The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Contents

Contents

     Chapter One - The Cyclone
     Chapter Two - The Council with the Munchkins
     Chapter Three - How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
     Chapter Four - The Road Through the Forest
     Chapter Five - The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
     Chapter Six - The Cowardly Lion
     Chapter Seven - The Journey to the Great Oz
     Chapter Eight - The Deadly Poppy Field
     Chapter Nine - The Queen of the Field Mice
     Chapter Ten - The Guardian of the Gate
     Chapter Eleven - The Emerald City of Oz
     Chapter Twelve - The Search for the Wicked Witch
     Chapter Thirteen - The Rescue
     Chapter Fourteen - The Winged Monkeys
     Chapter Fifteen - The Discovery of Oz the Terrible
     Chapter Sixteen - The Magic Art of the Great Humbug
     Chapter Seventeen - How the Balloon Was Launched
     Chapter Eighteen - Away to the South
     Chapter Nineteen - Attacked by the Fighting Trees
     Chapter Twenty - The Dainty China Country
     Chapter Twenty-one - The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts
     Chapter Twenty-two - The Country of the Quadlings
     Chapter Twenty-three - Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy's Wish
     Chapter Twenty-four - Home Again

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Introduction

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.
Electronic Book Classics by WebWalker Virtual Press, Hooper, Colorado USA.
© Copyright 1900 L. Frank Baum. (Now in the public domain) Electronic Book version Copyright 1994-2010 by John H. and Erika E. Keyes.