About this title: As he escorted the three young daughters of a colleague on a trip up the river Isis, Lewis Carroll invented ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, the story of a little girl who tumbles down a rabbit hole. Full of such wonderfully eccentric characters as the Queen of Hearts, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle, and the Mad Hatter. The book is simultaneously a political allegory, a parody of Victorian children's literature, a fairy tale, a dream, and a child's chronicle of growing up.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 1993-05-20
ISBN-13:9780486275437ISBN:0486275434
Description: Very Good. Two thin cuts in spine. Minimal edge wear, a very nice copy. NOT an ex-library book; no publisher's remainder marks. Paperback, Dover Thrift Edition. Military (APO/FPO) orders are welcomed-Thank you for your service. read more
"Even though people classify this as a children's book, when you go back and look over it, it has some very philosophical statements in it, and already in chapter one already, when Alice is shrinking, she does wonder about what final size she will end up as or 'perhaps going out like a candle..', which reflects the concept of a limit. In chapter two, I'm sure there's some sort of mathematical thing going on, something to do with bases, but I've no clue what. In chapter five, Alice meets the bird in the nest, and the bird immediately questions her as to if she eats eggs, to which Alice replies 'yes'. This makes the bird extremely angry, and she immediately thinks Alice is a serpent. This caught my attention because it struck me that it was a little like using substitution in mathematics, substituting one for another.
Random fact =) In chapter 8, three cards are painting the roses on a rose tree red, for they accidentally planted a white-rose tree which the Queen of Hearts hates. Red roses symbolized the English House of Lancaster, while white roses were the symbol for their rival House of York. Therefore, this scene may contain a hidden allusion to the Wars of the Roses."
"This quick little read was surprisingly entertaining. The story never appealed to me as a child, and the Disney version actually frightened me, so it wasn't until I was assigned it for my children's literature course that I read it.
The story is jaunty, quick, and very funny. Carroll has a gift for poetry, and the rhyming sections are the highlight of the whole thing. I'm sure there's a lot going on in these books on a much deeper level; themes of growing up, being an independent entity, relationships with authority figure, they're all there. Of course there have been numerous claims that drug use is also alluded to as well.
I think all of that is a bit on an aside though; at its heart, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a funny little story to be enjoyed, and I think (at least from my experience) that adults actually get more enjoyment out of them than most kids."
"Many people have read this story and loved it. I for one did not read it until now, and unfortunately I do not love it. It is indeed a great story, very imaginative and creative. The combinations of creatures, the rabbit, and of the course the King and Queen of Hearts and their loyal foot soldiers.
I think my problem is that I did not read this as a child, so I have no wonderful and warm memories to draw upon. I felt this was indeed a child's story, because Alice's behavior got to me after a while. She is a child, so I don't know what I was expecting to find :) I'll stick with my Disney cartoon version and the forthcoming Tim Burton version. I can't believe it has taken Depp and Burton this long to re-make this classic story. Link to trailer
My Rating: How can I rate a classic children's story, that has been around since 1865, but I wasn't crazy about because I read it as an adult? 85/100 Although it was not my cup of tea, Carroll was pretty darn creative."
"Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a classic children's book. Starring Alice, a curious seven year old who follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole, the book is set first in Victorian England, and then in Wonderland. In Wonderland, animals can talk, playing cards paint white roses red, and Alice grows or shrinks depending on what side of a mushroom she's eaten. This strange world is the exact opposite of Alice's proper, stiff life in England. She meets characters that always say what they think, no matter if it's rude or not. The dialogue from the Wonderland creatures is sometimes confusing, but is clever and straightforward.
When you read Alice in Wonderland, you can see how nothing seems to make sense as soon as Alice falls down the rabbit-hole. A baby that turns into a pig, playing croquet with flamingos, impossible riddles (the Mad Hatter asks, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"), and trials without evidence are a normal part of Wonderland. In a way, I think Carroll is trying to show us that there is really no such thing as "sense", and that the "nonsense" in Wonderland isn't really different from what goes on in our world.
Although there is no real plot, Alice tries to find her way to a beautiful garden she sees through a small door. She travels through Wonderland and tries to make sense of everything around her. Alice is a curious, but almost lonely little girl (she talks to herself, gives herself advice, and her closest friend is her cat Dinah). Alice is like a lot of seven year old girls: questioning, a little bit of a know-it-all, but good hearted. Her sister sees her innocence, and her "simple and loving heart of her childhood." This is what makes Alice so relatable; she sees the world through uncomplicated, clear, unbiased eyes because she's so young. The author is trying to tell us that we shouldn't treat kids as though they're stupid or naïve, but that they know more about the important things in life than we do. Curiosity and wonder aren't bad things, and we could all use more of them. Alice's sister hopes that Alice will, when she has children, "feel with all their simple sorrows, and find pleasure in their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.""
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