50 in '12: #16

[sakon76]

Title: Glinda of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Length: 279 pages


So I have this thing wherein, when I was a kid, my grandparents had two of the Oz books in the original printing. Grandpa gave me Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, and heck if I know where The Patchwork Girl of Oz ended up. I should ask the uncle who actually talks to my side of the family, and find out if he knows. I would love to reunite the two books, and would be willing to buy it from whichever family member has it for a three-digit figure. Assuming it's still in the family.

Piggybacking on the above is the fact that I hit up the old book sellers at ComicCon and WonderCon and buy other old Oz books when they're in my budget. This year I spent just under $50 on a first printing of Glinda of Oz (1919). Which I hadn't realized until I read the publisher's foreward was the last of the books written by Baum, and was in fact published posthumously.

I love the Oz books. I love the illustrations. I love the characters. That said, I found this one somewhat more problematic than some of the others. Ozma and Dorothy go off to stop a war between two peoples in a remote corner of Oz. Ozma and Dorothy are unsuccessful on both sides. Ozma and Dorothy get trapped in a glass city under a lake. Glinda finds out about this, gathers just about everyone you've ever heard of in the Oz books, and they all troop off to save Ozma and Dorothy. Meantime, a boy from the glass city is being clever and psychological and manages to arrange it to fix most everything. City is risen, girls are rescued, new people are put in charge of the two tribes, happy ending all around.

I ended the book wondering why Glinda was the title character, because it really wasn't about her at all.

Verdict: It's a quick, easy read. I'll recommend it if you like the Oz books. Otherwise, give it a pass.

Comments

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

Huh, you know...that's a good point. I don't think it occurred to me when I first read it because I was very young at the time and was so in love with the Oz books that I just devoured them all. Maybe someone needs to write a fanfic in which Glinda really does get to be the star! (It shouldn't be hard, what with her being one of the few people in Oz legally allowed to use magic.)