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allaboutfrodo's review against another edition
5.0
I've read Alice in Wonderland many times and it's a great book. Original, clever, funny, thoughtful, it has added many images and phrases to our language and culture. Unfortunately, many people who claim to love Alice have never read the book or don't credit the book for Alice's creation and enduring popularity. If you are an Alice fan but have never read and appreciated the book, it's time to do so! And the original drawings by John Tenniel are masterpieces in themselves.
Through the Looking-Glass overall is not as good, but it's still worth reading.
Through the Looking-Glass overall is not as good, but it's still worth reading.
kcnomad's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
findingpeaceinabook's review against another edition
2.0
Alice tumbles into a dreamland, where animals and kings and queens quarrel and recite poems.
This book felt like listening to a toddler play with its toys talking nonsense, for hours on end. I thought I would enjoy reading it, but I didn't.
I can handle surreal scenes, but it didn't go anywhere. But maybe that was the point... there not being one.
This book felt like listening to a toddler play with its toys talking nonsense, for hours on end. I thought I would enjoy reading it, but I didn't.
I can handle surreal scenes, but it didn't go anywhere. But maybe that was the point... there not being one.
cflinterman's review against another edition
4.0
The adventures of Alice in Wonderland make a great read. It reads like a children book, but it is much more than that. Especially the introduction and the notes in this edition make that clear: they explain a great deal of the puns that are not directly understandable and show how closely related the life of Carroll and the book are connected.
Through the Looking Glass is also interesting and good, but I think I had liked it more had I known a little more about chess, as I didn't get all the references to the game of chess being played.
Through the Looking Glass is also interesting and good, but I think I had liked it more had I known a little more about chess, as I didn't get all the references to the game of chess being played.
foxfire's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
luke_hartman's review against another edition
5.0
Alice In Wonderland is a huge classic, and is very well written. It combines adult themes in a child-like fantasy world. I love the characters, especially the dodo bird, the Cheshire cat, the white rabbit, and Alice, of course. Through the Looking Glass has some parts that I like more, and some parts less. Some of it really bores me, and other parts are wonderfully interesting. All in all, both books, but especially Alice In Wonderland, are must-reads for those who love timeless classics.
win_monroe's review against another edition
4.0
Alice in Wonderland is playful, imaginative and exciting, but ultimately it is children's literature in a way that Through the Looking-Glass surpasses. Through the Looking-Glass is children's literature as well, but it is also more than that. It is an exercise in logic and language games that Wonderland only begins to play with. Lewis Carroll's writing is a pleasure in both and perhaps even more fun in Wonderland, but TTLG has more facets, depths and other dimensions, which makes in my opinion a far superior work. While I would recommend both to a child, TTLG asks to be returned to and studied and turned over and discussed in a way that Wonderland does not.
bimblinghill's review against another edition
4.0
I read these as a child and I remember them working as novels for children, but they're so much more than that.
I've since had a science education and I see quotes and scenes from these books coming up all the time as we search for analogies of the weirdness we uncover as we grow our understanding of the universe. I'm not sure of the truth of this but I did hear that Carroll specifically set out to critique some of the ideas that were at the time of writing coming out of the study of quantum mechanics.
All that goes to say that these are among the select classics that expand the conceptual vocabulary of your mind. Absolutely worth re-reading as an adult.
I've since had a science education and I see quotes and scenes from these books coming up all the time as we search for analogies of the weirdness we uncover as we grow our understanding of the universe. I'm not sure of the truth of this but I did hear that Carroll specifically set out to critique some of the ideas that were at the time of writing coming out of the study of quantum mechanics.
All that goes to say that these are among the select classics that expand the conceptual vocabulary of your mind. Absolutely worth re-reading as an adult.
marybethmoore2319's review against another edition
2.0
You know, at some point, I think I liked this book. Maybe it was when I was 7. Now, I just think it's very, very strange. I believe my girls agree with me and probably liked it even less than I did.