Books : Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Barnes & Noble Classics)

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Author name: Lewis Carroll

: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Barnes & Noble Classics)
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN num: 9781593080150
ISBN number: 1593080158
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: December 15, 2003
Publishing house: Barnes & Noble Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 57717
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics



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Editor's Notes and Comments:

Product Description:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
 

First published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was an immediate success, as was its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Carroll’s sense of the absurd and his amazing gift for games of logic and language have secured for the Alice books an enduring spot in the hearts of both adults and children.

 

Alice begins her adventures when she follows the frantically delayed White Rabbit down a hole into the magical world of Wonderland, where she meets a variety of wonderful creatures, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts—who, with the help of her enchanted deck of playing cards, tricks Alice into playing a bizarre game of croquet.  Alice continues her adventures in Through the Looking-Glass, which is loosely based on a game of chess and includes Carroll’s famous poem “Jabberwocky.”

 

Throughout her fantastic journeys, Alice retains her reason, humor, and sense of justice. She has become one of the great characters of imaginative literature, as immortal as Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, Captain Ahab, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy Gale of Kansas.
 
Tan Lin is a writer, artist, and critic. He is the author of two books of poetry, Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe and IDM.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Soso
Alice's Adventure

My very first impressions of this book were that it was like reading C.S. Lewis on cheap drugs. The events are complete non sequiturs and the changes in plot are worse.

It appears to be a spoiled child wandering in a world she does not understand, nor is willing to learn about - unlike Lucy in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe who seeks to understand the local customs and circumstances.

The book is very easy to read but it leaves distaste in my literary mouth. I know it is considered a classic but I just do not see it, and if I did not have to read it for school I would not have bothered to finish it.

(First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)

Through the Looking Glass

Though this book is not much better than Alice's Adventures, the chess motif and theme does make the book much more interesting. With the bossy, dominant Red Queen and the quiet, kind, messy white queen, the book is a study in contrasts.

The interweaving of the Nursery Rhyme Characters and the frequent fish poetry references does provide more continuity and a sense of sequential events than Alice's very first adventure. I also appreciated the linking of the cat at the beginning and end of the story.

It does still feel like Carroll did way too many opium pipes in his time.

(First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)



Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - 'Twas brillig...
Alice in Wonderland begins as a questioning, youthful girl named Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole to follow a white rabbit wearing a vest and watch. Alice finds herself in world of cards, bottles or cakes of magical liquids that changes her size, and a vast array of dizzying characters. Alice plays a croquet game with the Queen of Hearts in her garden, all the while the Queen ordering her guards to chop off peoples heads. She also encounters a Mad Hatter at his teatime, which is all the time because he angered time once, so tea time is always for him! In Through the Looking Glass, Alice travels to a backwards world through her mirror in her living room, playing her way through the world in a chess game, meeting various characters in her quest to become a Queen. Here, is Lewis Carrols famous poem, Jabberwocky: `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe.
I found this book to be not what I expect. It was entertaining, exciting, but quite a bit confusing. Overall, I believe it would be better suited for free reading than a report for a class. A part I found especially confusing was in Alice in Wonderland when Alice visits the house of the Duchess and the Duchess sing to her baby, "Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes: He only does it to annoy, Because he know it teases." This part I found to be confusing, since beating of a baby is never allowed in any society, past or present.
Many of the themes in Alice in Wonderland are told through poems or songs that the characters sing. Sometimes the message is hard to clearly express because of the way words are used and the long list of characters. I would recommend this book to adults more, because of the writing styles Carrol used, more because the book was written in 1872, but also some teenagers for a look at how developed the movie became for children but because some of the confusion is hard to determine, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Beautiful Story, Excellent Packaging
Obviously the stories of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are two of the most beloved children's tales of all time...and with good reason. They're witty, charming, and imaginative. Now, Barnes and Noble has wrapped up these timeless tales and tacked on a timeline of literary happenings during Lewis Carroll's time, a short biography of Lewis Carroll, a comprehensive introduction that examines the many quirks of Carroll's life and literature, helpful, but non-intrusive footnotes, endnotes, comments, and discusion questions. The perfect addition to your classic library.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Hilarious!
There are so many things that can be said about this book. It's funny, ridiculous, weird, confusing, and VERY much on drugs. I'm sorry... Did you just ask me to eat a mushroom? The many drug references, however, are extremely amusing, and add to the story very much.

Alice is asleep and dreaming up a crazy world. The characters she meets are all eccentric, strange, and frightfully funny. Whether we're thinking of the Mad Hatter, the rabbit, or the Queen of Hearts herself, this book is truly a child's happy adventures through a completely ridiculous fictional land (unless you are firm in your belief that this book is completely about drugs, but even then it's still funny and ridiculous).

Even though this book is known as a children's book, it is hilarious to all who read it. Enjoy! I just hope you remember to breathe while gasping with laughter.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - "Curiouser and curiouser!"
My very first exposure to Lewis Carroll's classic children's story was through the 1951 Disney film adaptation "Alice in Wonderland," which I watched repeatedly as a child. The creative quality of the story never failed to fascinate me, and I kept going back despite my deep-rooted terror of the frightful Queen of Hearts, who always gave me nightmares! However, it was not until recently, as an adult, that I ever picked up the book/s upon which that film was based. In some ways I wish I had read it when I was younger, as the book certainly makes a great deal more sense than the movie does (as much sense as a story of this sort can, anyhow), but thankfully this book is unique in that it is just as enjoyable for adults as for children.

The story is actually spread across two books, here contained in a single volume. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was very first published in 1865 and relates the events that take place after young Alice falls asleep during her lessons and dreams of following a white rabbit down a rabbit hole. Alice encounters all manner of strange creatures in her dream, and finds herself in all sorts of curious predicaments where common sense fails and the nonsensical comes to be expected. There is no central, concrete storyline, but rather Alice moves quickly from one bizarre situation to the subsequent before waking once more and relating the whole adventure to her sister.

The second of the two books, "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There," appeared in 1871 and is very similar in nature to the first, though having a slightly different plot. Here Alice steps through an ordinary looking-glass one day, only to find herself in a world where, if you wish to get anywhere, you must walk in the opposite direction! Walking toward your desired destination only gets you further and further away. Also, interestingly, the land which Alice has entered is essentially a giant chessboard, and she must move through the different squares to reach the other side if she wishes to become a queen (which she does).

The characters Carroll created in these two stories are some of the most strikingly unique and unforgettable in the world of literature. Alice herself, based largely on Alice Liddell, a real-life child of whom Carroll was very fond, is a wonderful heroine that you can't help admiring. Throughout all of her backwards and upside-down adventures, she remains ever sensible and analytical, always trying to reason her way out of the most unreasonable situations. Other characters a reader won't soon forget include the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, Bill the Lizard, the Caterpillar, the Duchess and her peppery cook, the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon, the Red and White Queens, the talking flowers, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, and the Red and White Knights. Carroll also created many fascinating new creatures in his stories, including bread-and-butterflies, rocking-horseflies, "slithy toves," "mome raths" and more.

What I find most intriguing, as an adult reader of these books, is Carroll's brilliant use of wordplay and symbolism throughout the stories. Nearly everything has some sort of double meaning. There are hidden messags and subtle witticisms on every page. Carroll also includes several parodies of what were well-known songs and rhymes in England at the time. Young children will love the books for their fantastic qualities and imaginative inspiration, but most readers will not pick up on the many puns and jokes until they are a little older, so these stories really do have something to offer to anyone, no matter what age.

This particular edition (2004 Barnes & Noble Classics printing, with introduction and notes by Tan Lin) also contains several extra "goodies" in addition to the text of the two books. There is a brief biography of Lewis Carroll, a timeline of his life and career, a fascinating and insightful introduction (well worth the read!), information on various film adaptations, a short story by Carroll - "What the Tortoise said to Achilles," commentary on the text by various individuals and publications, and a set of questions designed to aid the reader's thought and analysis of the text. The book also contains all of the original illustrations, which are indispenable to a full enjoyment of the story. Highly recommended to any reader.


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