one here, from a 1983 Turkish edition. The Morlocks are carrying off an unconscious Time Traveler, who appears to be wearing a futurey jumpsuit of some sort. Looks pretty cool! But wasn't in the novel.

All right, that's it for our bonus feature! Next up: a new short story.


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Wikisource. No reading ahead, though!

The Time Machine, Chapters Ten to Twelve and Epilogue

In which our hero swaggers right into an obvious trap, is nearly foiled due to strike-on-box matches, escapes due to time travel, sees the even farther distant future, and returns home; and in which we learn in a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey way that our framing story narrator's name is "Hillyer.



And that wraps it up for The Time Machine! As mentioned in the recording, there was a deleted scene called "The Grey Man" (deleted by Wells himself) that I have recorded and will be posting separately.

I've got a few covers for you this time, mostly seeming to go with the design philosophy of "eh, good enough."

This first one here on the right is by Everyman's Library from 1978. Now, this is not really "eh, good enough," as obviously someone put a lot of work and thought into this 'cause there's a LOT GOIng on here. We've got Evel Knieval as the Time Traveler, wearing a sweet checked shirt under a... fishing vest? They've got the multiple-exposure thing to represent time travel we saw before, though here they at least added different poses. We've also got the flying numbers, though less subtle here. Oh, and our guy falls down through a vortex, over some geometric planes, some ruler markings or something, and the odd impression that the year 1970 will be important somehow.

More covers and note after the jump!