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Book Home  Books Information Ozma of Oz
Ozma of Oz
Ozma of Oz, published in 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series; however, it is also the first book where the majority of the action takes place outside of the land of Oz. It was illustrated throughout in color by artist John R. Neill.
Uncle Henry has been ordered by his doctor to take a vacation from his Kansas farm to Australia. He and his niece Dorothy Gale are aboard a steamship travelling there when they are caught in a fierce storm and separated. Dorothy is blown overboard along with a yellow hen from her uncle's farm that was on the ship.
Dorothy and Billina -- the name, derived from "Bill", given the yellow hen soon after it was discovered that she wasn't a rooster -- wash ashore and pick something to eat from a lunch-pail tree. Dorothy guesses that they're in a "fairy country" because lunch pails don't normally grow on trees and animals like Billina don't talk, but it's a different one from Oz because that country has no seashore. They come across a message inscribed in the sand, "BEWARE THE WHEELERS", and soon meet these gaudily-dressed, loudly-yelling creatures who have wheels instead of hands and feet, and roll around on all fours. Dorothy and Billina climb a rocky mountain to escape the Wheelers and find a door carved into its side. Finding the key by the door, they open it and find Tik-Tok, a round mechanical man who they activate with the key.
Tik-Tok tells Dorothy and Billina about the land of Ev where they are now and the loss of its royal family to the magic of the Nome King. He takes them to safety from the Wheelers to the royal residence, where the head-exchanging Princess Langwidere, the niece of the deceased king of Ev, locks Dorothy and Billina in a high tower. Tik-Tok stops once in mid-motion, and he won't be able to move again until he is wound up with the key.
Ozma and her companions (many of whom appeared in the two previous Oz books) cross the Deadly Desert with the aid of a magic carpet provided by Glinda to free the royal family of Ev, and Ozma has Dorothy released from Langwidere's custody. Cheerful reunions are had by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, and new introductions are made to Ozma and the Hungry Tiger, a massive tiger hamstrung by his conscience.
The expedition journeys to the underground kingdom of the Nomes, where the Nome King reveals that he's turned the royal family into ornaments around his palace. The Oz people can guess which ornaments they are (he doesn't reveal that they are royal purple ones), but if they fail, they will also become ornaments. Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Tik-Tok all suffer this fate (Dorothy only escapes it by touching a purple ornament in one of her guesses). When the guests from Oz retire one night, Billina learns which of the Nome King's ornaments were once people and also about the magic belt which he wears.
Billina was originally not going to be allowed to guess, but she so infuriates the Nome King by laying an egg (poisonous to any Nome) under his throne that he lets her guess. And all of hers turn out to be right! The Nome King commands his army to recapture all of them by force, but Dorothy takes the Magic Belt, the Army's sole private takes the offensive, and Billina's eggs are left in the Nomes' paths so they don't dare follow.
After returning the royal family of Ev (the queen mother, five boys, and five girls) to their rightful place, Ozma, Dorothy, and the others return to Oz where a great victory celebration is held in the Emerald City. Dorothy is officially made a Princess of Oz, Billina elects to remain in Oz, and Ozma uses the Magic Belt to send Dorothy to Australia to be reunited with Uncle Henry.
L. Frank Baum revisited this story for the plot of his 1913 musical The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, starring James C. Morton and Fred Woodward. Aside from Tik-Tok, a princess named Ozma, and a visit to the Nome King's domain, the similarities between the book and the finished play were minimal, allowing Baum to re-adapt the latter as the eighth Oz book, Tik-Tok of Oz, in 1915.
Elements from Ozma of Oz and the previous novel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, were incorporated into the 1985 film Return to Oz, featuring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy. Although most of the plot was taken from Ozma, the action was chiefly re-located to the derelict Emerald City, ruled by Princess Mombi (Princess Langwidere in all but name) and her Wheelers. In the second half of the film, Dorothy, Billina, Tik-Tok, and other new friends traveled to the Nome King's mountain, to rescue the Scarecrow from the King's ornament collection. The 1939 film's famous ruby slippers were used in place of the Magic Belt.
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