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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

By: L. Frank Baum Narrated by Anne Hathaway

First published in 1900. Published by Audible March, 2012 for the A List Collection

Length: 3 Hours and 49 Minutes

Genre: Children Fiction, Fantasy, and classic literature

Rating: Two and a half Stars

Acquired: Purchased through audible.co

 

One return trip home to Kansas, one brain, one heart, and a bit of courage in the land of the powerful Wizard of Oz

Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are country bumpkins. They have never been on an adventure, killed a witch, or met a powerful wizard. That was until a nasty Tornado landed them in a magical country with all the above and more. Follow the yellow brick road and you can meet, or hope to meet, an all powerful wizard.  There is plenty of adventure with a brainless scare crow, a heartless Tin Woodman, and a cowardly lion. What can go wrong with this oddball group trying to help Dorothy and Toto get home?

This classic children’s novel was fun to listen to; Anne Hathaway did great voices. Unfortunately, I just didn’t find this as great of a story I wanted to.  I liked listening to Hathaway’s voice, but even at under four hours it took me a long time to really get invested; honestly, I don’t think I ever did. I didn’t have many problems with the writing, itself. Or, the narration. One silly issue I had, and it’s silly, is the silver shoes. Yes, silver shoes. Silly, but the ruby slippers are classic, so to find out they were actually silver, I was a tad put off. Silly, and nitpicking, I know. I stand by that complaint, though. It really bothered me, but it didn’t fully take me away from Oz.

There aren’t many concrete reasons why I disliked the novel. I wanted to like it; to really analyze the text. I just couldn’t. Nor can I believe there are fourteen novels in this series. He had that much to say apparently. I just don’t see it. Thankfully, Hathaway’s wonderful voices delighted me. I would recommend her recording over anyone else’s, I’d say. She was one of the few redeeming aspects of this novel.