Reviews - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

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5.51k reviews for:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

I sought out this annotated edition of the classic after rereading another ebook edition as an adult. I feel sure that I had read snippets of the book as a child, but I was never drawn to read the entire book. I think I found it preposterous in its absurdity, and it wasn't until the evening of the Biden/Trump election day 2020 that I sat with the book in all its glory.

Again, I read a different edition of the ebook, and I sought out this annotated edition to get a grip on the intricacies and analyses of the story. I hate to tell you, dear reader, the annotations are as annoying and slippery as the original text itself.

Suffice to say that the world has truly gone mad and apparently has been mad for well over two centuries. It is due to our shared human condition of daily confusion in trying to make sense of a world gone mad that this book makes any sense at all.

I did go down the rabbit hole trying to find the 2012 Mackin Educational Resource ebook edition of the book that I read first. This was mainly as a tribute to my cataloging teacher in library school for she delighted in giving us cataloging challenges based on editions of this book. Alas and alack the edition is not represented on Goodreads, but it would seem that this annotated edition is the definitive one that most scholars and casual reviewers select for their comments, so I checked it out and read most of it as well.

If you are looking for a brief respite from the drudgery and inane duplicity one tolerates from politics, media and the rest of the world, this book is for you. Don't expect any great revelations, though. You already know in your heart all the truisms here. Carroll has captured them in print for you to ruminate upon, though, and for that the world is a little better.

baboy14's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

tctimlin's review against another edition

3.0

challenging funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The stories and poems are so much a part of our zeitgeist. Reading Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass as novels did not quite hold up for me. Yes, it’s clever, and there are funny parts - but as a whole work, I was disappointed. I did not like Alice and most of the other characters are also pretty unlikeable.

bcb943's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

maggiecarr's review against another edition

2.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

What in the world? I've seen the Disney movie once, when I was a child but thought I should read the classic as an adult. So weird. Wonder if the manuscript was submitted today if it would even make it out of the publisher slush pile.