The Marvelous Land of Oz (Illustrated)

The Marvelous World of Oz is set shortly after the events in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and after Dorothy Gale's departure back to Kansas, the protagonist of the novel is an orphaned male youth called Tip. For as long as he can remember, Tip has been under the guardianship of a cruel Wicked Witch named Mombi (who is the main antagonist) and lives in the northern quadrant called Gillikin Country in the Land of Oz. Mombi has always been extremely mean and abusive to Tip, calling him names and making him cook and clean for her. As Mombi is returning home one day, Tip plans to get revenge and frighten her with a scarecrow he has made. However, this scarecrow is a very different one compared to others, and since Tip has no straw or sack cloths available, he instead makes the figure out of wood and gives it a large Jack-o'-lantern pumpkin he carves for a head, thus naming him Jack Pumpkinhead. To Tip's dismay, Mombi is not fooled by this trick, and she takes this opportunity to demonstrate the new magic potion "Powder of Life" that she had just bought from another sorcerer. She sprinkles the powder on Jack, and after saying the magic incantation, Jack is instantly brought to life which startles Tip. Mombi tells Tip that she intends to transform him into a marble statue to punish him for his mischievous ways.

The book was made into a episode of The Shirley Temple Show in 1960, into a Canadian animated feature film in 1987, and was adapted in comic book form my Marvel Comics in November, 2009. Elements of the plot are contained in Disney's 1985 feature film, Return to Oz.

Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 May 6, 1919), better known by his pen name L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly known for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four "lost works", 83 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high risk, action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).

Dettagli