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Book Home  Books Information Marvelous Land of Oz
Marvelous Land of Oz
The Marvelous Land of Oz, commonly shortened to The
Land of Oz, published in 1904, is the second of L. Frank Baum's books
set in Land of Oz, and the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It
is the only book in the series in which Dorothy Gale does not appear.
This and all subsequent Oz books of the famous forty were illustrated
by John R. Neill.
General Jinjur's Army of Revolt was a parody of the
Suffragette movement, with which Baum was very familiar; his mother-in-law
was the famous suffrage activist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
The main protagonist is a boy named Tip, who for as
long as he can remember has been under the guardianship of a witch
named Mombi in the Gillikin Country. As Mombi is returning home, Tip
plans to frighten her with a scarecrow he has made. Since he had no
straw available, Tip instead made a man out of wood and gave him a
pumpkin for a head, naming him Jack Pumpkinhead. Mombi isn't fooled,
and she takes this opportunity to demonstrate the Powder of Life that
she bought from another sorcerer, Dr. Nikidik (though in The Patchwork
Girl of Oz his name's given as Dr. Pipt). She sprinkles the powder
on Jack, bringing him to life and startling Tip, whom Mombi catches
and threatens with revenge.
Tip leaves with Jack that night and steals the Powder
of Life because Mombi plans to turn him into a marble statue in the
morning. As they head for the Emerald City, Tip uses the Powder to
animate the Saw-Horse so Jack can ride him -- for even though his
wooden body doesn't tire, it can get worn away from all that walking.
Tip loses them as the tireless Saw-Horse gallops faster and he meets
with General Jinjur's all-girl Army of Revolt which is planning to
overthrow the Scarecrow, who's ruled the Emerald City since the end
of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Marching with the Army, Tip meets again
with Jack, the Saw-Horse, and now the Scarecrow as they flee the Emerald
City in Jinjur's wake.
The companions arrive at the castle of the Tin Woodman,
who now rules the Winkie Kingdom, and plan to retake the Emerald City.
On their way back they are diverted by the magic of Mombi (whom Jinjur
recruited to help her apprehend them), joined by the Highly Magnified
and Thoroughly Educated Wogglebug, and aided by the Field Mice and
their queen. Jinjur and her soldiers are scared by the Field Mice
out of the main palace, but they still occupy the Emerald City itself.
The Scarecrow proposes manufacturing a flying beast called a Gump
by which they can escape through the air. Tip animates this collection
of palace furniture with the Powder of Life, and they fly off, with
no control over their direction, out of Oz and land in a nest of Jackdaws
with all of the birds' stolen goods.
In their attempt to drive the Jackdaws from their sanctuary,
the Scarecrow's straw is taken away and the Gump's wings are broken.
Using the Wishing Pills they discover with the Powder of Life, Tip
and his friends escape and journey to the palace of Glinda the Good.
They learn from Glinda that the rightful ruler of Oz, a girl named
Ozma, was hidden by the Wizard of Oz long ago and that she is the
rightful ruler of the Emerald City, not the Scarecrow (who didn't
really want the job anyway). Glinda discovered that the Wizard made
three visits to Mombi, but not what they were for. She therefore accompanies
Tip, Jack, the Saw-Horse, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Wogglebug,
and the Gump back to the Emerald City to see Mombi. The witch tries
to deceive them by disguising a chambermaid as herself (which fails),
but manages to elude them as they search for her in the Emerald City.
Just as their time runs out, the Tin Woodman plucks a rose to wear
in his lapel, unaware that this is the transformed Mombi!
Glinda discovers the deception right away and leads
the pursit of Mombi, who is finally caught as she tries to run across
the Deadly Desert in the form of a fast- and long-running Griffin
(though later books state that anyone who touches the Desert is transformed
into dust). Under pressure from Glinda, Mombi admits that the Wizard
brought her the infant Ozma and that she used her magic to transform
her into a boy -- Tip, the boy who she'd been guardian of. As first
he's shocked to learn this, but Glinda and his friends help him to
accept his destiny, and Mombi performs her last spell (Or is it? In
The Tin Woodman of Oz, the Scarecrow asks a boy who'd been given twenty
legs whether Mombi had transformed him, based on a physical description
of her).
The restored Ozma (whose physical appearance differs
considerably between this book and the next, Ozma of Oz) leads her
friends in retaking the Emerald City. The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow,
now stuffed with paper money that's worthless in Oz except as stuffing,
return to the Winkie Country with Jack Pumpkinhead, the Gump is disassembled
at his request (though his head, which was a hunting trophy, can still
speak), Glinda returns to her palace in the Quadling Country, the
Wogglebug remains as Ozma's advisor, and the Saw-Horse becomes her
personal steed.
Elements from this novel and the following one, Ozma
of Oz, were incorporated into the 1985 film Return to Oz featuring
Fairuza Balk as Dorothy.
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