Review - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)

It was interesting reading this book and coming across two conflicting readings of it -- one a quote from Baum that says: "'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,' was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out." The other is explained in this review: basically, that it's political allegory. The two would seem to contradict each other -- on the other hand, it makes it a layered text: one for children and one for adults. Interesting thoughts, though.

I didn't enjoy it that much. The nightmares are left out, indeed, and I tend to think that actually they give flavour and contrast to the good stuff in a book. And things that are quite serious -- the deaths of the witches -- are glossed over, and no moral judgement made on them. That's pretty odd, for a story intended for children. I'm not saying that I think books for children have to have an educational/moral element, but I'm surprised it's so popular for children considering that Dorothy kills two people in it and there isn't any thread of remorse at all running through the two events.

It works best as a fairytale/fable, where you don't have to pick too much apart and get it to make proper sense.