The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters Twenty to Twenty-Four

In which a very delicate town is encountered, the Lion becomes a king through assassination, better use is made of the Winged Monkeys than last time, our heroes finally meet Glinda, and all is brought to a happy ending.



Once again, better late than never, eh? Eh? Eh. Sorry to keep you waiting, but here are the last set of illustrations for our story:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters Sixteen to Nineteen

In which wishes are granted, attempted, failed at, and wasted, at which point our heroes set out southwards and encounter some horticultural resistance.



They're late, but here are all of this installment's Denslow illustrations!

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters Thirteen to Fifteen

In which our heroine rescues and repairs her various compatriots, the hilariously-named history of the Winged Monkeys is revealed, the Great and Terrible Oz tries to go back on his promises, and some attention is paid to a man behind a curtain.



Pssh, a comparatively minor nineteen illustrations from Mr. Denslow this time around, though they do include depictions of one of my favorite passages in all the Oz books, the story of Gayelette and Quelala, because seriously how great are those names.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters Eleven and Twelve

In which our heroes encounter the many forms of Oz, who hires them to whack the Wicked Witch of the West, and then one of the most iconic villains of American children's literature is introduced, encountered, and dispatched in the space of one chapter; and in which the film audience wonders how we can be done with the Wicked Witch if the book is only half over.



We did a full four chapters last time, so we make up for it this time by only doing two. They're extra-long chapters, though, so we've still got a full twenty-three Denslow illustrations to peruse.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters Seven to Ten

In which a summary becomes necessary for those who've only seen the movie, as our heroes encounter chasms, Kalidahs, and rivers, as well as some familiar poppies with some unfamiliar field mice, and the Emerald City is finally reached.



Well, since we managed to squeeze in four chapters this time, we've got a whopping twenty-eight Denslow illustrations. Seriously, the illustrations are very nearly one per page.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters Four to Six

In which a summary is again likely not necessary, and yet we recount that Dorothy learns the Scarecrow's story, the two encounter a rusted woodman made of tin, and the three are finally joined by a Lion of the not-so-brave variety, and in which our narrator tries hard not to do a Bert Lahr impression.



Not quite so many Denslow illustrations this time around: only seventeen. Once again, you can pretty much just follow along the whole time. Maybe one day I'll get ambitious and put in the correct time stamps.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapters One to Three

In which our heroine is transported via cyclone to a magic land, accidentally rids them of a despot with shiny shoes (yoink!), then sets off to find the Wizard who can send her back home, at which point she encounters and rescues a talking Scarecrow; and in which you probably didn't really need this summary.



Okay y'all, time to be honest. I pretty much entirely started this podcast so that I could read the Oz books. I got the first seven in very cheap, un-illustrated paperback from across several elementary school book fairs some 25 years ago and have read them, along with the remaining seven Oz books Baum wrote, numerous times each. There are precious few books that I have that have remained on my bookshelf continuously that whole time.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first of Baum's fourteen, was published in 1900 and was illustrated by W. W. Denslow, and boy did he illustrate the HECK out of it. I forgot, since my personal edition doesn't have any illustrations at all, just how many Denslow crammed in there. Just for these three chapters we've got a full twenty illustrations, not even including the title page, message from the author, copyright page, table of contents, and dedication page, all of which also have full-page illustrations. In addition to the illustrations that follow the story itself, each chapter has its own title page, along with an illustration heading each chapter's text (which is why some of these include a big word; it's the first word in that chapter.)

In fact, it's such a constant stream I'm not really going to bother time-stamping each of them, but I will include them all here after the jump so you can follow along.

"The Snow Queen," Fourth to Seventh Stories

In which our heroine is assisted by crows, royalty, a most delightful robber girl, a friendly reindeer, and a couple of mysterious ladies to achieve a happy ending, though several deaths are dealt with rather casually.



Couple of things I had to look up: the poor murdered "postilions" are drivers of horse-drawn carriages; the "lath" enclosing the robber girl's wood pigeons is just strips of wood, like that making latticework; the Snow Queen's castle is on Spitsbergen, a very-far-north island belonging to Norway, and to get there they must travel to Lapland, which is a cultural region defined as where the indigenous Sami people live (the Sami were formerly known, and are referred to in this story, as the Lapp people, which is now frowned upon), and ultimately end up in the Finnmark, a very northerly county in Norway. There, they meet the Finn woman, who naturally enough is a member of the ethnic group associated with Finland.

And then of course we have the rest of the Edmund Dulac illustrations from 1911:

2:20 - "She has read all the newspapers in the world, and forgotten them again, so clever is she."

 One of the things I love about this story is how Gerda gets mixed up in what seem to be someone else's fairy tale entirely, like this one about the clever princess looking for a husband who can prove his worth to her, and Gerda's all "Mmhmm, mmhmm, can we get back to my tragic search now?"

12:29 - "'It is gold, it is gold!' they cried."

Also, I just absolutely adore the little robber girl, like how she takes pity on Gerda and thus earnestly promises that she won't let anyone else kill her, but will do it herself, and how she tries to make Gerda kiss one of the pigeons, and how she casually mentions that the friendly, helpful crow is now dead. She's my favorite.

23:51 - "The reindeer did not dare to stop. It ran on till it came to the bush with the red berries. There
it put Gerda down, and kissed her on the mouth, while big shining tears trickled down its face."

I'm a little puzzled about the fact that the text specifically says that the reindeer — twice — kiss Gerda on the mouth, but hey, who am I to judge.

26:50 - "The Snow Queen sat in the very middle of it when she sat at home."

Funny thing, we actually don't see very much of the Snow Queen. Gerda doesn't even meet her. She sure is purty, though. Actually, all of the villains in this story — the hobgoblin, the Snow Queen, the robbers — all get away completely scot-free. And, of course, millions of other shards of that mirror still exist in the world. Ah well.

And that's it for another short story interlude, and Andersen has now taken his place on The Bookshelf. Tomorrow we'll start up a new book, and then we'll resume our regular schedule. Thanks for listening!


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