Rinkitink in Oz, book 10 in the series, is a book I never read as a child. My library didn’t have it, and I didn’t make an effort to seek it out, since I’d heard it “wasn’t really an Oz book.” In fact, it’s an unpublished, unrelated story that Baum wedged into the series by giving Oz some new neighboring countries and bringing in Dorothy as Deus Ex Machina at the end. It is not a bad story, and I wish Baum had been able to make it stand on its own and not bring in Oz at all. But his readers, like child-me, rejected non-Oz fare, so he conceded to that demand.
Until that abrupt ending, we get to enjoy the fairy-tale-like adventures of Prince Inga of the island of Pingaree, whose parents and entire people are stolen away by a vicious enemy. Inga manages to rescue them using three magic pearls that give him wisdom, strength, and protection. The comedy and suspense of the story largely hinge on these pearls, hidden in the pointy toes of Inga’s shoes, which get lost and then found again in various combinations. Eventually he is imprisoned by the Nome King, who has some dastardly trials for him.
Rinkitink is a jolly, fat king from another country who comes in for no apparent reason other than to offer comic foil to the earnest Inga, along with terrible verse. His bad-tempered goat sidekick Bilbil adds another flavor of comedy, probably — as with the verses — intended for the stage. There is an unfortunate racist slur near the end, when an interesting bit of magic is being done on Bilbil, and a “Tottenhot” is referred to as a lower form of human.
Otherwise, it was an entertaining enough, but I find myself forgetting the details almost at once. It is still the books I loved as a child that stick with me the most.
It was a little different from the previous Oz books, but I quite enjoyed it. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to keep writing for a demanding audience.
Yes, a book a year plus everything else he was trying to do. It’s understandable he pulled out an unpublished manuscript for a bit of a breather.