The Emerald City of Oz
From Oz Wiki
| Written by | L. Frank Baum |
| Illustrator | John R. Neill |
| Published | 1910 |
| Publisher | Reilly & Britton |
The Emerald City of Oz is the sixth book in L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz book series.
Baum actually intended to end the series with this book; the final chapter is titled "How the Story of Oz Came to an End." Eventually public demand persuaded him to resume.
The narrative introduces some of the most evil and powerful villains in Baum's repertoire, the Growleywogs and Phanfasms.
The full text of "The Emerald City of Oz" can be found online here at Project Gutenberg's website.
[edit] Plot
The plot revolves around an invasion of Oz orchestrated by Roquat, the Nome King, eager to recover his Magic Belt, taken from him by Ozma of Oz in a previous book, Ozma of Oz.
The chapters alternate between telling the story of the planning and execution of this invasion and events going on in Oz itself (it is in this book that Dorothy Gale's Aunt Em and Uncle Henry come to Oz to live, their Kansas farm having been foreclosed).
Roquat's General Guph tours the neighboring lands rounding up allies, including the comical Whimsies, the strong and brutal Growleywogs, and the powerfully magical Phanfasms.
Meanwhile, Dorothy tours Oz and meets various intriguing characters.
The action climaxes at the Forbidden Fountain in the Emerald City.
[edit] Key characters and locales
Besides the Oz regulars this book features:
- Roquat, later known as Ruggedo (due to events in this book),the Nome King.
- Kaliko, then his chancellor.
- Guph, his general.
- The Chief of the Whimsies, a strong but foolish race who are embarrassed by their tiny heads and wear false ones.
- The Grand Gallipoot of the Growleywogs, leader of a race eager to enslave the natives of Oz.
- The First and Foremost of the Phanfasms, a race of enormous magical power willing to invade Oz for no more than "the pleasure of destroying innocent and harmless people."
- Miss Cuttenclip, a girl who makes live paper dolls.
- The Rigamaroles, a people in Oz known for tortuously unending circumlocution when engaged in discourse on any topic whatsoever.
- The Flutterbudgets, a people in Oz who become hysterical for any reason at all.
- Utensia, a place inhabited by living kitchen equipment where Baum unleashes a large number of puns.
- Bunbury, a place of live baked goods.
- Bunnybury, a kingdom of talking rabbits.
[edit] Editions
As with other Oz books of this era its original edition was published by Reilly & Britton of Chicago. It long stayed in print with the successor firm of Reilly & Lee.
In recent years (especially since it entered the public domain) it has been reprinted by a number of firms (and the text is available on the World Wide Web).
| Previous book: | Next book: |
| The Road to Oz | The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
