The Wizard of the Emerald City
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| Author | Alexander Melentyevich Volkov |
|---|---|
| Original title | Волшебник Изумрудного Города |
| Illustrator | Leonid Vladimyrsky |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy/Childrens book |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1939 |
| Followed by | Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers (1963) |
The Wizard of the Emerald City (Russian: Волшебник Изумрудного Города) is a 1939 children's novel by Russian writer Alexander Melentyevich Volkov. The book is a loose translation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The names of most characters are changed, some elements of Baum's novel are removed, and some new elements are added. The book was revised in 1959 and became quite popular in the 1960s, leading to five sequels: Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers (1963), The Seven Underground Kings (1964), The Fiery God of the Marrans (1968), The Yellow Fog (1970), and The Secret of the Abandoned Castle (1975, published in 1982).
Volkov's Magic Land series, as it was called, was translated into many languages and was popular with children all over the Eastern bloc. Volkov's version of Oz seems to be better known than Baum's in some countries, for example in China and the former East Germany. The first four books in the series have been translated into English — or retranslated, in the case of the first book — by Peter L. Blystone, and were published by Red Branch press in two volumes (two books a volume) in 1991 and 1993. A very important cause for the big success were the pictures made by Leonid Vladimirsky.
[edit] Characters
| Name | Russian | Translation | Baum equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ellie | Элли | – | Dorothy |
| Totoshka | Тотошка | – | Toto |
| Strashila | Страшила | Scary one | Scarecrow |
| Zhelezny Drovosek | Железный Дровосек | Iron Lumberjack | The Tin Woodman |
| Truslivy Lev | Трусливый Лев | Cowardly Lion | Cowardly Lion |
| James Goodwyn | Джеймс Гудвин | – | The Wizard |
| Gingema | Гингема | – | Wicked Witch of the East |
| Bastinda | Бастинда | – | Wicked Witch of the West |
