Fiction · 1900
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Kansas farmhouse is carried off by a cyclone and lands in a country of Munchkins, and Dorothy sets out along a road of yellow brick to find the Wizard who can send her home. On the way she gathers a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman and a Cowardly Lion, each wanting something the Wizard might give.
L. Frank Baum published the story in 1900 and called it, in his introduction, a “modernized fairy tale” without the horrors of the old ones. It became the most popular American children’s book of its time and the first of fourteen Oz books.
Bibliomancer presents the complete text with Baum’s introduction. W. W. Denslow’s colour plates for the first edition are not reproduced.
Contents
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Chapter I — The Cyclone
- Chapter II — The Council with the Munchkins
- Chapter III — How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
- Chapter IV — The Road Through the Forest
- Chapter V — The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
- Chapter VI — The Cowardly Lion
- Chapter VII — The Journey to the Great Oz
- Chapter VIII — The Deadly Poppy Field
- Chapter IX — The Queen of the Field Mice
- Chapter X — The Guardian of the Gate
- Chapter XI — The Wonderful City of Oz
- Chapter XII — The Search for the Wicked Witch
- Chapter XIII — The Rescue
- Chapter XIV — The Winged Monkeys
- Chapter XV — The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible
- Chapter XVI — The Magic Art of the Great Humbug
- Chapter XVII — How the Balloon Was Launched
- Chapter XVIII — Away to the South
- Chapter XIX — Attacked by the Fighting Trees
- Chapter XX — The Dainty China Country
- Chapter XXI — The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts
- Chapter XXII — The Country of the Quadlings
- Chapter XXIII — Glinda the Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wish
- Chapter XXIV — Home Again
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Subjects
- Oz (Imaginary place) — Juvenile fiction
- Fantasy literature
- Courage — Juvenile fiction
- Home — Juvenile fiction
- Good and evil — Juvenile fiction
- Dreams — Juvenile fiction
- Gale, Dorothy (Fictitious character) — Juvenile fiction
- Cowardly Lion (Fictitious character) — Juvenile fiction
- Cyclones — Juvenile fiction
- Scarecrow (Fictitious character from Baum) — Juvenile fiction
- Toto (Fictitious character) — Juvenile fiction
- Witches — Juvenile fiction
About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Part of Short Classics.
Source mind
About the author
1856–1919 · Victorian
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) was born in Chittenango, New York, and tried many trades — actor, playwright, shopkeeper, newspaper editor in South Dakota, travelling salesman — before writing for children. Father Goose (1899) was a success; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), illustrated by W. W. Denslow, was a greater one, and he wrote thirteen more Oz books. He spent his last years in Hollywood.
Adjacent records
