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A review by courtneydoss
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4.0
Alice No-Last-Name is a curious, imaginative little girl. Bored to tears by the idleness of the afternoon, Alice falls down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder and weirdness. While in Wonderland, Alice meets a slew of iconic characters, trips over her words more than once, and finds herself changing far too often for her liking.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a classic piece of children's literature that has remained popular over 150 years. Almost every character within this rather short book is vivid and memorable, and has inspired dozens of adaptations and references throughout pop culture since its release in 1865. The reason for this longevity, perhaps, comes from how freaking weird this book is.
Wonderland is a place where nothing makes sense. The rules of decorum, of language, and of physics are constantly in flux and at odds with what Alice expects. She routinely manages to put her foot in her mouth and offend just about everyone she meets, because she knows nothing about what is expected of her in this wondrous, strange place. This is the land of word play and dad jokes, where even the most innocuous statements can be turned around into something else entirely.
The confusion that Alice feels in navigating her way through Wonderland seems to me a metaphor for the confusion that comes with growing up in the real world. The culture of England in the 1860s was not a very child-friendly one, in that there was a strictly enforced code of conduct that would likely have been rather difficult for someone as restless, creative, and strong-willed as Alice to live up to. Whether or not this was the intent of Lewis Carroll, it is an interesting lens through which to read this book; analyzing every mistake that Alice makes as a metaphor for something in the real world.
One of the lighter books in my 100 Books to Read Before You Die list, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a cute little novel that will inspire your inner child, or your actual children if you feel so inclined to read it to them. While criticism can be hurled at this book as to the writing style (elsewhere referred to as "word salad"), or to the potentially pedophilic attachment Lewis Carroll felt toward Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice, it cannot be denied that "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a truly iconic piece of literature and deserves a place on everyone's Literary Bucket List. There is simply nothing quite like it, and anything that comes close came afterward.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a classic piece of children's literature that has remained popular over 150 years. Almost every character within this rather short book is vivid and memorable, and has inspired dozens of adaptations and references throughout pop culture since its release in 1865. The reason for this longevity, perhaps, comes from how freaking weird this book is.
Wonderland is a place where nothing makes sense. The rules of decorum, of language, and of physics are constantly in flux and at odds with what Alice expects. She routinely manages to put her foot in her mouth and offend just about everyone she meets, because she knows nothing about what is expected of her in this wondrous, strange place. This is the land of word play and dad jokes, where even the most innocuous statements can be turned around into something else entirely.
The confusion that Alice feels in navigating her way through Wonderland seems to me a metaphor for the confusion that comes with growing up in the real world. The culture of England in the 1860s was not a very child-friendly one, in that there was a strictly enforced code of conduct that would likely have been rather difficult for someone as restless, creative, and strong-willed as Alice to live up to. Whether or not this was the intent of Lewis Carroll, it is an interesting lens through which to read this book; analyzing every mistake that Alice makes as a metaphor for something in the real world.
One of the lighter books in my 100 Books to Read Before You Die list, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a cute little novel that will inspire your inner child, or your actual children if you feel so inclined to read it to them. While criticism can be hurled at this book as to the writing style (elsewhere referred to as "word salad"), or to the potentially pedophilic attachment Lewis Carroll felt toward Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice, it cannot be denied that "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a truly iconic piece of literature and deserves a place on everyone's Literary Bucket List. There is simply nothing quite like it, and anything that comes close came afterward.