Gregory Maguire - Out of Oz: The Final Volume in the Wicked Years

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Lost

Mirror Mirror

Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation

Matchless

The Next Queen of Heaven

OTHER BOOKS IN THE WICKED YEARS

Wicked

Son of a Witch

A Lion Among Men

Duck Variations 2010, Ron MacLean

Atlantis 2010, Todd Hearon

OUT OF OZ. Copyright 2011 by Gregory Maguire.

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FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-054894-0

EPub Edition NOVEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062101235

11 12 13 14 15 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

: The City of Shiz, Gillikin; The Emerald City

[He] had a magical view of the work of words, that it is hard to conceive of a nobler magic than the prospect of a salvation which is not just for us.

Michael Wood, in The London Review of Books, on Frank Kermodes appraisal of I. A. Richards from Bury Place Papers

We believe the explanation we hear last. Its one of the ways in which narrative influences our perception of truth. We crave finality, an end to interpretation, not seeing that this too, the tying up of all loose ends in the last chapter, is only a storytelling ruse. The device runs contrary to experience, wouldnt you say? Time never simplifiesit unravels and complicates. Guilty parties show up everywhere. The plot does nothing but thicken.

Michelle de Kretser, The Hamilton Case

for Cassie Jones

Our story so far:

Wicked begins with the birth of a green-skinned child, Elphaba Thropplater known as the Wicked Witch of the Westand portrays her unlikely college friendship with Galinda Upland and her romance with Fiyero Tigelaar. The arriviste Wizard of Oz consolidates his power in the Emerald City and throughout Oz. Under the governance of the Wicked Witch of the East, Nessarose Thropp, Munchkinland secedes from Loyal Oz. The novel closes with the Matter of Dorothy, when Elphaba is thirty-eight and her son, Liir Thropp, is fourteen.

Son of a Witch tells the story of Liirs life, revealed in flashbacks, while Elphabas brother Shell strengthens his position in the Emerald City, particularly against Munchkinland. Orphaned at fourteen, without guidance or patronage, Liir stumbles into the military, leads a raid against Quadlings, and goes AWOL, eventually heading a protest against his uncle Shell, now the Emperor of Oz. Son of a Witch concludes with the arrival of a childa green-skinned daughterborn to Liir and Candle, a Quadling. Liir is about twenty-four.

A Lion Among Men refers to the Cowardly Lion, known as Brrr. His story is told alternately with that of the ancient oracle, Yackle. Brrr muses on his part in the Matter of Dorothy, his rise and fall in society, and his plea-bargaining with Emerald City magistrates to avoid a prison sentence. Hunting for the mysterious oracle Yackle, he locates the lost Grimmerie in the bargain. At novels end, a skirmish between rabble-rousing Munchkinlanders and the Emerald City military threatens to ignite into full-scale civil war. Caught in the crosshairs, Brrr escapes with the troupe that accompanies the Clock of the Time Dragon.

Out of Oz begins a few months after the close of A Lion Among Men.

Oh, as to time, well, no one in Oz ticks off tocks very systematically. Each dot or upstroke represents a year more or less.

WICKED

OUT OF OZ

The story begins six months after the end of A LION AMONG MEN.

Liir is about 30; Rain is 7 or 8, give or take.

THE CITY OF SHIZ, GILLIKIN

THE EMERALD CITY

Key

= marriage (~) romance sans wedlock

THE HOUSE OF OZMA

The Emerald City

THE THROPPS OF MUNCHKINLAND

Colwen Grounds in Munchkinland

THE UPLANDS OF GILLIKIN

Frottica in northwest Gillikin

THE TIGELAARS, ARJIKI CHIEFTAINS OF THE VINKUS

Kiamo Ko on the slopes of Knobblehead Pike, the Great Kells of the Vinkus

Augmented with notes about selected incidents of interest to students of modern history.

THE OZMA YEARS

The matrilineal House of Ozma established.

The Ozma line descends from a Gillikinese clan. The Ozma line claims legitimacy through a purported divine relationship with Lurlina, fabled creatrix of Oz. Depending on the argument, historians recognize between forty and fifty legitimate Ozmas and their regents.

The last Ozma, Ozma Tippetarius, is born of Ozma the Bilious.

Ozma the Bilious expires through an accident involving rat poisoning in the risotto. Her consort, Pastorius, becomes Ozma Regent during the minority of Ozma Tippetarius.

Pastorius rules over central Oz.

The Ozma Regent renames the hamlet known as Nubbly Meadows, near the ancient burial ground of Open Tombs, as the Emerald City (EC). Declares the EC as the capital of united Oz.

The Great Drought begins.

By balloon, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs arrives in the Emerald City.

Diggs successfully mounts a Palace coup dtat. Pastorius is murdered, and the infant Ozma Tippetarius disappears. She is presumed slain, perhaps in Southstairs Prison (built over the Open Tombs), though an evergreen rumor claims she lies enchanted in a cave awaiting her return at Ozs darkest hour. Diggs becomes known as the Wizard of Oz.

THE WIZARDIC YEARS

The Emerald City renovation is completed.

The Wizard of Oz orders construction of the Yellow Brick Road.