Audiobook · read by volunteers
Tin Woodman of Oz
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919)
Read by Luke Nelson · 25 chapters · 5 h 15
About the book
In this adventure from the Land of Oz, the Tin Woodman remembers something that he had almost forgotten: before he was made of tin, he was a flesh-and-blood man who loved a Munchkin girl named Nimmie Amee. He sets out to find her, and he does not travel alone. The journey takes him across strange countries and into odd encounters with talking creatures, wanderers and magical beings who are not always what they appear to be. L. Frank Baum fills the story with word play, kind humour and inventive details, and the reader is never far from a surprise. It is a fairy tale about loyalty, memory and the nature of the heart, told in a spirit of cheerful good sense. One reader gives voice to every character, from the earnest hero to the odd companions he meets. Humour and imagination keep the pages turning.
Introduction
L. Frank Baum, who lived from 1856 to 1919, created the Land of Oz in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 and returned to it again and again. The Tin Woodman of Oz is the twelfth of his Oz books. It was first published in 1918, though the edition recorded here is dated 1919, and it appeared near the end of his life. It takes up an old question left open in the first book: what happened to the girl the Woodman loved before he became a man of tin?
Readers of the series will recognise the pattern of Baum’s best Oz stories. A quest brings together friends from earlier books, strange places are visited one after another, and a quiet moral idea runs underneath the jokes and surprises. Here the idea concerns love and the question of who a person remains after great changes. The first chapter, “Woot the Wanderer”, sets the whole tale in motion.
The recording has 25 chapters, beginning with Baum’s note “To My Readers”, and lasts about five and a third hours. It is read by one LibriVox volunteer. It is easy to follow and suitable for children, and adults who grew up with Oz will find that the humour has lost nothing. It is also a good point of entry for anyone who knows only the famous first book. The tale is a good example of how Baum, late in his career, was still happy to invent new creatures and odd countries. Children will enjoy the adventure, while adults may notice the thoughtful questions that lie under the fun, about love and about what makes a person who they are.
Public domain
L. Frank Baum died in 1919: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text