Title and Author: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Publisher: pub

Genre: Classics, Fantasy, Childrens

Publication Date: 1865

Pages: (My e-reader says 122 pages, I’ve seen different ranges on different editions)

Source: Free e-book from Project Gutenberg

Kid-rating: Here’s where I wish I had read this to my boys when they were younger. I’m not sure they’d appreciate it now.

Star Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

(from GoodReads)
Journey with Alice down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder where oddities, logic and wordplay rule supreme. Encounter characters like the grinning Cheshire Cat who can vanish into thin air, the cryptic Mad Hatter who speaks in riddles and the harrowing Queen of Hearts obsessed with the phrase “Off with their heads!” This is a land where rules have no boundaries, eating mushrooms will make you grow or shrink, croquet is played with flamingos and hedgehogs, and exorbitant trials are held for the theft of tarts. Amidst these absurdities, Alice will have to find her own way home. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began as a story told to three little girls in a rowboat, near Oxford. Ten year old Alice Liddell asked to have the story written down and two years later it was published with immediate success. Carroll’s unique play on logic has undoubtedly led to its lasting appeal to adults, while remaining one of the most beloved children’s tales of all time.

My review

There’s a very good reason this is a classic. I don’t remember having actually ever read this, though. Oh sure, I had seen the Disney movie, and more recently, the Tim Burton movie, but read the actual book? Don’t remember.

I loved it, and I’m glad I decided to read it in preparation for Splintered. (A reimagining, which I highly enjoyed…link is to my review.)

One thing that was interesting to me was that some of the poems that Alice recites (and gets wrong…) are now only really known in their “wrong” Alice version! The originals, which would have been well-known at the time of the writing, are barely remembered these days. I can only imagine how much funnier this book was to it’s original audience, who would have recognized them as parodies.

It occurs to me now, that I need to go on a further Alice binge and re-watch the movies! And I should probably add Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There to my to-read pile..