You’ve seen the movies and the plays and hopefully some of you have read the actual book (there are fourteen original Oz books total, FYI). There is nothing new I can tell you about this iconic story and another review would be superfluous, so I’ll save my breath. (There’s a great page on Goodreads with all the best Oz quotes, full of teasers if you are among the benighted few who’ve never read it. That’s Dorothy speaking in the title of this post.)

Well, nothing more to say except for the deafening shout out I want to give Penguin Classics for their simply magnificent new edition. It includes three Oz novels (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Glinda of Oz) and is priced at a mere $30. I don’t know how they’re going to manage to pay all the designers and illustrators who must have put in serious overtime to make this edition this good. Because just look.

Toto endpapers. I mean, really now.

A lovely art nouveau, original edition specific title page.

The original illustrations. The flying monkeys! *squee*

FOREDGE PAINTINGS. (sorry for actually shouting there, but…) And these paintings tell the story, from the tornado to the five friends on the Yellow Brick Road on the way to the Emerald City, to the monkeys and the Wizard’s balloon heading for home.

There is an index of explanatory notes in the back, telling us so much more about the history and craft of Baum’s masterpiece. (Flutterbudgets. Heh.)

And then, as if all that wasn’t enough, the silver slippers on the back cover. (Yes, they are silver in the book. Ruby, schmuby. Deal with it.)

I’ve already got my copy.

Book Review Monday Chatter L. Frank Baum Penguin Classics The Wizard of Oz