The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.‘“Come along, Toto,” she said. “We will go to the Emerald City and ask the Great Oz how to get back to Kansas again.”’Swept away from her home in Kansas by a tornado, Dorothy and her dog Toto find themselves stranded in the fantastical Land of Oz. As instructed by the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins, Dorothy sets off on the yellow brick road to try and find her way to the Emerald City and the Wizard of Oz, who can help her get home.With her companions the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy experiences an adventure full of friendship, magic and danger. A much-loved children’s classic, The Wizard of Oz continues to delight readers young and old with its enchanting tale of witches, flying monkeys and silver shoes.

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

L. Frank Baum

CONTENTS

Cover (#ud0acdd4d-1527-5457-ba0a-345a331c501e)

Title Page (#ud8ee885f-f4f0-55b4-8dfe-a7e92f7191a8)

INTRODUCTION (#u9acabd25-7f8d-532a-a492-c31310f7755e)

Chapter 1 The Cyclone (#u845773c3-9237-5188-b820-b2296a824cfc)

Chapter 2 The Council With the Munchkins (#u3cc2913f-bcdb-5f51-827d-76a08a65966c)

Chapter 3 How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow (#u84fb78c0-4f17-5603-9c37-d08556cb01ac)

Chapter 4 The Road Through the Forest (#ua66f3aac-af5e-5de8-a27f-f211330e8281)

Chapter 5 The Rescue of the Tin Woodman (#u55af9df1-c7f7-5850-a8d7-d9f6ead7c9da)

Chapter 6 The Cowardly Lion (#uec475ea1-3ed9-5893-aca1-3e48084191af)

Chapter 7 The Journey to the Great Oz (#uacaf21f0-3931-5bd3-b199-663338f37e3c)

Chapter 8 The Deadly Poppy Field (#u1ddce195-e7bc-5333-aac4-8814634b0ed3)

Chapter 9 The Queen of the Field Mice (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 The Guardian of the Gates (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 The Emerald City of Oz (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 The Search for the Wicked Witch (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 The Rescue (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 The Winged Monkeys (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 The Discovery of Oz the Terrible (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 The Magic Art of the Great Humbug (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 How the Balloon was Launched (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 Away to the South (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 Attacked by the Fighting Trees (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 The Dainty China Country (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 The Country of the Quadlings (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 Glinda Grants Dorothy’s Wish (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 Home Again (#litres_trial_promo)

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_3eaa7224-d0d8-533f-8e26-0eef81da8a45)

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incidents.

Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

L. FRANK BAUM.

Chicago, April, 1900.

CHAPTER 1 The Cyclone (#ulink_8293e4cc-db70-50c5-b7ac-fea6fa44234b)

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty-looking cooking stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar—except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trapdoor in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.

When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child’s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.

Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.

It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray; he was a little black dog, with long silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him, and loved him dearly.

Today, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat upon the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms, and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes.