Through the Looking-Glass

I find it more interesting than the first book. Alice is a funny character—she’s just like me.

Growing up my best friend was Alice. Not the Alice created by Lewis Carroll or Alice Liddell, his inspiration, of course. But my friend Alice was a dead-ringer for Carroll's Alice and often dressed as her for Halloween. Her older sister took it as her business to make sure she and I knew who the fictional Alice was, as character beyond the Disney film version. I honestly can't remember when I first read both Alice novels: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass And What Alice Saw There (1871). What I do remember is that I read the books back to back in the course of an almost all-nighter. In college Lewis Carroll's Alice took on new importance for me. My boyfriend (now husband) adored the books and the poems from them. Our first year of exchanging gifts we gave each other books. Ian gave me a leather bound omnibus of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and I tracked down two beautiful used copies of the Alice books with the John Tenniel illustrations. This was before the ease of searching online for books; it meant a day long trip to Hillcrest (the place to buy used books in San Diego). It is his copies that we kept when we married and that I'm now reviewing. Since my husband's passion for Alice is the poetry, I tend to think now of the books in terms of their poems. The introduction to the edition we have says that everyone remembers "Jabberwocky", "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" and "The Walrus and Carpenter" is part of the "Alice book" not which one. They are all in Through the Looking Glass (and mashed into most of the film adaptations of Alice in Wonderland). Through the Looking Glass takes the apparent chaos of Wonderland and maps it logically (more or less) against the grid of a chessboard. The moves of the game are outlined at the start of the book, right after the table of contents. Like many a modern fantasy novel, humble Alice finds herself crowned. Now her coronation is part of chess game. I can't call Alice the first fantasy protagonist to go from nobody to nobility; let's not forget Sancho Panza who in the second book of Don Quixote ends up the lord of an island. If you plan on reading Lewis Carroll's Alice, please get both books. Get them with the John Tenniel illustrations. Read them together. Read the poems out loud. Memorize them! They are quoted and paraphrased almost as often as much as Shakespeare's sonnets and plays are.

Yesss. This one wasn’t better or worse than Alice in Wonderland, it just was. I don’t know which set of characters I liked better, as they were both entertaining. The red queen was definitely an interesting character, I really liked her. There were a few dim parts of the book, but nothing too slow. This was really enjoyable. Idk what I expected, but this was actually fun.

I received both the first novel in this series and the second one together, so I had to read the sequel to Alice in Wonderland! I found the second story of Alice to be less interesting than the first story, but it was still a nice, quick read. I enjoyed reading it because of all of the adaptions I have seen on television and on movie screens. For children, this would be a good at night read book to get them into reading, but it is not something I would pick up frequently for myself. Overall, I liked the writing style by Lewis Carroll, but not my favorite children's book. Two out of five stars.

absurdly funny

It was good classic Alice in wonderland a little lost because I was listening and no directly reading but other then that it was pretty good

This was such a non-sensical and peculiar little book. I can’t say I completely enjoyed it as I was distracted by the strangeness throughout but I am happy to knock another classic off my TBR. I do need to callout the narrator Harlan Ellison who did a great job of brining all of the whimsical characters to life

Actual rating: 50.1253689 million stars. And a half. This book. It makes me feel a teensy-tiny little bit like this: And also a teensy-tiny little bit like this: Because Pure Undiluted Cleverness and Absolute Sheer Brilliance (PUCaASB™) it is. The end and stuff. · Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ★★★★★

I love Alice. And this book did not disappoint since it included all the character I was already expecting in book 1.

Yet again another Lewis Carroll humorous tale that kept me drawn into the Wonderland world he has created.

Through the Looking Glass was filled with the whimsy and humour that the first Alice story contained. The main difference was that there was a plot, albeit a very small one. Basically, Alice goes through the Looking Glass and becomes involved in a game of chess where she is a pawn. Alice must go through the world to get to the other end of the chessboard and become a queen. I loved Alice and all of the characters that Lewis brought to life. The poems, songs and stories told within this story were as whimsical and far-fetched as the rest of the book. I absolutely love this fantastical world that Lewis has created.

Unfortunately, I liked this book as little as the first one. It’s just so random, there no sense in the overarching story. Although I understand that it’s a mysterious, weird and magical wonderland, I just couldn’t get into it and couldn’t get myself to care about anything that happened in this book. Maybe I should’ve read this when I was little and cared less about semi-understandable plotlines

This book was just so much weirder than I expected. I mean really. I couldn't tell what was happening half the time with the instantaneous scene changes. But, I guess that is the point with Carroll. There is nothing like a weird-ass classic. I admire this book for everything that it is. The book that upstaged all the strangeness in Alice Down the Rabbit Hole. The book that weirded me out so much that I had to keep reading to the end. The book that birthed a caterpillar which was Alan Rickman and a hatter which was Johnny Depp. Don't expect an easy read, I will give that one caution. I'll be honest that I skipped through all the songs and poetry which I know from the movies (both classic and Disney). And it is great to finally know the original of what is now a story chopped and changed with its prequel so it makes some ounce of sense.

"Life, what is it but a dream?"

Wow, this took me quite a while because I am a slow reader of poetry, but it was quite enjoyable! I always love to be whisked away into Alice's dreams, escaping the real world without the fear that accompanies my own dreams.