Out of Oz
Contents (3)
Dedication
for Cassie Jones
Epigraph
[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 Kermode’s appraisal of I. A. Richards from Bury Place Papers We believe the explanation we hear last. It’s 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 al loose ends in the last chapter, is only a storyteling ruse. The device runs contrary to experience, wouldn’t you say? Time never simplifies—it unravels and complicates. Guilty parties show up everywhere. The plot does nothing but thicken.
—Michele de Kretser, The Hamilton Case
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
The Wicked Years: A Note to Readers
Charting the Wicked Years Chronologicaly
Maps: The City of Shiz, Gilikin; The Emerald City
Significant Families of Oz
A Brief Outline of the Throne Ministers of Oz
Prologue: Out of Oz
I. To Cal Winter upon Water
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II. The Patchwork Conscience of Oz
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III. The Chancel of the Ladyfish
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IV. The Judgment of Dorothy
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V. At St. Prowd’s
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VI. God’s Great-Niece
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VII. To Cal the Lost Forward
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VIII. Somewhere
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Acknowledgments
Coda
About the Author
Also by Gregory Maguire
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
THE WICKED YEARS
A Note to Readers
Our story so far:
Wicked begins with the birth of a green-skinned child, Elphaba Thropp—later known as the Wicked Witch of the West—and portrays her unlikely colege 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, Lir Thropp, is fourteen.
Son of a Witch tels the story of Lir’s life, revealed in flashbacks, while Elphaba’s brother Shel strengthens his position in the Emerald City, particularly against Munchkinland. Orphaned at fourteen, without guidance or patronage, Lir stumbles into the military, leads a raid against Quadlings, and goes AWOL, eventualy heading a protest against his uncle Shel, now the Emperor of Oz. Son of a Witch concludes with the arrival of a child—a green-skinned daughter—born to Lir and Candle, a Quadling. Lir is about twenty-four.