The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (1900 Novel)

 Just the other day, I was just chilling out at home and flipping through the channels and I saw that the classic, Wizard of Oz movie was being played so, I decided to watch it again for God only knows how many times lol.

The movie itself never gets old, but what many people may not know, is that this movie was based on a novel of the same name. In fact, the book itself is now 125 years old 😮.  That is right, this book came out in 1900 and it was written by L. Frank Baum and was illustrated by W.W. Denslow. 

It truly is incredible with how successful this story is for being as old as it is. The story follows Kansas farm girl Dorothy who ends up in the Land of Oz after she and her dog Toto were swept away with their home by a tornado. Dorothy soon realizes that she can not leave the land of Oz until she defeats the Wicked Witch of the West.

The Wizard of Oz was so successful that a couple years later, there was a musical adaptation of the story in 1902. After the success of the 1902 musical, Baum made 13 more books and the Library of Congress declared it to be "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairy tale".

I must say, I really do love the drawing ability of Denslow, it made the characters really pop out on each page. In fact, Denslew and Baum used color as an important element and was presented throughout the images, each chapter was represented by a different color.

To be honest, it would be sweet if I could find all 14 books written by Baum, that be an awesome collection to have.

However, I learned throughout my research about the Wizard of Oz, I discovered that there are a few differences between the book and the film. The first being the ruby slippers were actually the silver shoes, second difference between the two was how the group got to meet the wizard. In the film, they all got to speak with him at once, but in the novel though they each talk to the wizard differently.

For example, Dorothy talks to the Wizard who appears to her as a giant head, Scarecrow speaks to the Wizard who talks to him as a lovely lady, the Tin Man talked with a terrible beast and to the Cowardly Lion as a ball of fire.

Another example is in the film, the Wizard gives them their ideas for their heroic deeds when in the book he is a con man who becomes one of their closest allies. In the book though, they travel to Gilda the Witch of the South who informs her that she can use her silver shoes to send her back to Kansas. Gilda is actually the one who gives the other three their gifts with the use of a Golden Cap, she gives each of them their own kingdoms, the Scarecrow runs Emerald City, the Tin Man to Winkie Country and the Cowardly Lion controls the forest.

Once again, congratulations to both Baum and Denslew for creating such a classic and congrats to the Wizard of Oz for being around for 125 years.

Until Next Time!

God Bless and Be Safe Everybody! 🙏🙏🙏

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