Baum's Fantasy Cosmos
In 1905, Baum had published his most "classic" fairy tale, Queen Zixi of Ix. With John Dough in the following year, Baum returned to the unique hybrid fantasy world of his Oz books and related works. Like Dorothy Gale, John Dough can travel (by air) from a contemporaneous United States (c. 1900) to extraordinary countries of the imagination; the types of creatures he meets are those of the world of Oz — fairies, talking animals, and animated artificial beings (scarecrow; wooden Indian). Chick the Cherub is another of Baum's unrealistically free-spirited and fearless child protagonists. The Great Elixir is comparable to the Powder of Life that is a key element in Baum's fantasy domain. Baum mixes technology into his Oz fantasies and into John Dough as well; aircraft and incubators were recent developments in 1906. The divided country of Hiland and Loland foreshadows the similarly divided country of Sky Island (1912). The "fairy beavers" are a kind of animal spirit Baum employs in his The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. The gem-encrusted underground realm of the fairy beavers resembles the domain of the Nome King in the Oz books.
John Dough, Chick the Cherub, and Para Bruin make cameo appearances in the fifth Oz book, The Road to Oz (1909). A mifket makes a brief appearance in the tenth Oz book, Rinkitink in Oz (1916). Jack Snow adapted the story of John Dough for his 1949 book The Shaggy Man of Oz.
Read more about this topic: John Dough And The Cherub
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