4.26

5

Apr 14, 2009

"Good gracious!" said Alice, "I do believe I'm inside a review!"

She turned to the Hatter and the March Hare.

"Well, let me see. Here is the title, and here is the date I read it. That must be today. Now I need to explain the plot and the overall point."

"There is no plot," said the March Hare disagreeably.

"And there is no point," agreed the Hatter.

He poured a little hot tea on the Dormouse's nose, making it wake with a start.

"The book breaks new ground," it said rapidly in a high, sing-song "Good gracious!" said Alice, "I do believe I'm inside a review!"

She turned to the Hatter and the March Hare.

"Well, let me see. Here is the title, and here is the date I read it. That must be today. Now I need to explain the plot and the overall point."

"There is no plot," said the March Hare disagreeably.

"And there is no point," agreed the Hatter.

He poured a little hot tea on the Dormouse's nose, making it wake with a start.

"The book breaks new ground," it said rapidly in a high, sing-song voice. "Intentionally eluding easy assignment to any traditional category, it anticipates the twentieth century's fascination with the relationship between the signifier and the signified, and wittily deconstructs the primacy of meaning and the rationality of thought." Then it went back to sleep again, and began to snore gently.

"Whatever did that mean?" asked Alice, surprised.

"Why is a Derrida like a derrière?" replied the Hatter.

"I don't know," said Alice.

"I don't know either," said the Hatter triumphantly.

"It would be reasonable", said Alice, in the grown-up tone she had sometimes heard her sister use, "It would be reasonable for you to explain what the book is about, so that I could put that in my review."

"It would be reasonable," said the Hatter, "to expect hot premarital sex in a Stephenie Meyer novel. But don't imagine you'll find any."

Alice couldn't think of anything to reply to this, so she turned away without another word. When she was almost out of earshot, she thought she heard the Hatter shout something after her that might have been "Foucault!"



...more

5

Mar 02, 2017

*Reread July 2017*
Reread this for booktube-a-thon 2017 just because I was falling behind. Obviously I loved it (again).

*Reread January 2016*
Read for the school this time and I read the Puffin In Bloom edition. I loved the new illustrations!

5

Mar 01, 2017

my soul is healed.

------------

when I find myself in times of trouble
Lewis Carroll comes to me
speaking words of wisdom
"just reread"

------------

THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK.

No qualifier. No excuse. No “one of my favorites.” This one is it, y’all.

https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...

Well, also Through the Looking Glass. But THAT’S PRACTICALLY THE SECOND HALF OF THE SAME BOOK. (And other examples of my inability to make decisions or commit in any way to anything.)

I currently have 18 copies of this my soul is healed.

------------

when I find myself in times of trouble
Lewis Carroll comes to me
speaking words of wisdom
"just reread"

------------

THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK.

No qualifier. No excuse. No “one of my favorites.” This one is it, y’all.

https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...

Well, also Through the Looking Glass. But THAT’S PRACTICALLY THE SECOND HALF OF THE SAME BOOK. (And other examples of my inability to make decisions or commit in any way to anything.)

I currently have 18 copies of this book. I’ve attempted to read it at least annually for the past three years. And by “annually,” I mean I last revisited this book about nine months ago.



But hey, it was a different year then, technically speaking.

How do I even review this? I don’t know where to begin. (Just a heads up that my obsessive personality is going to become verrrrry clear as this review progresses. I’m not proud. This is who I am, you guys. I was a member of the fandoms of some teen pop sensation or other for nearly ten consecutive years. I’m no longer thirteen but I still need an outlet. Honestly I’m quite afraid that if I don’t have an obsession, I’ll become a drug addict. Lots of pent up energy.)



Well, I’ll say that I always, always, always feel enveloped by this book. I have never picked this up without feeling instantly submersed in Wonderland. And it’s really my favorite place to be. It’s hard to feel unhappy when you’re in the greatest setting ever created.

And oh yeah, there’s that. I firmly believe this is the most amazing and beautiful and confusing and curious setting of all time. It’s immersive, and it’s strange, and it’s so unique and fantastic and creative and I love it so much. I can come up with even more loosely positive adjectives if that overwhelming number didn’t suffice.

Wonderland is my Hogwarts. While many readers pray their letters just got lost in the mail, I’m constantly hoping I’ll see a white rabbit in a waistcoat and fall down, down, down into what must be the center of the earth.



I love Alice and her curiosity. She may also be my favorite character ever. She’s funny and sweet and childish and such a blast to read about. Her reactions to everything are so, so funny. Her curiosity always outweighs confusion and fear. I’d like to wake up one day and be Alice. I’ll likely become one of those creeps who pays millions for plastic surgery in order to “resemble” some celebrity or other.

On an unrelated note, anyone have millions of dollars they’re trying to get rid of?

I’m also fiercely protective of this book. I constantly pick up retellings only to be utterly disappointed. (Like Heartless. Get out of here with your shoddy Carroll-stealing.) DO NOT, DO NOT! GET ME STARTED ON THE TIM BURTON FILM ADAPTATION. Horrific. Alice, an adult? Alice, engaged? Alice FIGHTING THE GODDAMN JABBERWOCK?



But I do love the original animated Disney adaptation. There’s a certain quality to the book that’s captured within that film, which I haven’t found recreated in any other retelling or use of the setting or adaptation.

Oh, and one more thing, while I’m here.

THIS BOOK ISN’T ABOUT DRUGS, YOU SURFACE-LEVEL INTERPRETERS OF SYMBOLISM. It’s not that easy, boo.



In the words of BBC News, “[the drug] references may say more about the people making them than the author.”

Lewis Carroll isn’t thought to have been a user of drugs, the Caterpillar was smoking tobacco, and the mushroom is no more magic than the various cakes Alice eats.

Honestly, the drug reading is simple and boring. It’s such a stretch to attempt to read each character as a different substance. And scrolling through countless quasi-psychedelic GIFs to find the actual ones was irritating, too. Ah, yes, real art: taking images from a 1951 children’s film but messing with the colors and movement until it looks like nothing more than a trigger for epilepsy. Enough, Tumblr.



Alice in Wonderland carries as much or as little significance as you want it to. It’s everything from a mindless romp in an imaginative land to a depiction of the effects of a ruthlessly authoritarian system of justice.

Just have fun with it.

And please, for the love of God, stop applying your weird psychedelic edits to a Disney movie.

Note on the audiobook: This time around, I listened to the audiobook, to switch things up. Scarlett Johansson read it. I loved her funny accents and hated her overly-acted narration. A mixed bag.



Bottom line: This is my favoritest and I doubt it will be dethroned anytime soon. Come at me, every other book. ...more

4

Oct 25, 2017

English (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) / Italiano

«Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “ without pictures or conversations ?”»

Right from the beginning and from the first assertion of Alice, we understand that her thoughts encapsulate hard truth that make us smile

English (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) / Italiano

«Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “ without pictures or conversations ?”»

Right from the beginning and from the first assertion of Alice, we understand that her thoughts encapsulate hard truth that make us smile for their hindsight. Alice is a little bit bored child that decides to follow a strange rabbit to its rabbit hole. However, the hole is pretty weird, there are a lot of cups, and pictures, and shelves...

The journey-dream in Wonderland as a metaphor for life contains multiple keys of interpretation. Probably the conflict between adults and children is the more direct topic of the novel, exacerbated by the crazy Wonderland where usual rules of manners are being overturned for the custom use of wacky characters. And children, chuckling and listening to the novel, several times are wondering: "What's going on?".

My daughter had a lovely time with this book. And whenever she's having fun, I'm having fun.

Vote: 9

«Alice cominciava a sentirsi assai stanca di sedere sul poggetto accanto a sua sorella, senza far niente: aveva una o due volte data un'occhiata al libro che la sorella stava leggendo, ma non v'erano nè dialoghi nè figure, - e a che serve un libro, pensò Alice, - senza dialoghi nè figure?»

Già dall'incipit e dalla prima delle tante affermazioni di Alice, capiamo che racchiudono in sè verità schiaccianti... fanno sorridere per quanto sono palesi. Alice è una bimba un pò annoiata che decide di seguire uno strano coniglio fin nella sua tana. Ma la tana è piuttosto bizzarra, ci sono tazze e quadri e scaffali e...

Il viaggio-sogno nel mondo delle meraviglie come metafora della vita, racchiude mille interpretazioni e molteplici chiavi di lettura. Quello che traspare in maniera più evidente è probabilmente il conflitto adulti-bambini, esacerbato dall'assurdo paese delle meraviglie, nel quale le usuali regole della buona educazione sono capovolte ad uso personalizzato dei suoi strambi personaggi. E i bambini che ascoltano il racconto di Alice più volte si chiedono sghignazzando: "che cosa sta succedendo?"

Mia figlia si è divertita molto. E quando lei si diverte io mi diverto.

Voto: 8

...more

5

Jun 02, 2008

868. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson over the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the 868. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson over the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در سال 1974 میلادی
عنوان: آلیس در سرزمین عجایب؛ نویسنده: لوئیس کارول؛ مترجم: ایرج غریب؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، کتابهای طلایی، چاپ چهارم 1353؛ در 27 ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده 19 م
مترجمها: (احمد پناهی خراسانی، در سال 1371، در 159 ص؛ مشهد؛ باربد)؛ (سعید درودی، بهزاد، مهتاب، 1372؛ در 152 ص)؛ (عباس کرمیفر، تهران، ارغوان، 1372؛ در 160 ص)؛ و ...؛
اخطار جدی: اگر هنوز داستان را نخوانده اید، و میخواهید حتما خود آنرا بخوانید، لطفا ادامه ی متن را نخوانید. خلاصه داستان را نوشته ام. «آلیس» دختر یک جهانگرد «چارلز کینگزلی» است. او در هفت سالگی، خواب سرزمین عجایب را میبیند، و به آنجا وارد میشود. سیزده سال بعد، «آلیس» برای ازدواج با «لرد هانریش»، به اجبار به یک مهمانی میرود، و با دنبال کردن یک خرگوش، به یک چاله ی ژرف سقوط میکند، و برای بار دوم، وارد سرزمین عجایب میشود. در آنجا درمییابد، که ملکه ی سرخ، علیه خواهر خویش، ملکه ی سفید، شورش کرده، و اوضاع سرزمین عجایب، به هم ریخته است. او باید شمشیر نورانی را، که در قصر ملکه سرخ است، به دست آورد، و با آن، سر اژدهای ملکه را، از تنش جدا کند. «آلیس»، در مسیرش، با موجودات بسیاری، از جمله: «یک کرم ابریشم دانا»، که همیشه درحال قلیان کشیدن است، «یک گربه» که میتواند نامرئی شود، «یک موش»، و همینطور فردی به نام «کلاهدوز دیوانه» آشنا میشود. و با یاری آنها، شمشیر را به چنگ میآورد، و به قصر «ملکه سفید» میرود. روز نهایی فرامیرسد، و دو ملکه، با ارتشهای خود به میدان جنگ میروند. «آلیس» با اژدهای «ملکه سرخ»، میجنگد، و با شمشیرش، سر اژدها را، از تنش جدا میکند. ملکه سرخ شکست میخورد، و به همراه شوالیه ی خویش تبعید میشود. در پایان، «آلیس» که کارش را در سرزمین عجایب به پایان رسانده، با نوشیدن خون اژدها، دوباره به دنیای واقعی برمیگردد، و با ازدواج با «هانریش» مخالفت میکند. سپس به همراه دوست پدرش، رو به سوی رویای پدر خویش، که سفر به تمام نقاط جهان بود، میرود. ا. شربیانی ...more

1

Mar 21, 2018

I should've read this one sooner “But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." I needed an adequate amount of nostalgia to guide me through this level of crazy. Little Alice fell
d
o
w
n
the hole,
bumped her head
and bruised her soul! Everyone knows this story. Alice falls down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland - a place wholly unexpected, trivial and unforgettable. She meets several good friends I should've read this one sooner “But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." I needed an adequate amount of nostalgia to guide me through this level of crazy. Little Alice fell
d
o
w
n
the hole,
bumped her head
and bruised her soul! Everyone knows this story. Alice falls down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland - a place wholly unexpected, trivial and unforgettable. She meets several good friends (like the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat) and a few enemies (The Red Queen) as she stumbles her way through.

Reading this book for the first time as an adult leaves me bewildered, vaguely amused and mostly lost. I'm now worrying whether I'm too old for children's stories anymore (I briefly reread some of my faves - HP, Winnie the Pooh and Charlotte's Web - and have concluded it's not me, just that book).

It's all so illogical and confusing. Alice (and everyone else in this novel) constantly contradicts themselves and each other. The whole thing is utter nonsense! Though, there are a few good puns: No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise. Ah well. I will try it again some day just to see if I was being a grump on the day I read it and I plan to read this to my future-kids to see if their youth will allow them to interpret this more positively. After all, if Ronan Lynch from [Book: The Raven Boys] loves it then I will force myself too.

Audiobook Comments
Read by Alan Bennett - and he was a pretty good narrator too. But as much as l I tried to listen to this on audiobook, the text was just tooo confusing. I kept losing track of the story. I gave up and decided to read it instead. That was a good choice - lots of fun pictures!

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Snapchat @miranda.reads

Happy Reading! ...more

5

Apr 17, 2017

3rd read: 22-23 July 2019 (Audiobook)
3rd read: 22-23 July 2019 (Audiobook)
★★★★★ ...more

3

Nov 20, 2017

Unpopular Opinion

This took me a long time to get through...I found it sometimes tedious to be quite honest. Sorry. I guess I just don't love the nonsensical fun of this as much as everyone else seems to love it.

I enjoyed the pictures and I really liked this edition and I enjoyed it well enough, but as I said, I just don't love it as much as a lot of others do.

4

Dec 12, 2018

“Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir,
if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice : “ three inches
is such a wretched height to be.”
“It is a very good height indeed !” said the
Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it
spoke (it was exactly three inches high).

Today, reading a friend’s review on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, I searched the garden shed for an edition of Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger which I read ages ago, to have

“Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir,
if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice : “ three inches
is such a wretched height to be.”
“It is a very good height indeed !” said the
Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it
spoke (it was exactly three inches high).

Today, reading a friend’s review on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, I searched the garden shed for an edition of Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger which I read ages ago, to have another look at Zwerger’s marvellous illustrations. Sadly enough it has disappeared – I must have lent out my copy to a friend. So, heading for a revisit in the near future hoping for the book to return, in the meantime I cannot resist sharing some of Lisbeth Zwerger’s illustrations which I add to the book appetizer I wrote because a friend asked me so long ago.



’Ach, meneer, ik hoop dat u het niet erg vindt, maar ik zou graag iets groter zijn,' zei Alice. 'Tien centimeter is zo'n lengte van niks.' 'Het is juist een uitstekende lengte!' zei de Rups boos, terwijl hij zich onder het spreken oprichtte (hij was precies tien centimeter lang).



Op een slaapverwekkende warme zomerdag zit Alice zich naast haar lezende zus aan de waterkant onnoemelijk te vervelen. Een vestimentair piekfijn uitgedost wit Konijn dat gehaast voorbijsnelt, prikkelt haar nieuwsgierigheid. Ze gaat het achterna en tuimelt zo via een schier eindeloze konijnenpijp onverhoeds in Wonderland, een magische wereld bevolkt met sprekende dieren. Naast het voeren van absurde conversaties met de vreemdsoortige wezens, heeft ze plots haar handen vol met een baby die eigenlijk een big blijkt te zijn. Bovendien krimpt of groeit Alice de hele tijd door in een halsbrekend tempo als ze aan koekjes of paddenstoelen knabbelt!



Carroll schreef dit fantasievolle, fascinerende sprookje over een avontuurlijk klein meisje dat alert en spitsvondig omgaat met onalledaagse gebeurtenissen voor het tienjarige dochtertje van een vriend. Van dit speelse, ietwat griezelige en surrealistische verhaal las ik een heel mooie, door Lisbeth Zwerger prachtig geïllustreerde uitgave, die ik graag nog eens zou herlezen als de vriend aan wie ik ze uitleende er ooit aan zou denken ze terug te bezorgen. In de tussentijd is er nog altijd de videoclip van Tom Petty die zich door het verhaal liet inspireren. Of ik zou het, nu ik groot ben, in het Engels kunnen lezen. Of zou ik dan terug krimpen? ...more

4

May 14, 2018

I'd read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a few years ago; however, I just felt like picking it up again and I'm glad I did. I don't know why, but I enjoyed Alice's observations and the humor more this time. There's also something that's fun and a bit surprising when we're reading something (like Peter Pan or The Wizard of Oz) we thought we knew really well (because we've been exposed to the stories for so long even if we haven't read the actual story). I know my ratings are I'd read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a few years ago; however, I just felt like picking it up again and I'm glad I did. I don't know why, but I enjoyed Alice's observations and the humor more this time. There's also something that's fun and a bit surprising when we're reading something (like Peter Pan or The Wizard of Oz) we thought we knew really well (because we've been exposed to the stories for so long even if we haven't read the actual story). I know my ratings are always subjective based on when and where I've read a specific book. It's clear that I was ready to have fun down the rabbit hole! Changing my rating from 3 stars to 4 stars.

...more

5

Feb 05, 2011

Having just finished Alice in Wonderland, the first thing that occurs to me is that I wish I had read it years ago. I've known the story of Alice for years thanks to Disney and the Mad Hatter on Batman, but for some reason I didn't get around to reading this as a child. While I expected to like it, I never realized what a joy this book would be.

Carroll was a logician, so it should come as no surprise that he uses his expertise in that field to create many hilarious logical fallacies. But what Having just finished Alice in Wonderland, the first thing that occurs to me is that I wish I had read it years ago. I've known the story of Alice for years thanks to Disney and the Mad Hatter on Batman, but for some reason I didn't get around to reading this as a child. While I expected to like it, I never realized what a joy this book would be.

Carroll was a logician, so it should come as no surprise that he uses his expertise in that field to create many hilarious logical fallacies. But what interested me the most was the prose; I could talk for a long time of the clean, beautiful concision of Carroll's writing and of the brilliance of his word games and puns, which obviously influenced Vladimir Nabokov (who composed a Russian translation of Alice). The way in which Carroll's narrative voice addresses the absurd events reminded me of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Why some would reject the former's unique literary genius while praising the latter's can be explained by the snobbery of those who would reject a masterpiece simply because it's a "children' book."

These things interested the adult reader in me, but Alice is really for children of all ages. Thanks to the animated movie, I knew the characters and I felt like I was being reunited with old friends. I especially felt this during the Mad Tea Party, which I think must rank among the most brilliant comic scenes in English literature. However, Alice proves that books for children need not be dumbed down or sentimentalized. There are some dark undercurrents to the excellent humor (The Queen is obsessed with beheading, to use just the most famous example). And the beautiful concluding paragraph is a startling, Shakespearean meditation on childhood, age, and eventual womanhood. I admit that was a wonderful surprise. And then of course there's the drug use of the caterpillar and Carroll's suggested pedophiliac obsession with young girls. But people who approach Alice as psychedelic literature or a creepy Lolita story, I think, miss the point. However, these questions do add to the depth of the reading experience.

Alice in Wonderland is indeed a rare kind of book: one which can entertain and enlighten both the child and the adult. Carroll's glittering novel hasn't been dimmed in the slightest by time, something that can't be said of the works of many of his contemporaries. Alice's adventures will doubtless fascinate us for untold years to come. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go listen to White Rabbit. ...more

5

Feb 21, 2018

Why Alice! What Adventures you have had?

Happy, fun, perilous, enlightening, sometimes sad

A man, in a Hat, scatty, as a rabid bat

A Mouse, a crazy Hare, and Twins that are Fat

A Nasty Cook, and a Grinning Cheshire Cat

A Tea Party, a Catapiller smoking a Hookah, a Mushroom, one side makes her Tall

The other side of the Mushroom, makes her Small

An invitation, from a Fishfootman, and a very tired Dormouse

The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing Alice to the March Hare's House


Such fun!!! Why Alice! What Adventures you have had?

Happy, fun, perilous, enlightening, sometimes sad

A man, in a Hat, scatty, as a rabid bat

A Mouse, a crazy Hare, and Twins that are Fat

A Nasty Cook, and a Grinning Cheshire Cat

A Tea Party, a Catapiller smoking a Hookah, a Mushroom, one side makes her Tall

The other side of the Mushroom, makes her Small

An invitation, from a Fishfootman, and a very tired Dormouse

The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing Alice to the March Hare's House????????


Such fun!!!???????? ...more

2

Apr 26, 2017

"We're all mad here"

I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving a plot summary for this book as I think every person on the planet knows the premise. However, for the sake of completion and satisfying my OCD tendencies... Alice is a young girl who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world, meeting lots of weird and peculiar characters. And that's it.

Well, the Mad Hatter isn't wrong. I started this book excited at the premise of reading a classic that I don't recall ever having "We're all mad here"

I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving a plot summary for this book as I think every person on the planet knows the premise. However, for the sake of completion and satisfying my OCD tendencies... Alice is a young girl who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world, meeting lots of weird and peculiar characters. And that's it.

Well, the Mad Hatter isn't wrong. I started this book excited at the premise of reading a classic that I don't recall ever having read before. Within about ten pages, my excitement had quickly waned. I've come to the conclusion that people who love this book must have fallen in love with the book as a child and therefore reading this book will trigger feelings of nostalgia and memories of childhood. Because I simply hated every minute of reading this book. I went to bed every night and would find myself procrastinating on my phone instead of getting stuck into my book like I normally would.

I don't enjoy nonsense. I like things to be logical and follow some kind of structure... I guess that's the scientist in me. Of course, not everything can be logical in horror books etc, but this was like a different level of ridiculousness. Nothing made any sense, things were all over the place. We were just jumping around everywhere and I just wanted the experience to be over. If this book wasn't so short, I think it would have became a DNF for me.

Oh, and Alice literally has to the sassiest, cheekiest, rudest little girl I've ever encountered in literature. What a brat. I just wanted to put her in her place for the entirety of the novel. Nope, I hate Alice.

The only highlight for me was the illustrations, as they are simply beautiful. So I apologise to all lovers of Alice in Wonderland but it's just not for me. I'll give 1 star for the story as I just can't allow myself to give zero stars... and I'll give 1 star for the illustrations. So that's 2 stars out of 5 from me! And a reading experience I'd like to forget. ...more

4

Mar 01, 2019

I really enjoyed this classic. That I had missed while growing up. It has lots of lessons that are currently applicable to people in their everyday life. For instance, the Cheshire Cat when Alice asked him where she should go. So many people in life don't know where they're going and so they just settle on one arbitrary direction. Lewis Carroll is a master and his craft. Thank you

3

Apr 07, 2019

If I didn't already know the story and the basic plot points of Alice in Wonderland from movies, books, and other pop culture retellings, I think this book would have been very confusing. I didn't realize how short the Wonderland part of Alice's story is so, despite the bizarre writing, it was a pretty quick read. In fact, if you are really into fairy tales, I imagine this could be a one sitting book.

The intro to the book mentioned this being psychedelic fiction. Having grown up frequently If I didn't already know the story and the basic plot points of Alice in Wonderland from movies, books, and other pop culture retellings, I think this book would have been very confusing. I didn't realize how short the Wonderland part of Alice's story is so, despite the bizarre writing, it was a pretty quick read. In fact, if you are really into fairy tales, I imagine this could be a one sitting book.

The intro to the book mentioned this being psychedelic fiction. Having grown up frequently seeing art with tie-dyed mushrooms and a hookah smoking caterpillar on top, I was already thinking this book was likely quite a trip. The surreal storylines, bizarre characters, and the consumption of substances by Alice to alter her reality definitely make this a trippy experience.

This is one case where I think the movies (at least the ones I have seen) have done a pretty good job stream-lining the story to improve the delivery. The essence of each of Alice's adventures is usually captured perfectly with excessively trippy material edited perfectly so as to not lose the viewer. Not often you can say the movie is better than the book!

In the end, it is another classic that I am very glad to have read. Did it blow me away? Not really. Will I be recommending it to others? Not likely. But, if you have always enjoyed the Alice fairy tell - enough to say that you are a fan - I think you have to check out the source material. ...more

5

Oct 02, 2019

Love the book! Love the cover! Love the graphics!

Mel Love the book! Love the cover! Love the graphics!

Mel ???????????????? ...more

3

Mar 01, 2017

I'm still not sure whether I think Lewis Carroll created a fantastic piece of fantasy or a great big pile of nonsense. I suspect it's a combination of the two. I like some of Alice's adventures - really, how could I not? - but Wonderland was always leaning a bit towards the negative side of bizarre for me.

5

Dec 04, 2016

You may have seen the Disney film or been to a play, but most everyone growing up in a Western European-based culture has had some contact in some form with Alice and her adventures. I cannot recommend high enough actually reading Lewis Carroll's superb book written for his daughter Alice's bedtime story. There is a lovely innocence to Alice and a startling and surprising freshness to all the creatures and characters she meets. It does sometimes feel like an acid trip, but then so does Charlie You may have seen the Disney film or been to a play, but most everyone growing up in a Western European-based culture has had some contact in some form with Alice and her adventures. I cannot recommend high enough actually reading Lewis Carroll's superb book written for his daughter Alice's bedtime story. There is a lovely innocence to Alice and a startling and surprising freshness to all the creatures and characters she meets. It does sometimes feel like an acid trip, but then so does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other high flights of fancy. The great thing here is the oblique criticism of societal norms and the evocation of youth and innocence that is unforgettable and ageless. This is yet another book that one should read to their own kids as a gift for their imagination. ...more

5

Nov 28, 2015

I think it was a good choice for me to reread one of my favorite childhood stories before I read the one I really wanted to: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

When I was a little girl I LOVED the Disney movie and, since this book has some different aspects, it is no wonder I find the movie to be better.
However, it was still a really enjoyable ride everytime I read it.


Everlasting quotes are the reason this book is classic, and I love them all!




I have always wondered what

I think it was a good choice for me to reread one of my favorite childhood stories before I read the one I really wanted to: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

When I was a little girl I LOVED the Disney movie and, since this book has some different aspects, it is no wonder I find the movie to be better.
However, it was still a really enjoyable ride everytime I read it.


Everlasting quotes are the reason this book is classic, and I love them all!




I have always wondered what inspired Lewis Carroll (who was a really strange man so even if I am still wondering the same question, I am not too sure if I want to know the answer) to create this story in his head, and if he was on some kind of drugs while doing that.
I mean, Caterpillar smoke from nargila so... that's enough reason to be suspicious.

...more

4

Mar 23, 2017

I really enjoyed this, and being read by Michael York and a distinctive touch.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is popularly known to many as a children's book, and Lewis Carroll admitted to writing it for the little girls of the Dean of the college he taught at. A quote from C. S. Lewis, in The Three Ways of Writing For Children (1952), "A children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last, because a children's story is the best art-form for I really enjoyed this, and being read by Michael York and a distinctive touch.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is popularly known to many as a children's book, and Lewis Carroll admitted to writing it for the little girls of the Dean of the college he taught at. A quote from C. S. Lewis, in The Three Ways of Writing For Children (1952), "A children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last, because a children's story is the best art-form for something you have to say." Upon learning that there were other aspects of the book than simply just a children's story, I wanted to read it to see what those were. Alice's Adventures.... has been looked at in other ways over the years, determining there were many other elements employed into the story including:
1) satire of the corrupt judicial and political systems in Victorian England, as well as their abuse of power
2) satire of British imperialism and ethnocentrism
3) satire of social and cultural elements of Victorian society, such as its rigid educational system, social conventions, manners and etiquette

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been examined in many ways: as an exploration of the mind and thought practices, with the aim of finding a hidden meaning dealing with math and logic (since Lewis was also a mathematician), even as a symptom of the use of drugs (which is interesting, give Lewis Carroll's favorite book was Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and there were many times I thought Lewis Carroll must have been tripping on some serious Laudanum when writing) and as a political satire/ analogy. Lewis Carroll was also known for his photography hobby. He is also known to say that he liked little children, except little boys. The fact that many photographs have been found in his collection with little girls scantily clad, and in various poses, including on his lap, and in light of his comment, have led some to believe that the book has references to pedophilia, but since he is not alive to defend himself, I will avoid that.
The original illustrator of Alice was Sir John Tenniel, who was a famous cartoonist for Punch Magazine, a periodical famous in Victorian England for its satire writing and cartoons.

Since history is my thing, I was interested in the historical analogy. It is believed it is one of two entirely different analogies of two different eras, and I can see where both make sense. They are the Victorian and The War of the Roses, or the English Civil War. The main characters in each analogy are as follows:
Victorian:

Wonderland= Victorian England
Queen of Hearts= Queen Victoria
Alice= symbol of British colonization and ethnocentrism, imperialism
White Rabbit= new awareness, realization, the fact not everything is at it seems, or an overnervous minor political functionary, fearful of displeasing Queen Victoria, awed by people of power, concerned with appearances before superiors

King of Hearts= Prince Albert
Caterpillar= guru with many metaphysical questions, which is interesting considering the British colonization of India
Mad Hatter= Benjamin Disraeli
Mock Turtle & Gryphon= satires of college alumnus

The War of The Roses, or English Civil War (this analogy attributed to C. W. Giles, 1928):

Queen of Hearts= Queen Margaret
King of Hearts= Henry VI
Knave of Wonderland= Duke of York
Duchess= Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, or Duchess Margaretha Mattausch (who was considered the ugliest woman in history and whom Sir John Tenniel used her portrait as a basis for his illustration of "Duchess"

Baby= Richard of Gloucester, who became Richard III
Cheshire Cat= Sir William Catesby, follower of Richard III, and speaker of the House of Commons
White King= Richard's elder brother, Edward IV
Mad Hatter= Warwick the Kingmaker; Mad Hatter is also identified as one of King Edward's messengers, Hatta
March Hare= King Edward's messenger, Haigha; also identified as impersonal Yorkist claim to throne based on descent from Mortimer, Earl of March, heir to Richard II

Fall of Humpty Dumpty, attended by complete army of White King= horrible defeat of the Lancastrians at Toulton

Tweedledum & Tweedledee not referring to the War of The Roses, but instead to the ancient English kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex, which ceased their constant bickering to jointly resist the Danish "Raven", which is one of many references in Alice to earlier history, another which would be:
Father William and the Young Man= William the Conqueror and Rufus

So whichever theory as to the deeper meaning of Alice and her adventures you would subscribe to, it is an enjoyable and fascinating read.

To view Mischenko and Stacy's Alphabet Challenge for letter "A", visit https://twogalsandabook.com/ !! ...more

5

Dec 09, 2019

Alice In Wonderland is a particularly rich and whimsical story, with something new to discover in every reading.
Alice herself is quite a character, and is able to stand up for herself against the strange and seemingly illogical world of wonderland. As she comes across each of the weird and wonderful creatures - like the White Rabbit, the Duchess and Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, the March Hare, Mad Hatter and Doormouse, the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, and the Queen and her court (as the Gryphon Alice In Wonderland is a particularly rich and whimsical story, with something new to discover in every reading.
Alice herself is quite a character, and is able to stand up for herself against the strange and seemingly illogical world of wonderland. As she comes across each of the weird and wonderful creatures - like the White Rabbit, the Duchess and Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, the March Hare, Mad Hatter and Doormouse, the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, and the Queen and her court (as the Gryphon reminds us: ' It's all her fancy-that-They never executes nobody you know'.),creatures which are indeed rather argumentative and none too helpful to Alice's confusion, there is also a new story, a new song or game.
We learn that the real wonderland is the mind of a child, and the happy carefree long, summer days of innocence in which Alice dreamed her dream. ...more

0

Jul 24, 2018

I honestly dont know what to rate it bc I dont even know how I feel about this. I am bitter about certain aspects but then I wonder why am I bitter about them when I have clearly seen weirder shit in some other books? Why does this make me feel any different?
If anything this book encourages the imagination to grow!
I hate Alice tho...she's annoying than all the adults in A series of Unfortunate events put together!

------
Read this more than a decade ago and dont remember a single thing.
Rereading I honestly dont know what to rate it bc I dont even know how I feel about this. I am bitter about certain aspects but then I wonder why am I bitter about them when I have clearly seen weirder shit in some other books? Why does this make me feel any different?
If anything this book encourages the imagination to grow!
I hate Alice tho...she's annoying than all the adults in A series of Unfortunate events put together!

------
Read this more than a decade ago and dont remember a single thing.
Rereading thanks to the irl bookclub whose one of the botm is this with the theme being 'Tea' related.
I wonder how I will feel now? ...more

4

Feb 10, 2018

I did enjoy reading this book.
If you would like a full review let me know!

3

Aug 12, 2018

[From Litli prinsinn]

[Original review, Aug 12 2018]

My attempt to learn Icelandic just by reading continues with the Icelandic translation of Alice in Wonderland, another of my favourite books. I've now finished my first pass and am going back to the beginning, copying it out and running it through the little corpus script we're developing. I've combined the texts for the two books. This lets me get a snapshot of how familiar the vocabulary is on the first page of Alice, which I've just finished [From Litli prinsinn]

[Original review, Aug 12 2018]

My attempt to learn Icelandic just by reading continues with the Icelandic translation of Alice in Wonderland, another of my favourite books. I've now finished my first pass and am going back to the beginning, copying it out and running it through the little corpus script we're developing. I've combined the texts for the two books. This lets me get a snapshot of how familiar the vocabulary is on the first page of Alice, which I've just finished copying out:



As you can see, a lot of words are in red, meaning I haven't seen them before. But many are in black, which means that I've seen them more than five times and so probably know them. I'm doing well enough that I'm able to get along and start guessing things. Here's what I can make of the first paragraph:Lísa var að verða hundleið á því að sitja iðulaus hjá systur sinni í brekkunni. Einn sinni eða tvisvar hafði hún gægst i bókina sem systir hennar var að lesa, en þar voru engar myndir og engin samtöl, "og hvað er varið í bók," hugsaði Lísa, "þar sem hvorki eru myndir né samtöl?"

Alice was at become ?bored of that at sit ?idle with sister hers in ?brekkunni? One time or twice had she ?looked in book which syster hers was at read, but there were no pictures or conversations, "and what is ?worth in book", thought Alice, there which neither are pictures nor conversations?"As you can see, I think I guessed everything except the mysterious brekkunni.
_________________________________

[Update, Aug 14 2018]

I am surprised to see how much I learn from simply copying out Icelandic text, and have been wondering whether I can explain the efficacy of this process in terms of some kind of formal model. Once again, I think that deep learning theory may help me understand what's going on.

First, let's look at a naive argument which claims to demonstrate that copying out text can't teach you anything, and see what's wrong with it. If you haven't tried it yourself, you might think that copying is a purely mechanical operation; you look at each character in turn and hit the appropriate key after each one. That's how a laptop will copy a file. But I am not a laptop. In actual fact, I look at the text on the page that's sitting in front of me and try to remember a small piece of it; then I divert my attention to the editor window and try to type out what I can remember.

If I didn't understand the words at all, this might end up being similar to what the file-copying routine is doing. But I do understand Icelandic to some degree, and the better I understand it the longer the chunk is that I can remember. If I'm copying a long word I've not seen before, I may only be able to hold a few letters at a time in my memory, and I'll need to look at the word two or three times to copy it out. But at the other extreme, if I'm copying a short sentence where all the words are already familiar to me, I may be able to hold the complete sentence in my memory and then write it down without looking at the text again. Since I'm lazy and want to copy as quickly as I can, my mind is tricked into understanding longer and longer chunks of text.

The curious thing is that this is pretty exactly much what an autoencoder does; it's a neural net that's trained on data where the output is the same as the input. If neural nets had a global view of what they were trying to learn, the autoencoder could see that all it needs to do is copy the input one character at a time. But in fact, the neural net learns in a way similar to the way people learn, by making little incremental adjustments in the direction of increased efficiency. They can never make the big jump to the minimal solution; instead, they figure out ways to compress the input into larger chunks. This is what makes autoencoders useful.

Maybe those dumb old rote-learning methods weren't actually so dumb? ...more

5

Jan 15, 2018

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

From the genre of literary nonsense comes this classic work loved by children and adults alike.

As Alice slips into a dream, she finds herself chasing after a white rabbit with a waist coat and pocket watch. Apparently, he is late for something important. He heads down a rabbit “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

From the genre of literary nonsense comes this classic work loved by children and adults alike.

As Alice slips into a dream, she finds herself chasing after a white rabbit with a waist coat and pocket watch. Apparently, he is late for something important. He heads down a rabbit hole, nothing particularly odd about that, but as Alice follows, she falls into a world very different from her own. A world with Cheshire cats, mad-hatters, packs of living playing cards, and an array of characters which will make Alice's head spin as she manoeuvres cautiously through Wonderland.

As children, the Disney movie was always a favourite; our grandparents collected them for us and we never got bored of Alice in Wonderland. There are a number of significant differences between the book and the movie:

http://aliceinwonderland.wikia.com/wi...

However, as this is a world where things get "curiouser and curiouser", I'm not sure that it makes much difference!

I wasn't a big fan of the more recent movie adaptation by Tim Burton despite being first in line to watch it at the movies. It seemed darker somehow and a lot of the fun had disappeared. I'll be sticking to the Disney version.

Back to the book, I love the way Alice retains her faculties through all her bizarre experiences. She presents as an intelligent, somewhat precocious, child who just wants to make it through the day. She spends so much time trying to make sense of the nonsensical that she almost forgets to enjoy the adventure.

All would agree that this is a timeless classic for a bit of fantastical escapism. Personally, I think those who spend time seeking hidden meaning and symbolic parallels with reality are ruining the fun. There should be a collective "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" leaving the rest of us to enjoy this masterpiece without too much philosophising.

P.S. Why is a raven like a writing desk? ...more