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    Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
    Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
    Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
    Ebook276 pages4 hours

    Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

    By Lewis Carroll

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    About this ebook

    Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.' Curious Alice falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with ideas of human perception and logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFantastica
    Release dateJun 15, 2015
    ISBN9781910833278
    Author

    Lewis Carroll

    Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, in 1871. Considered a master of the genre of literary nonsense, he is renowned for his ingenious wordplay and sense of logic, and his highly original vision.

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    Reviews for Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

    4/5

    5,240 ratings132 reviews

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    • 4/5
      so, he liked little girls. a bit quirky but if he didn't, he wouldn't have had no motivation to write this ultimate classic that activates any odd-thinkers thinking capacities and should be made into a musical not another movie for the songs in it are brilliant.
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite book EVER! Love the stories, love the nonsense, the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter..the tea party scene...the rhymes and the little children songs turned to Lewis Carroll's thinking way. AWE-SOME!! It's my fave ever!

      Really! Own them all!!!
    • 4/5
      Who doesn't love Alice in Wonderland?
    • 2/5
      I watched the movie, "Terminal", and after thought, "Why have I never read "Alice in Wonderland"? So I did! And to use an Alice-ish phrase, it was just a bunch of gobblydeegook! I mean, it was cool to read as a chance to discover where all of the popular characters and poems came from, and to compare it with the Disney film I grew up with! But really, it's just a lot of nonsensical adventures that mostly dabble in wordplay and weird-as-heck creatures! Don't get me wrong, some are rather witty and insightful. But, for me, it all reads like the author may have eaten too much of that mushroom himself!
    • 4/5
      Having seen a number of versions of the book made into movies was not at the top of my reading list. Was interesting to see how the movies have taken bits and pieces of both of the stories and made them into one. Most of us are familiar with Tweedle Dee and Dum being in the story which is actually from Through the Looking Glass. But didn't know that the Mad Hatter and March Hare are stuck at tea time due to an argument with time. Also who knew that Humpty Dumpty is a whole chapter in the book. was interesting to read. Wonderland is much easier to read than Looking Glass. Looking Glass seems to jump around a lot.
    • 4/5
      Classic Alice! I loved this book (both of them really), though loved Wonderland more so than Looking Glass. Lewis Carroll definitely had a bit of an imagination and it translates really well in the story. It's in many ways a story of acceptance, being yourself, and being kind (because who else hates how the Queen treats everyone!?).
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed reading this classic in it's original form, although it amazed me any publisher touched it - they certainly wouldn't today. And it amazes me more that it became a 'classic'! Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was enjoyable in it's nonsense, but Through the Looking-Glass made little to no sense in the majority of its scenes. Now I am at least family with where stories of Humpty Dumpty, TweedleDum & TweedleDee and many others originated. Happy I read it, but glad it is over!
    • 4/5
      This is a really beautiful recording of Lewis Carroll's classic children's books. In the first, Alice sees a rabbit wearing a waistcoat, who pulls a watch out of his pocket and frets about being late, and she follows him down his rabbit hole. She finds herself in a surreal and comical landscape, with food that makes her shrink or grow when eaten, talking animals, a cat that appears and disappears in stages, and a royal court composed of a deck of cards ruled by the King and Queen of Hearts.

      In the second, on a dark winter day, Alice walks through a looking glass that has turned to mist, into the mirror house. Once through, she finds that outside the range of what's visible in the mirror, it's very different indeed. Here, she finds herself in a chess game, with living Red and White chess pieces, as well as talking flowers, fairy tale creatures such as Humpty Dumpty, and even the food served at a fancy dinner party speaks and has personality. Also, here, it's summer, not winter.

      Whether you've read Alice's adventures before or not, this is a delightful listen.

      Recommended.

      I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is good to have a wonderfully magical place to escape to that can be as confusing as in real life. And, a wonderland quest is a perfectly curious escape. Plus, I am a huge lover of unusual anthropomorphic creatures. And, I want you all to picture bunny's wearing waistcoat-pockets as they scamper about. I loved the Disney picture book and movie too. There is the benefit of the bold colors to stimulate the senses and elevate the mood. And, I have often questioned if this is why I love Masonic checkered floors.
    • 4/5
      Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass has been so highly quoted, and adapted into several movies, that I just didn't feel a strong urge to read the originals. I'm glad I finally did -- motivated by the fact that this is included in the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
    • 2/5
      While the book is vastly better than any of the movie versions I've seen, it still fell short of the mark. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more as a juvenile reader.
    • 4/5
      Alice in Wonderland is a story that I knew but never read. I finally picked up the illustrated version (via Kindle), and it surpassed my expectations -- it's refreshingly absurd and a great escape from the working life.

      I wasn't as hooked on Through the Looking-Glass, perhaps due to the abundance of nonsensical poetry. But it's well worth reading too if you can get the two books in a set.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed it more than I expected. Certainly a staggering number of puns helped that along. In a Bullwinkle and Rocky type style there is something for both adults and children in this simultaneously.
    • 4/5
      I love this book, but this is definitely one for older students. It is very confusing and doesn't necessarily make sense most of the time.
    • 5/5
      finishing through the looking glass right now. its a strange chess-like dream trip versus Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which is more of a card-playing dream trip. this story is great with some fascinating mathematical puzzles that appear in the story of a young girl who follows a white rabbit through the rabbit hole into Wonderland.
    • 2/5
      It was an okay book for me. It was really written for children and I'm think I'm thinking way too much adult things when I was reading it. I'm a disillusioned adult that's why I didn't enjoy it! It has a dream-like quality especially when the characters are conversing (I'm confused and feel left-out at times). I like "Through the Looking Glass" better.
    • 5/5
      SLOW DOWN. This book is full of stories you think you know from the cobbling together of many movie versions and society's collective memories, and it jumps from one bit of nonsense to another, so it's easy, particularly as an adult, to dash through it like a white rabbit. But, though these works were ostensibly written to a young girl and are often treated as children's books (even by Carroll himself in the preface to a second edition of "Through the Looking-Glass," which is included in this volume), they are chock-full of ingenious language that you really need to stop and think about to truly appreciate. Lovely thing that, how the English don't write down to children. I've heard that "Alice" is some sort of allegory for the new mathematical ideas of the time. I don't know whether that's true. But from a linguistic standpoint alone, this book is a treasure trove. The poetry and punnery are second to none, and constructed not just with an eye on artistry, but with a real intent to comment on how language (and by extension society) works.The Barnes and Noble edition of this book is a great buy, featuring the original Tenniel illustrations and a very informative introduction. Unlike other volumes in the series, this one is not overly annotated, nor do the footnotes and endnotes presuppose that the reader must be seven years old. As always with these editions, the end of the book offers up works inspired by what you have just read, along with a variety of critical comments. As a 2004 edition, the former of these things is not up-to-date enough to acknowledge the recent Tim Burton adaptation, and is certainly not an exhaustive list anyway (after all, how could they forget the Star Trek episode "Shore Leave?"), but, as W. H. Auden suggests in the critical comments, Carroll is probably near the top of the list of the culture's "most frequently cited without attribution" authors, so where would one begin?
    • 4/5
      Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't find it as captivating as the first. The plot was a little more well-rounded but at points, some of the conversations and poems went on a bit too much.
      I found reading Through the Looking Glass was more enjoyable visually than my experience of the first, but this was due to the wonderful illustrations that really help you to visualise the obsurd scenes.
    • 4/5
      Crazy read. You'll feel all out of sorts, but want to keep reading.
    • 5/5
      Possibly my favorite book of all time. Before I understood the mind-altering influences that led him to write this, I was captivated by the world of wonder and fantasy he created. It was everything I wished my own adventures could be.
    • 4/5
      Along with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I reread this one nearly ever year. I enjoy it a lot, but it will never be quite as beloved as Alice.
    • 4/5
      I've read this at least twice, once as a child and once in a children's literature class. I think as a child I found it a bit too scary and maybe that's why I don't recall reading it aloud to my own children. But, it's certainly an important part of our culture.
    • 4/5
      Alice falls down the rabbit hole and has many adventures Just as charming now as when it was published in 1965
    • 2/5
      Pretty disappointed with the book. :(

      I thought I would like it a lot but so many of jumping around and constant changing that made me feel like I got lost...several times. Had a hard time to stay motivated to read but I did finish the book.
    • 5/5
      I think most people are familiar with Alice to some degree; as children (and maybe more often as adults) we go through periods of complete and utter boredom. We sit with a vacant expression that provokes the dreaded question -

      "Don't you have something to do?"

      Or, during a lesson about how 12 times 1 is 12, 12 times 2 is 24, 12 times 3 is 36...

      It is so easy to slip into a daydream when one is faced with boredom. For Alice, this daydream is a white rabbit with a pocket-watch, muttering some complete nonsense about how it is late! The next thing Alice knows, she is taken into a series of absurd adventures in a land where she is the most logical person there.

      In a way, the Alice books are a parody of those children's stories that are very clearly written to teach a moral lesson to its young readers; Alice already knows what is right and wrong, as demonstrated by the way she handles conflicts with unreasonable characters. She even understands on some level how, as people grow up, they sometimes forget (or neglect) their common sense.

      Alice, being a child, struggles with communicating her feelings and often runs into fake words that try to articulate those emotions. It is a very accurate representation, I think, of how children react to their emotions. There is a great deal of crying when they fail to string words together in order to articulate their thoughts or feelings.

      This is a book full of wonderful nonsense - riddles not meant to be solved, poetry that sounds gorgeous but doesn't necessarily make sense at first glance, puns on words and names and situations; and despite all the improbable things that happen, it is not impossible to find true meaning in Alice's dreams. I think anyone who had a childhood can find a bit if familiarity and even comfort within the pages of these fantastic tales.
    • 5/5
      This has been an amazing journey with Alice. This book is so oddly smart, imaginative, original, thought-provoking, satirical, funny, weird, and fun.
      It is like nothing else that I have read. I am amazed <3
    • 4/5
      I know I read this as a child, and mostly found it boring and a little confusing. I also read Alice to my older son, and he found it boring and confusing (I spent a lot of time explaining).

      Reading it to myself, it is great. Though Alice is 7.5, it's really more of a book for 10 year olds--much younger, and many of the jokes would make no sense. The wordplay is magnificent.
    • 4/5
      I read this as a child, but I had to reread it as an adult. It's even better the second time around.
    • 4/5
      If you haven't read these as an adult, I would highly recommend them. I just read them aloud to my children, and they are so deeply strange. And funny, and sad, and beautiful. Clearly written by a major freak, of a particularly Cambridge variety, but one I wouldn't mind meeting for a picnic and rowboat outing, with my kids, so I could eavesdrop on their conversation. I wouldn't leave them alone with him though.
    • 5/5
      I can't remember reading Alice in Wonderland in childhood, and enough feels unfamiliar that I don't think I ever did. Yet so much--so many of the images, phrases, characters and situations are very familiar, because this book is so woven into the popular culture. Yet it all read so fresh, was such a delight. Carroll reveled in word play of so many kinds. There are nursery rhymes, riddles, nonsense words, original poetry and verse parodies, puns. In fact, the sequel, Through the Looking Glass has a witty running joke about etymology and semantics. How's that for a children's tale? Alice herself, based on a real little girl the author knew, feels very much like a real little girl, and not a miniature adult. I'm not sure which story to name my favorite. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts ("Off with her head!") and the Cheshire Cat. Through the Looking Glass has the living chess game that must have inspired Rowling, Tweddledee and Tweddledum, "Jabberwocky" and Humpty Dumpty. The creativity and imagination is prodigious. And most of all, even for an adult (especially for an adult?) this is absolutely fun without one dull spot in either tale. This is one children's story that absolutely deserves its classic status.

    Book preview

    Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

    WONDERLAND

    CHAPTER I

    DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE

    ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations?

    So she was considering in her own mind, (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the pleasure of making a daisy - chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

    There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’ (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

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

    The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

    Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled ‘ORANGE MARMALADE’, but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

    ‘Well!’ thought Alice to herself, ‘after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they’ll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!’ (Which was very likely true.)

    Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! ‘I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’ she said aloud. ‘I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think —’ (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) ‘— yes, that’s about the right distance — but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?’ (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

    Presently she began again. ‘I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think —’ (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) ‘— but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?’ (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke — fancy curtseying as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) ‘And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.’

    Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. ‘Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I should think!’ (Dinah was the cat.) ‘I hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that’s very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?’ And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, ‘Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?’ and sometimes, ‘Do bats eat cats?’ for, you see, as she couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, ‘Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?’ when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

    Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, ‘Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!’ She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

    There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked, and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

    Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway; and even if my head would go through, thought poor Alice, it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin. For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

    There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (which certainly was not here before, said Alice,) and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label with the words DRINK ME beautifully printed on it in large letters.

    It was all very well to say Drink me, but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry: no, I’ll look first, she said, "and see whether it’s marked ‘poison’ or not:" for she had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rides their friends had taught them, such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked poison, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

    However, this bottle was not marked poison, so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavor of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.

    What a curious feeling! said Alice, I must be shutting up like a telescope.

    And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this, for it might end, you know, said Alice to herself, in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then? And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

    After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once, but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery, and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

    Come, there’s no use in crying like that! said Alice to herself, rather sharply, I advise you to leave off this minute! She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it,) and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes, and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. But it’s no use now, thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!"

    Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words EAT ME were beautifully marked in currants. Well, I’ll eat it, said Alice, and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t care which happens!

    She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself Which way? Which way? holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

    So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

    CHAPTER II

    THE POOL OF TEARS

    Curiouser and curiouser! cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet! (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off) "Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I’m sure I shan’t be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; — but I must be kind to them, thought Alice, or perhaps they won’t walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I’ll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas."

    And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. They must go by the carrier, she thought; "and how funny it’ll seem, sending presents to one’s own feet! And how odd the directions will look!

    Alice’s Right Foot, Esq.,

    Hearthrug,

    near the Fender,

    (with Alice’s love.)

    Oh dear, what nonsense I’m talking!"

    Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now rather more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.

    Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again.

    You ought to be ashamed of yourself, said Alice, a great girl like you, (she might well say this,) to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you! But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall.

    After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won’t she be savage if I’ve kept her waiting! Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, If you please, sir ― The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.

    Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: "Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!" And she began thinking over all the children she knew, that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

    I’m sure I’m not Ada, she said, "for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and

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