“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum

This is an old and charming story about a girl called Dorothy whose house was picked up by a cyclone and carried from the gray and dreary Kansas to an unknown land of wonders, magic and unbelievable beauty. The little girl soon finds out that the land is surrounded by an enornous and deadly desert, so her way home won’t be easy.

She walks along the road of yellow bricks, makes many wonderful friends, and they all help each other on their way to the Great Wizard of Oz who, they believe, will give them what they desire most. For Scarecrow it’s brain (he is stuffed with straw and believes himself to be stupid); Tin Woodman dreams of a new heart and the Cowardly Lion is so tired of being a coward that he would trade anything for a bit of courage.

But as they go forward and overcome multiple dangers they come across, we often notice that Scarecrow, though brainless, is actually the “brain” of the company, often suggesting a way out of an apparently hopeless situation; Tin Woodman is the most loving and caring creature always taking care not to hurt anybody – more so than most of us who have a heart – and the Lion often faces dangers to save his friends, without a moment’s hesitation.

Finally they reach the Emerald City and meet Oz, the Great and Terrible, who sends them to fight and kill the Wicked Witch of the West to earn their rewards. They succeed, but only to find out that Oz is not a wizard, but a humbug. Despite that, he makes their dreams come true – all except Dorothy’s. Poor little Dorothy still cannot get home, and the friends have to go to another journey full of danger and many great surprises. At the end she finds out that the Silver Shoes she’s been wearing since her first day in the Land of Oz can bring her home in three steps.

This beautiful fairy tale has kept generations of children fascinated. Answering to many requests from his grateful readers, L. Frank Baum wrote thirteen sequels to the book. It was translated into many languages, filmed and adapted multiple times, and now, after more than 100 years have passed since it was published, it still captures children’s (and adults’) hearts and minds.

Being Russian, I haven’t made acquaintance with L. Frank Baum’s book until I turned 30. As a child, I read “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, which is a loose translation done by our Alexander Volkov. In fact it’s so loose that I can hardly call it a translation: Volkov has added many new episodes and ditched others, changed the names of most characters and rephrased everything in the rest of the story. The main differences between the two books are faithfully listed here. Yet it’s definitely the same story, and I was sorry to hear about the copyright theft that took place in connection with it – the Soviet period of our history is not something I like to remember often.

Still, I’ve read all Volkov’s sequels (six in total, and almost entirely independent, bearing only vague resemblance to Baum’s sequels). So, naturally, when I finally got access to Baum’s books, I felt curious about his view on how the story should develop, and read his first sequel, “The Marvelous Land of Oz”. It was a big disappointment, and upon finishing it I said “enough” and never looked at the rest of the books. I think I might reconsider now – perhaps, that book failed to capture me because there was no Dorothy in it. The brave little girl, I’m now finding out, will be back in the rest of the series, so I might give those books another chance in the near future.

That’s a huge addition to my already very long “to read” list, but I’ll have to find the time somehow.