The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

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Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Release Date: July 1, 2008 [EBook #55]

Language: English

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

by

L. Frank Baum

Introduction 1. The Cyclone 2. The Council with the Munchkins 3. How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow 4. The Road Through the Forest 5. The Rescue of the Tin Woodman 6. The Cowardly Lion 7. The Journey to the Great Oz 8. The Deadly Poppy Field 9. The Queen of the Field Mice 10. The Guardian of the Gates 11. The Emerald City of Oz 12. The Search for the Wicked Witch 13. The Rescue 14. The Winged Monkeys 15. The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible 16. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug 17. How the Balloon Was Launched 18. Away to the South 19. Attacked by the Fighting Trees 20. The Dainty China Country 21. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts 22. The Country of the Quadlings 23. Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy's Wish 24. Home Again

Introduction

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

Having this thought in mind, the story of "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.

L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900.

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