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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: and Through the Looking Glass
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass / Hunting of the Snark / Phantasmagoria and Other Poems
252 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1987
8 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Lewis Carroll
6,135 books8,411 followersThe Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer.
His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense.
Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, University Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic, academic author of learned theses, gifted pioneer of portrait photography, colourful writer of imaginative genius and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses.
He also has works published under his real name.
His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense.
Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, University Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic, academic author of learned theses, gifted pioneer of portrait photography, colourful writer of imaginative genius and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses.
He also has works published under his real name.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 4, 2016
Well, Lewis Cartoll wrote some really, quite odd things.
It took me a while to finish reading this little book, partially because obviously the English is slightly different and I had to grasp certain words, and partially because... Well, let's be honest here, this is waaaay too much cray-cray for one sitting!
Alice's adventures in Wonderland
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I can understand why many people reading this in their grown years again or for the first time, not as a child, sees this story to be complete and utter nonsense and find Alice to be a spoilt brat, but I couldn't help enjoying it.
I found it to be so wonderfully strange and although I thought I knew the story from Disney's animated film, reading it for the first time, in it's original text, shows so much more. The film definitely makes more sense of this story than the book does, but it was rather bewilderingly fun to read about the random nature of Wonderland and seeing little Alice trying to be grown up and going about things as an adult.
I also found that the film seems to mix this story with Through the Looking Glass!
I definitely preferred this over the second story and if I was to rate it on it's own it would get a 3 stars out of five.
Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There
---------------------------------------------------------------
The follow up to Alice's wild adventures was not as entertaining for me because I found it to be totally confusing, silly and left me feeling disconnected from the story.
Whereas I found the first book to have at least some plot (Alice learning about the world of Wonderland and finding her way home), this story was just plotless and pointless. It started as though it might go somewhere interesting but after we actually get past the looking glass exploration, things just get too wacky-woo for me to be able to even WANT to make sense of it!
I was expecting it to be a direct sequel, but I don't even remember Wonderland mentioned. It's like the first book never happened.
Scenes just melted into another, something that might have worked in animation, but just felt messy and unrelatable as a reading experience. All adaptations of both stories makes the stories sound better than really are, I'm afraid.
This would possibly get a 1.5/2 star rating.
Other works
-------------------
The other works included in this, undeniably adorable, edition was some of Carroll's poems.
Of course, being Carroll, he wrote them to be totally bizarre!
I did, surprisingly, enjoy these, even if I couldn't make sense of them and my favourite was Phantasmagoria.
I would give these poems a 2.5 stars, or there abouts.
I would say Carrol's Alice stories are definitely overrated in the media. I don't think it should be a story for children, really, but some pieces are quite entertaining, for an adult, in my opinion.
Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy!
Gén
It took me a while to finish reading this little book, partially because obviously the English is slightly different and I had to grasp certain words, and partially because... Well, let's be honest here, this is waaaay too much cray-cray for one sitting!
Alice's adventures in Wonderland
---------------------------------------------------
I can understand why many people reading this in their grown years again or for the first time, not as a child, sees this story to be complete and utter nonsense and find Alice to be a spoilt brat, but I couldn't help enjoying it.
I found it to be so wonderfully strange and although I thought I knew the story from Disney's animated film, reading it for the first time, in it's original text, shows so much more. The film definitely makes more sense of this story than the book does, but it was rather bewilderingly fun to read about the random nature of Wonderland and seeing little Alice trying to be grown up and going about things as an adult.
I also found that the film seems to mix this story with Through the Looking Glass!
I definitely preferred this over the second story and if I was to rate it on it's own it would get a 3 stars out of five.
Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There
---------------------------------------------------------------
The follow up to Alice's wild adventures was not as entertaining for me because I found it to be totally confusing, silly and left me feeling disconnected from the story.
Whereas I found the first book to have at least some plot (Alice learning about the world of Wonderland and finding her way home), this story was just plotless and pointless. It started as though it might go somewhere interesting but after we actually get past the looking glass exploration, things just get too wacky-woo for me to be able to even WANT to make sense of it!
I was expecting it to be a direct sequel, but I don't even remember Wonderland mentioned. It's like the first book never happened.
Scenes just melted into another, something that might have worked in animation, but just felt messy and unrelatable as a reading experience. All adaptations of both stories makes the stories sound better than really are, I'm afraid.
This would possibly get a 1.5/2 star rating.
Other works
-------------------
The other works included in this, undeniably adorable, edition was some of Carroll's poems.
Of course, being Carroll, he wrote them to be totally bizarre!
I did, surprisingly, enjoy these, even if I couldn't make sense of them and my favourite was Phantasmagoria.
I would give these poems a 2.5 stars, or there abouts.
I would say Carrol's Alice stories are definitely overrated in the media. I don't think it should be a story for children, really, but some pieces are quite entertaining, for an adult, in my opinion.
Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy!
Gén
March 12, 2023
I read as an adult, so maybe a bit biased.
Lewis Carrol’s fascination with Alice Liddel was weird and his personal views were questionable and are left all over the place.
First, for those who don’t know, Lewis Carrol loved little girls but disliked little boys. In fact, he took upwards of 400 naked pictures of girls and only 3-4 survived. In them, the girls are posed looking at the camera and inviting the male gaze. Sources say that Lewis Carrol wasn’t a sexual predator because he never acted on his impulses… but still creepy.
In these stories, adult women are depicted negatively as evil and corrupt and whatnot, and the boys are abused. Take for instance the duchess beating the s**t out of that baby boy, all while Alice watched.
As for the nonesense, I’m all for it. Even though Carrol mocks the Duchess for always trying to find some sort of moral in every story, Carrol did not leave the story without any of his personal beliefs. His takes are luke-warm and weird.
Lewis Carrol’s fascination with Alice Liddel was weird and his personal views were questionable and are left all over the place.
First, for those who don’t know, Lewis Carrol loved little girls but disliked little boys. In fact, he took upwards of 400 naked pictures of girls and only 3-4 survived. In them, the girls are posed looking at the camera and inviting the male gaze. Sources say that Lewis Carrol wasn’t a sexual predator because he never acted on his impulses… but still creepy.
In these stories, adult women are depicted negatively as evil and corrupt and whatnot, and the boys are abused. Take for instance the duchess beating the s**t out of that baby boy, all while Alice watched.
As for the nonesense, I’m all for it. Even though Carrol mocks the Duchess for always trying to find some sort of moral in every story, Carrol did not leave the story without any of his personal beliefs. His takes are luke-warm and weird.
August 16, 2023
No matter the edition I read, this remains one of my favorite children’s classics.
May 3, 2021
I had high expectations from this book. I wanted to love the story despite hating Lewis Carroll and his reasonings for writing this.
Growing up, I loved Alice in Wonderland. I could relate to Alice. So the second star is only for the nostalgia of the book.
I disliked how many poems there were in the book, I just found that it took me out of the story trying to envision this completely random and weird story inside of the already really random and weird story.
This is the first (and hopefully last) time I say this, but the movie was better than the book. If you like the movies, don't bother with the book. If you're curious about what Alice's Adventures In Wonderland is about, just watch the film.
Growing up, I loved Alice in Wonderland. I could relate to Alice. So the second star is only for the nostalgia of the book.
I disliked how many poems there were in the book, I just found that it took me out of the story trying to envision this completely random and weird story inside of the already really random and weird story.
This is the first (and hopefully last) time I say this, but the movie was better than the book. If you like the movies, don't bother with the book. If you're curious about what Alice's Adventures In Wonderland is about, just watch the film.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews