The Classics Club: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

 Author: L. Frank Baum

Originally Published: 1900

My Format: Audiobook by Tantor Media, 3 hours 58 minutes

I watched The Wizard of Oz several times, but had never read the novel it was based upon. Honestly, I didn't even know it was based on a novel until a few years ago! The 1939 movie adaptation was so beloved and famous, it eclipsed the novel for our generation, but the novel has its own charm. Since most people are familiar with the plot, I won't spend too much time on that. Rather, I found it fun to compare some of the differences between the movie and the book. 

The basic plot for whoever needs a refresher: Dorothy and her dog, Toto, get caught in a tornado and are swept to the magical and mystical Land of Oz, where she inadvertently kills the Wicked Witch of the East, meets a colony of munchkins, and eventually befriends a scarecrow, tin man, and lion on her quest to beseech the Wizard of Oz to send her back home to Kansas. But before he will respond to any of the traveler's requests, he demands they kill the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Key Differences Between the Book and Movie

• In the movie, Dorothy's adventure in Oz was all a dream, whereas in the book, it actually happened. I think I preferred the movie version for this point. I liked seeing how people from her real life in Kansas showed up in Oz. I thought that was very creative. 
• There is not any music in the book: It obviously would be hard to include a soundtrack in a book, but because I was exposed to the story through the film before the actual book, I missed the Dorothy and her friends singing the catchy "We're Off To See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!" and the munchkins belting out their own tune. Scarecrows' "If I Only Had a Brain" song was also a fun one when I was young. And the most well-known of all, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", of course. The book felt lacking in this respect, to no fault of its own.
• Back stories: I enjoyed reading the stories of why the Scarecrow didn't yet have a brain, why the Tin Man had no heart (a pretty gruesome tale, to be honest! haha), and why the Lion had no courage. Even the winged monkeys, who were servants to the Witch of the West, had a great back story that included a golden cap that acted like a genie's lamp. 
• The gifts of Oz: In the movie, the Wizard of Oz promised a brain for Scarecrow, a heart for the Tin Man, and courage for the Lion once they'd kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Once they return to him having done this, he sheepishly explains that they already have what they had been wanting so much; they just hadn't realized it yet.  In the book, he tries that card, but they aren't buying it, so he makes a fake brain out of pins and needles (that stick out when the Scarecrow is thinking really hard, haha), a heart sewed from silk stuffed with cotton, and offers a liquid concoction for lion that  is supposed to be courage. They fall for it and are content, which may have been the wittiest placebo effect ever. I preferred this over the movie version because it was a silly and creative scene since the reader knows full well they had just exhibited the very things they taught, yet were oblivious and wanted tangible evidence. 
• Plus and minus characters: The movie added characters that weren't in the book (like the Toto-hating Miss Gulch and the farm hands in Kansas) and the book had characters that didn't make it into the book (like the colony of field mice who saved Lion from the sleep-inducing poppy field and the village made entirely of porcelain where Dorothy's friends accidentally scared a  milk maiden and caused her cow to break a leg). The extra characters in the book were inconsequential to the overall plot, but they were still fun little stories that further explained the magic of the Land of Oz. Also, Glinda, the Witch of the South, isn't met until the very end of the book, whereas in the movie, she is the one who greets Dorothy upon her arrival to Oz. In the book, it is a nameless Witch of the North who meets Dorothy and kisses her forehead, which leaves a mark that protects her from harm.
• Emerald City ... or not: In the book, the Emerald City is only partially made of emeralds but to convince everyone (including people who live there) that everything is emerald, everyone that enters the gates of the Emerald City must put on green-tinted glasses. This puts an interesting twist -- and a foreshadowing that the Wizard of Oz may not be what everyone thinks he is. In the movie, everything, except for that odd red horse, is green.
• The book is darker: The movie is overall pretty light and happy; I read that the many of Wicked Witch of the West's parts were cut out to avoid the movie being too scary for young children. The book has more violence, such as the killer bees, crows,  and wolves sent by the Witch to harm Dorothy and her friends as well as the aforementioned backstory of the Tin-Man, who was chopped up, one body part at a time before becoming entirely made of tin. 
• Silver vs Ruby Red Slippers: In the book, the slippers are silver, but they were switched to ruby red slippers to contrast against the yellow brick road. 
• Kid or Teen? In the book, Dorothy is ten years old, while in the movie, she is a teen. 
• And the Wicked Witch of the West wasn't green in the book! Instead, she only has one eye.

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I am sure there are more to mention, but those were the most obvious differences. I enjoyed the book overall, but as mentioned above, preferred certain aspects of the film more than the book. For obvious reasons, MGM needed to alter certain things from the book to work in film, but they kept the overall major plot points and added their own pizzazz to it to showcase the new technicolor technology in film. Both have great things going for them and both deserve to be known as classics.  I have not watched any more recent adaptations so I cannot speak about those. There are fourteen Oz books in the series, but I think I am fine with stopping after this first and best-known story. I can see this being a fun series for middle-grade children as a read-aloud with parents, though.

About the Author 

Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author mainly known for his children's books, namely the fourteen Oz books and  The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. He was one of the first American authors of children literature and wanted to write children's stories inspired by classics like Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, but updated and more Americanized, and purposefully wrote them lacking too much violence, romance, or moral lessons. His stories were known as some of the first American fairy tales. Some of the creative things he included in his many novels weren't even invented yet and now in our generation, have become commonplace, such as televisions, cell phones, and laptops. He was a big fan of theatre throughout his life. Sadly, he passed away  two decades before he could see The Wizard of Oz film adaptation in 1939 (1).

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My Rating

★★★★☆

Content Rating 

PG (no language, sexual content, but a bit of violence)

Classics Club Stats
This is #6 of 75 books in The Classics Club challenge. See my book list HERE

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Have you read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? What did you think of it compared to the film?