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S'està carregant… Dot and Tot of Merryland (1901)de L. Frank Baum
Books Read in 2020 (2,228) Isle Royale (1) S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. There is, I think, a reason why this "novel" - L. Frank Baum's first after the seminal Wonderful Wizard of Oz - has rarely been reprinted. Simply put, it isn't very good. The protagonists are unlikeable, and they don't really do anything; they just glide through the story, bouncing from one magical island to another, commenting and moving on. Similarly, there's only the barest semblance of a plot: if the Oz books are episodic, this one's basically a series of vignettes strung together. Some of them, like the visit to the land of babies, are rather sweet and charming; others, like the land of "pussy cats," fade almost immediately into insignificance. There's even a slight undercurrent of horror in the middle chapters, focusing on the start-stop lives of an island of dolls and toys controlled by a "thinking machine," but Baum never explores the possibilities - he just lets them sit there, vaguely unsettling. It's not a terrible book, but there's really nothing about it to appeal to anyone who isn't a dedicated Baum fan or scholar. Indeed, the most interesting aspect of it is probably the illustration and design of W.W. Denslow, which can only now be found preserved in online editions. More than nearly any other of Baum's fantasy works, Dot and Tot deserves to drift into obscurity. There are literally dozens of better works to have come from his pen. Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
Her real name is Evangeline Josephine Freeland -- but she has had the nickname Dot since before she can remember, and never calls herself anything else. Dot has free run of Roselawn, a country estate her father bought in hopes the outdoor life will restore her health. And run freely is exactly what she does, day after day, with ever greater spring to her steps, and with ever greater appetite. One morning, finishing her breakfast and scampering out upon the Lawn, Dot notices a tiny path leading through a high, thick hedge. "I'll explore " she says to herself, and scoots herself through . . . to behold a tiny vine-covered cottage, and, on the path leading to it, a little boy with a broad-brimmed straw hat. The boy is the gardener's son, Tot -- who proves a wonderful playmate from the start . . . and a fine partner in adventures: for the two are swept away on a boat, and find themselves casting up in a strange place they never knew existed -- Merryland No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)813.4Literature English (North America) American fiction Later 19th Century 1861-1900LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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On the other hand, it lacks the violence of the latter two, and for a kid hearing a chapter every day, that kind of focus matters less. He had fun hearing about each strange place in turn, which is clearly what Baum wanted.
Baum's wild imagination is on display here; though some of the valleys aren't very interesting (cats, clowns), others are filled with neat ideas and evocative imagery, such as the Valley of Babies, where babies fall from the sky in giant blossoms, and are tended to by storks until they are ready to be carried to the outside world to be born. Mr. Split, the man who can split himself into two parts is a great concept, and the Valley of Lost Things is suitably creepy and forlorn. In the Valley of Dolls, Dot and Tot are joined by the Queen of Merryland, who goes to the remaining valleys with them, thus removing what modicum of danger there was. The idea that she kind of needs to force them to stay by adopting them is interesting, but at the end of the book, she just changes her mind and lets them leave anyway.
We read the 1990s Books of Wonder edition, which replaces the original illustrations by W. W. Denslow with new ones by Donald Abbott, which are clearly designed to emulate Denslow's as much as possible. They're nice enough.
(Worldbuilding implications: the book indicates that there are "real" clowns from the Valley of Clowns in Merryland, who go into the outside world to entertain children, and fake clowns, who are just humans putting on make-up. This means Notta Bit More from Cowardly Lion is a fake clown... which is, frankly, not too surprising. Does the Valley of Clowns have any connection to Oz's Play City, a settlement of pierrettes and pierrots in the Winkie Country from Grampa in Oz?)