For The Reading Rush read-a-thon I read a bind-up of two Lewis Carroll books: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Here’s a quick review of both!

About The Book 📚

Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Author: Lewis Carroll

Publication Date: 2019 (first published 1865 and 1871)

Publisher: Arcturus Publishing

Suggested Reader Age: 8+

Genre: Children’s Literary Nonsense, Fantasy

Goodreads Link

“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”

My Review

 › In the first book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice follows a white rabbit with pink eyes, a waistcoat and a pocket watch down a hole. She finds a small door which leads to a whimsical world filled with silly characters like the Mad Hatter, an enormous puppy, a large blue caterpillar, a baby that turns into a pig, The Red Queen, Cheshire cat, Gryphon and Mock Turtle.

“How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another.”

 

› It took me awhile to suspend my adult mind and embrace the nonsense writing, but once I did I found myself smiling and laughing.

“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”

The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know,” Alice answered.

“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

 
› Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a random plot that doesn’t make any sense, and I found Alice to be an annoying, selfish child who’s constantly crying.



 › In Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There Alice is 7.5 years-old. While playing with her kittens she observes the looking glass and wonders what life would be like on the other side.

“there’s the room you can see through the glass – that’s just the same as our drawing-room, only the things go the other way.”

The world through the looking glass is just as silly as the one down the rabbit hole. It’s another nonsense-land with talking flowers, insects, and chess pieces, bread-and-butterflies, rocking-horse-flies, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, the Red Queen and the White Queen.

“It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played – all over the world – if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!”

Alice’s goal is to travel all the squares of the chess board before the sun goes down and she must return to the “normal” world. The Looking Glass plot is much easier to follow than Wonderland‘s and I would have to say I enjoyed it just a touch more.

 
› Final Thoughts
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are must-reads for all those who are young at heart!

About The Author

“The 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.”

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8164.Lewis_Carroll

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