The Marvelous Land of Oz, Chapters Twenty-Two to Twenty-Four

In which Mombi is discovered and there is an exciting chase, after which Mombi reveals the secret of Princess Ozma's disappearance, and all is brought to a happy ending; and in which our narrator expostulates at length about the feminist implications and interpretations of the book.



Last installment, and boy have we got some surprises in store for you! Well, one surprise. Maybe.

More after the jump!

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 Time Machine, Chapter FIve

In which the Time Machine most mysteriously goes missing, presumed inside the sphinx; the Time Traveler makes a little friend; and discovers new structures an inhabitants that lead him to revise his politico-evolutionary hypothesis.



Enter the Morlocks! They naturally will play a most important part to come, and as the Time Traveler has already mentioned he has not quite gotten the whole picture yet.

Today's cover is from a 1927 edition by Heinemann. And... nope, I have no idea what's going on here. I mean, I may have forgotten some scene after we rejoin the framing narrative wherein someone at the dinner party starts having some sort of convulsions, but I don't think so. And even if there is, or were, that's the scene you put on the cover? Nothing science-fictiony at all? No future world, no strange creatures, no Time Machine, nothing even vaguely time-related, like a clock or the sun? You want it to look like a murder-mystery? Suit yourself, artist whose work was not scanned in hi-res enough for me to make out the signature, and whose cover I can't find anywhere other than here.

And now useful notes, after the jump! Mostly definitions, but also some talk of sewers. Yay!

The Time Machine, Chapters Three to Four

In which the Time Traveler tells his tale of traveling in time, ending in the year 802,701 where he finds that humanity has become largely useless and expostulates incorrect hypotheses as to how this came about.



And now we start the tale proper, and we see what appears to be the remnants of humanity, grown weak and careless from all challenges in the world being conquered. A valid evolutionary theory? Probably not! Heck, even the Time Traveler admits he's wrong, though that is in hindsight to some as-yet-undisclosed evidence....

Our cover art this time around comes from Classics Illustrated #133 from 1956, painted by Lou Cameron. There's a lot to really love about this cover, with little details like the fading sun and the phases of the moon.I'm also rather fond of his depiction of the Time Machine itself, incorporating some of the few details Wells included, like the dual lever control and the saddle (though at the time, "saddle" could also mean a bicycle seat, and as Wells was a bicycling enthusiast many think that's what he meant), while making look cleverly like a gyroscope. Many other artists would rip off this design in years to come.

Oh, and I also love how the Time Traveler looks like Ward Cleaver.

Notes after the jump! They're as numerous as last time, more or less, but somewhat less involved.