The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's fantasy by L. Frank Baum, first published in 1900.

The plot is a journey with a stated destination. Dorothy is carried to the Land of Oz, gathers three companions who each want something they lack, and travels with them along the Yellow Brick Road to petition a wizard. Each companion believes the wizard can supply the missing quality, which is the device that keeps the group together and gives the story its episodes.

Over a century after it first appeared the book was still being read and reissued. That pattern of adaptation, into editions, stage shows and films, is why the book is treated as a classic rather than as one title among many of its decade. Baum wrote the book as an American fairy tale rather than a European one, with a Kansas farm girl at the centre and a road that has to be walked rather than a spell that has to be broken. The Emerald City, the Yellow Brick Road and the four travellers became fixtures of American children's fiction, and the book stayed in print in new editions through the century that followed.