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A review by mijtje
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
First of all, sorry for giving a relatively low rating AGAIN to a beloved classic (Frankenstein, looking at you). I enjoyed it, I really did, and I considered giving it 4 stars, but yeah, here we are.
This is childhood in a book. Everyone knows the Disney movie, but let me tell you - the book is way weirder.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland takes Alice, of course, to Wonderland. It is clearly Alice’s dream, as everything is following a sort of dream logic: suddenly being someplace else, a baby changing into a pig, the world changing to match Alice’s thoughts and desires, et cetera.
Through the Looking Glass plays much on the same themes but works all around a massive game of chess. It’s also a more coherent story than Adventures in Wonderland.
Now, a lot of people love analysing this book. And boy, have I tried. I read people arguing it’s a book about sexuality, drug use, the identity crisis of a young girl growing up… Honestly, I think Lewis Carroll just wrote a silly children’s book. Sure, he incorporated many things that the people from his time would have recognised (such as parodies of famous children’s poems) but honestly only people who REALLY delve into Victorian England would get those references these days.
In the words of Carroll himself, “I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense.”
This is childhood in a book. Everyone knows the Disney movie, but let me tell you - the book is way weirder.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland takes Alice, of course, to Wonderland. It is clearly Alice’s dream, as everything is following a sort of dream logic: suddenly being someplace else, a baby changing into a pig, the world changing to match Alice’s thoughts and desires, et cetera.
Through the Looking Glass plays much on the same themes but works all around a massive game of chess. It’s also a more coherent story than Adventures in Wonderland.
Now, a lot of people love analysing this book. And boy, have I tried. I read people arguing it’s a book about sexuality, drug use, the identity crisis of a young girl growing up… Honestly, I think Lewis Carroll just wrote a silly children’s book. Sure, he incorporated many things that the people from his time would have recognised (such as parodies of famous children’s poems) but honestly only people who REALLY delve into Victorian England would get those references these days.
In the words of Carroll himself, “I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense.”