Enchanted Island of Yew, L. Frank Baum
Enchanted Island of Yew, L. Frank Baum
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Enchanted Island of Yew

Author: L. Frank Baum

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

Unabridged: 4 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 05/28/2013


Synopsis

The Island of Yew is divided into five kingdoms, the central of which, Spor, is a place ravaged by crimes and robbers. One day, a young girl, Sesely, living in the nicer kingdom of Heg, is enjoying a picnic with some companions. A fairy comes down and begs them to help change her into a human. Sesely and her friends, amazed, obey her orders and soon they find themselves in the company of a young man, named Prince Marvel. Prince Marvel desires to go on adventures and become a hero, which he is able to do easily enough in crime-ridden Yew. He faces the bandits of Wul-Takim, the Royal Dragon of King Terribus, a strange mix-up in the land of Twi, a fake magician Kwytoffle, and the Red Rogue of Dawna. In all, Prince Marvel spends a very busy and successful year in his mortal form and turns back into a fairy when the year is up.
L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author of children's books, most famous for his "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Baum wrote 13 sequels to his first Oz book and still has a huge fan base to this day. "The Enchanted Island of Yew" is one of Baum's many non-Oz fantasy works.

About L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum was born in 1856 in Chittenango, New York, to oil magnate Benjamin Ward Baum and Cynthia (Stanton) Baum, a women's rights activist. He was privately tutored at home and spent two years at Peekskill Military Academy.

In 1873, Baum became a reporter for the New York World. Two years later, he founded the New Era weekly in Pennsylvania. He also worked as a poultry farmer with B. W. Baum and Son and edited the Poultry Record and wrote columns for New York Farmer and Dairyman. In New York, Baum acted under the name George Brooks with May Roberts and the Sterling Comedy in plays that he had written. He owned an opera house in 1882-83 and toured with his own repertory company. In 1882 he married Maud Gage; they had four sons.

In 1883, Baum returned to Syracuse to work in the family oil business. His subsequent endeavor was not successful; his South Dakota general store, Baum's Bazaar, failed, and from 1888 to 1890, he ran the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. Baum then moved to Chicago and tried various sales positions. In 1897, he founded the National Association of Window Trimmers and edited Show Window from 1897 to 1902.

Baum made his debut as a novelist in 1897 with Mother Goose in Prose, which was based on stories he told to his own children. Its last chapter introduced the farm girl Dorothy. In 1899, Baum published Father Goose: His Book, which quickly became a bestseller. His next work was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the story of little Dorothy Gale from Kansas, who is transported by a twister to a magical realm. The book was published at Baum's own expense.

The first of the Oz books was made into a musical in 1901. Since its appearance, the story has been filmed many times. Other novels in the series are The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz , The Road to Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, The Scarecrow of Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz, The Tin Woodman of Oz, The Magic of Oz, Glinda of Oz, and The Visitors from Oz, which was adapted from a comic strip by Baum.

During his career, Baum wrote more than sixty books, some of them for adults, including The Last Egyptian. He also gathered material for works aimed at teenagers during his motoring tours across the country and travels in Europe and Egypt.

Born with a congenitally weak heart, Baum was ill through much of his life. He died on May 6, 1919, in Hollywood, where he lived in a house he called Ozcot.


Reviews

I liatened to the Librivox audiobook version of the book, narrated by Ted Delorme and oh my god, this was one the best audiobook narrations I listened to. They gave every character such a distinct voice and character you could follow conversations easier than written dialogs. I loved the fairy tale.......more

Goodreads review by David

I listened to this book (in audiobook form via Librivox.org) in its entirety during third shift at work. It was really fun. A few oddities, and a creative story setup (from a writer's perspective) at the very beginning. The adventures were very entertaining and colorful. I thoroughly enjoyed the boo......more

Goodreads review by Janet

A transgender fairy/prince (she tries out being male because they have better adventures) goes adventuring, picking up a peculiar entourage along the way. The plot has a lot of similarities to the Oz books. Baum had a great ability to dream up oddities, and I enjoyed the bizarre characters who fill......more

Goodreads review by itchy

eponymous sentence: p49: That a fairy should have assumed a mortal form he never once considered, for such a thing was until then unheard of in the Enchanted Island of Yew. This a solid fantastical tale for the young ones. It does have similarities with its predecessor, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and......more

Goodreads review by Eleanor

Three young girls wander into an enchanted forest and encounter a fairy woman, who tells them she's bored with her perfect, immortal existence and wants to try life as a human. After some discussion, the fairy decides to become a prince, because boys get to have more adventures than girls, apparentl......more