Ozma of Oz

1907, 1970s Regnery edition
L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ozma of Oz
Bought new for $3.95
Paperback with stains and worn corners 
B


The Gales don't seem to be doing too badly financially at this point.  Not only is Dorothy illustrated with a pearl necklace, but Henry can afford to take the two of them to Australia when his health is poor.  She ends up in a different "Oz" of course, thanks to a shipwreck.  Most of the book though takes place in Ev, another of Baum's two-letter countries.  Some time before the story starts, the wicked King of Ev sells his wife and ten children to the Nome King in exchange for a long life, which he throws away when he commits suicide in remorse.  Ozma decides to go rescue the Evian royal family.  She's accompanied by Dorothy's old friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, as well as the 27-man army and the Lion's friend the Hungry Tiger. 


Baum tends to be satirical towards the military, presenting them as more cowardly than the lion, and with a taste for finery.  Confusingly, the Soldier with the Green Whiskers of the first two books is now a private named Omby Amby, rather than the entire army, as he was in Land.  He gets promoted to Captain General at the end of this book, because he's braver than the 26 officers.


Baum also gently mocks royalty in this book.  The tragedy of Ev is softened by the humor of the interim ruler, the king's niece, Langwidere.  This languid and vain young lady has 30 heads, all very Gibson-girlish.  The Nome King, Roquat the Red, is the main ruler we see and he's complex, in a different way than Zixi.  Tiktok, the Machine Man, says that the Nome King is kind, and we know that Tiktok can't lie, but Tiktok knows nothing of Machiavellian politics.  The Nome King is jovial, Santa-Claus-like, when things are going his way, but he has a huge army of nomes and a Magic Belt.  He also has cunning, and he tricks Ozma and her companions into thinking that it'll be a simple task to free the Ev royals.


As a child, the ornament-guessing game was my favorite part, along with the lunch-boxes and dinner-pails that grow on trees.  Once again, lives and a country's future are at stake, but the game also works as a puzzle.  I was happy for Dorothy when she found the youngest prince, and I liked that saucy hen Billina outsmarted the Nome King.  Baum's first published book, in 1886, was about raising chickens, so it's not too surprising that a chicken is the true heroine of this story.


And what of Ozma in the book that bears her name?  I remember reading years ago a speculation that her uncharacteristic behavior in this tale, compared to the mostly serene, stay-at-home ruler of the later books, is due to testosterone poisoning, as if she hasn't quite adjusted to being a girl yet, and so feels the need to invade other lands and interfere with their governments.  Considering Margaret Thatcher among others, I don't think you have to be male to be interventionist.  However, whatever the reason, this is a more aggressive Ozma than we usually see.  An interesting character moment is when Ozma first demands that the Nome King appear, and Tiktok reminds her that she doesn't rule Roquat.  She changes her command to a request, but he still doesn't appear.  Tiktok advises entreaty, but she and her followers don't think she should "humble" herself.  So Dorothy says, "I'm not afraid to plead with him.  I'm only a little girl from Kansas, and we've got more dignity at home than we know what to do with."  This is one of the reasons I've always much preferred Dorothy to Ozma.


Dorothy has changed though since we last saw her.  Not only is Neill dressing her more fashionably than Denslow did (wait till we get to the 1920s!), but Baum has started using a slightly annoying dialect for her, to emphasize her age and/or Kansas-ness.  She corrects Billina's grammar but herself says things like "zactly" and "comfor'ble."  She also tries to improve Billina's manners, but she is just as mouthy to Langwidere.


We don't get to Oz until the last two chapters, but it's the beginning of retcon.  Green spectacles are no longer needed in the Emerald City, whether to make you think that there are real emeralds (as in Wizard) or to protect your eyes from the glare of emeralds (as in Land).  There's a mention of the "kings" of the four countries, although Glinda still rules the Quadlings.  The next book will have more dramatic and more important revisions....