Three Men in a classic about nothing

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome is one of those books that I think everyone should read. It’s a classic that somehow doesn’t really say anything at all but it’s such a charming nothing.

Allegedly, Jerome was planning on writing a travelogue that described a boating trip on the Thames that he and two of his friends made. However, the humor element took over and a fictional dog got added to the mix and that led to the book we have today.

The book is still kind of about that boating trip. Indeed, the trip is described well enough that you can recreate the trip today, which many people do. But most of the book is the characters, particularly the narrater  going on long, rambling asides that are often hysterical. Jerome describing his Uncle Podger trying to hang a picture is one of the most perfect slapstick bits imaginable.

There are some odd shifts in tone. The bit where the narrater begins imagining King John signing the Magna Carta comes out of left field and always makes me wonder if I missed something. And the description of a suicide victim they come across is a drastic shift in tone unlike anything else in the book.

However, for the most part, the book is a leisurely journey that basically goes nowhere but its a relaxing, fun trip. The tone is so conversational that it feels less like a book and much more like a monologue and not in an annoying way :D

I was shocked after reading the book for the first time to learn that it was written in 1889. That’s at least thirty years older than I expected. The book is so candid and witty that it feels more modern. Indeed, while I have absolutely nothing to back this thought up, I think of it as one of the first modern British comedies.

The Club of Queer Trades is a little taste of Chesterton

Every year or so, I reread Gilbert K. Chesterton’s Club of Queer Trades.

It’s not because it’s one of his masterpieces. In all honesty, The Man Who Was Thursday and any given volume of Father Brown are Chesterton’s truest masterpieces in my eyes. And I can think of other books by him, The Man Who Knew Too Much or the Paradoxes of Mister Pond, that I also think are much stronger.

So why do I keep rereading it? Well, because it’s a quick read but still carries the charm and wit that made Chesterton so brilliant and so much fun. I am always finding new books to read by Chesterton and rereading others but The Club of Queer Trades is a reliable little sip of Chesterton.

A collection of six stories, The Club of Queer Trades is bound together by the idea that the characters are discovering strange situations that turn out to people who have come up with entirely new ways to make a living.

The detective role in the stories is held by Basil Grant, a former judge who is definitely whimsical and who might also be a little insane. Amusingly, a reoccurring character is his brother Rupert, who actually is a detective, although apparently not a very good one. And, at the end, it’s pretty obvious Basil solved most of the mysteries by already knowing what was really going on.

Two of the stories have really stuck with me over the years.

The collection starts with The Tremendous Adventure of Major Brown, which is the strongest story in the book and up there in the Chesterton cannon in general. It elevates the whole book.

* SPOILERS * SPOILERS* SPOILERS*

Major Brown apparently has stumbled across a conspiracy to kill him. In actuality, he actually got mixed up with someone who subscribes to a service that is basically a LARP. The fact that the queer trade actually exits now just adds to my entertainment.

I also like how the actress involved in LARP ends up falling for Major Brown because she knew lots of men who were brave when they knew it was fake but Major Brown is the only man she knew who went down into a cellar believing a killer was waiting for him.

The other story that remains with me is the Singular Speculation of the House Agent. The twist is that the man sells tree houses, which is also a real profession these days. However, what made it stick with me is how well Chesterton describes the characters dreamy, twilight journey through wilderness to find that tree house.

The Club of Queer Trades isn’t a perfect book. While it’s bound together by an idea, it doesn’t have the thematic through line that Chesterton’s later books have. It isn’t the book I’d use to introduce someone to Chesteron’s fiction (that’d be the Innocence of Father Brown, by the way) But it is a nice Chesterton snack.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1696

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz - dangerous underground adventures

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is the fourth book in the Oz canon and, in case you didn't guess, brings the wizard back to Oz. Bringing the wizard back into the fold really gets the whole gang back together.

OK, spoilers time as I give a quick summary of the plot.

Dorothy, on her way back from Australia, is visiting some relatives in California. And earthquake opens up the world beneath her feet. Okay, under the buggy she is riding in. Dorothy, her cousin Zeb, the horse Jim and Dorothy's kitten Eureka all end up falling into the magical kingdoms under the Earth. 

Shortly thereafter, the wizard shows up in a balloon that had ALSO fallen through a crack in the Earth from ANOTHER Earthquake. Seriously, coincidence in the eyes books is more reliable than gravity. Lightning doesn't just strike twice, you could set your a clock by it.

At this point, our heroic little band ends up visiting a series of magical kingdom's, practically turning into a road trip movie. However, unlike some of the later books, there is some thematic progression in their travels, with each one more dangerous than the last.

They start off in a glass city of the heartless vegetable people. They passed through a beautiful valley filled with ferocious, invisible bears. 

After a breather scene where they meet the silly Braided Man, our heroes end up in the silent, wooden kingdom of the gargoyles. The gargoyles might actually be one of Baum's most disturbing creations, not the least because they completely silent and relentless.

The gargoyles are followed up by a nest of baby dragons who really, really want to eat our heroes.However, they do have some amusing dialogue so they're not nearly as creepy as the gargoyles.

Once our heroes get past baby dragons, they come to the end of their line and are well and truly trapped. Fortunately, Ozma regularly checks on Dorothy magically and uses the power of the Nome King's magic belt to transport the mole safely to us. As I mentioned in Ozma of Oz, that belt is the ultimate deuce ex mechana of the books.

After that, everyone has some fun times in Oz. It is worth noting that Jim and Zeb and Eureka actually all decide they don't want to stay in Oz. The wizard, of course, does decide to stay. And Dorothy goes back home as well.

After the first three books in the series have such different tones, the fact that Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is written in the same tone as Ozma of Oz actually makes it harder for me to say anything that is trying to be deep about the series.

As I already mentioned, the book is really serious with episodes, with the heroes passing through different magical kingdoms. This is something that happens a lot in the Oz books.

However, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz actually has a bit more of a framework to its road movie feel. For one thing, unlike most of the books, virtually every place that they visit wants to kill them. With the exception of their visit to the Braided an, every place is actively out to get them. And, as they go farther and farther under the Earth, each place becomes progressively more dangerous.

I am also going to go out on a limb and say that this book has some of the most violent scenes in the entire series. The first book in the series is also pretty violent but I found the violence in this book more striking. And the wizard is central to almost all of the violence.

His duel with the vegetable wizard, which begins with parlor tricks, rapidly degenerates to the two of them trying to kill each other. The wizard comes out ahead by pulling out a sword and. Cutting. Him. In. Half. Really, that is some rough stuff.

The wizard also kills one of the invisible bears with his sword and, when they get to the land of the gargoyles, pulls out a pair of revolvers from his magical trick bag to fight off the gargoyles.

Seriously, for his magic tricks at the fair, the wizard is carrying around a fully functional sword and two loaded pistols. What, in the name of organized crime, kind of carnival was he working at?

The development of the wizard throughout the early books is a fairly interesting one. Of course, in the original wonderful Wizard of Oz, he is a harmless and lovable trickster. However, in the stage play, he is the big bad guy and that gets reflected in the Land of Oz, where he had a hand in kidnapping and transforming of Ozma. 

But all of the children who just read the books really liked the lovable old humbug and wanted him back. So with this book, we completely forget about him aiding and abetting in the kidnapping of a small child. Although, if that bugs you too much, Mombi could have been lying about how complicit he was with the kidnapping.

From here on out, the wizard is going to be a regular character in the books and he is going to be practically a surrogate father figure for all the small children who end up living in Oz.

Unusually enough, almost none of the new characters who get introduced this book really go on play a major role or even just hanging out in the background of Ozma's court. Jim and Zeb are never mentioned ever again. And, while Eureka the kitten does eventually make it back to Oz, she never returns to any degree of prominence. The glass cat who is introduced a few books later is the definitive cat character in Baum's Oz.

And, quite frankly, the pet piglets of the wizard makes such a small impression that I haven't even bothered to mention them up until this point.

While I liked Ozma of Oz better, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz is still a strong part of the canon. The characters are constantly in dire danger and that keeps the story driving forward.

It is a book that I would recommend reading yourself before you would read it to a small child because some of the scenes of violence are pretty shocking compared to what leads up to them. While they aren't graphics  or glory, I still think they are startling. And you wouldn't have to change the gargoyles at all to make them at home in a horror movie.

Still, if you have decided to read the first three books, you won't be disappointed with the fourth.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/420

Let's take a look at the first book, the Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is honestly the last book by L. Frank Baum that I should have to tell anyone about. Seriously, if you have been living under a rock in a cave on the bottom of the ocean, you know the Wizard of Oz. When aliens land, they comment on how much they liked the Wizard of Oz before pulling out the death rays.

The Wizard of Oz is a cultural juggernaut. Everyone knows Dorothy and the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, regardless of who you are or where you are from.

Since its public domain, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz should be on be top of the list of free books parents should download for their kids, along with Alice in Wonderland and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. That's part of the reason I reread it.

And you already know the story. Dorothy Gale gets blown away to Oz in a cyclone. She gathers together a ragtag band of misfits. Together, they defeat the wicked witch and prove the wizard a fraud. They discover that everyone was special all along and Dorothy realizes there's no place like home.

Of course, the reason why the Wizard of Oz has become such an ingrained part of world culture is because of the 1939 movie version of it. While it is at least the fourth movie adaptation of the book, it is the definitive version of the Wizard of Oz.

I am normally the guy who always thinks the book is better than the movie. The Wizard of Oz is one of the exception to that rule. Honestly, as far as I am concerned, the movie really is better. Heck, the movie is one of the great cinematic masterpieces.

And that's the thing about approaching the book. You have to know that it is different then the movie and that, quite frankly, it isn't as good.

The movie, in addition to having some really good music, has a much tighter plotline. The book tends to ramble and it doesn't have a strong through line. 

The best way to compare them is by looking at the wicked witch of the west. In the book, she appears for one or two chapters, has almost all of her minions killed by the tin man in the scarecrow before they even get to her castle and is scared of the dark. You never are actually worried about her hurting Dorothy.

In the movie, Margaret Hamilton gives us a witch that has been giving generations of children nightmares. She shows up right after Dorothy makes it to us, is a constant looming threat, and is a fireball throwing bad ass. She is a driving presence throughout the entire movie.

OK, so I've established that everyone should see the movie. Having said that, the book is still pretty good. It is worth reading and it is especially worth reading to your kids.

You see, there are 13 more books to go. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the gateway to a whole bunch of other fun books, ones that you in any children that you read them to will probably get a real kick out of.