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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Book Review

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most famous and enduring children's classics. The novel is full of whimsical charm, and a feeling for the absurd that is unsurpassed. But, who was Lewis Carroll?

Charles Dodgson

Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was a mathematician and logician who lectured at Oxford University. He balanced both personas, as he used his study in the sciences to create his eminently strange books. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a charming, light book, that reputedly pleased Queen Victoria . She asked to receive the author's next work and was swiftly sent a copy of An Elementary Treatment of Determinants .

The book begins with young Alice, bored, sitting by a river, reading a book with her sister. Then Alice catches sight of a small white figure, a rabbit dressed in a waistcoat and holding a pocket watch, murmuring to himself that he is late. She runs after the rabbit and follows it into a hole. After falling into the depths of the earth, she finds herself in a corridor full of doors. At the end of the corridor, there is a tiny door with a tiny key through which Alice can see a beautiful garden that she is desperate to enter. She then spots a bottle labeled "Drink me" (which she does) and begins to shrink until she is small enough to fit through the door.

Unfortunately, she has left the key that fits the lock on a table, now well out of her reach. She then finds a cake labeled "Eat me" (which, again, she does), and is restored to her normal size. Disconcerted by this frustrating series of events, Alice begins to cry, and as she does, she shrinks and is washed away in her own tears.

This strange beginning leads to a series of progressively "​curiouser and curiouser" events, which see Alice babysit a pig, take part in a tea party that is held hostage by time (so never ends), and engage in a game of croquet in which flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls. She meets some extravagant and incredible characters, from the Cheshire Cat to a caterpillar smoking a hookah and being decidedly contradictory. She also, famously, meets the Queen of Hearts who has a penchant for execution.​

The book reaches its climax in the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. A good deal of nonsense evidence is given against the unfortunate man, and a letter is produced which only refers to events by pronouns (but which is supposedly damning evidence). Alice, who by now has grown to a great size, stands up for the Knave and the Queen, predictably, demands her execution. As she is fighting off the Queen’s card soldiers, Alice awakes, realizing she has been dreaming all along.

Carroll's book is episodic and reveals more in the situations that it contrives than in any serious attempt at plot or character analysis. Like a series of nonsense poems or stories created more for their puzzling nature or illogical delightfulness, the events of Alice's adventure are her encounters with incredible but immensely likable characters. Carroll was a master of toying with the eccentricities of language.

One feels that Carroll is never more at home than when he is playing, punning, or otherwise messing around with the English tongue. Although the book has been interpreted in numerous ways, from an allegory of semiotic theory to a drug-fueled hallucination, perhaps it is this playfulness that has ensured its success over the last century.

The book is brilliant for children, but with enough hilarity and joy for life in it to please adults too, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a lovely book with which to take a brief respite from our overly rational and sometimes dreary world.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Caroll | Book Review

Book Review of  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland The Children’s Book Review

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Written by Lewis Carroll

Illustrated by Anna Bond

Ages: 10+ | 192 Pages

Publisher: Puffin Books | ISBN-13: 9780147515872

What to Expect: Adventure, Fantasy, and Classics

When it comes to beloved works of literature, few can compare to Lewis Carroll’s  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . This enchanting tale, considered a timeless classic, has captivated and delighted readers for generations for very good reason—if ever there was a tall tale, this might be the tallest.

At its heart,  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  is a story full of wonder and whimsy, centered around a young girl named Alice who longs for something more than her mundane existence. When she unexpectedly tumbles down a rabbit hole into an entirely new world known as Wonderland, readers are whisked away on a magical journey beyond their wildest imaginings.

Here, in Wonderland, Alice encounters all manner of curious characters, from the endlessly tardy White Rabbit (always rushing about with his pocket watch) to the puzzling Cheshire Cat (who becomes invisible except for his big grin) to the Hatter (who is completely mad) to the Queen of Hearts (who is very difficult to please) and beyond. There are riddles to solve, quirky poems, and a tea party Alice can’t wait to leave.

In the midst of all of the absurd happenings, Carroll weaves in a series of mind-bending riddles that keep readers guessing until the very end. But beyond the exquisite story, we cannot forget Anna Bond’s stunning and evocative illustrations in this Puffin in Bloom edition of the story, which bring the magical world of Wonderland to life in vivid, floral detail. 

Readers, young and old alike, will undoubtedly be spellbound by the allure of Alice in Wonderland. As sure as ferrets are ferrets, readers will be charmed by the words and fascinated by the illustrations.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  is dreamy—you would be completely mad not to read this book!

Buy the Book

About the author.

Lewis Carroll is the pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Queen Victoria was one of the first well-known fans of his book  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  With royalty loving the book, it’s no wonder that the story has been adapted into multiple movies, live performances, and comic books.

What to Read Next If You Love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

• Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There , by Lewis Carroll
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , by L. Frank Baum
• The Looking Glass Wars , by Frank Beddor
• Peter Pan , by J.M. Barrie

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Discover more books like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Adventure , Fantasy , and Classics .

What to Read Next:

• The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Book Review
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia | Book Review
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling | Book Review
• Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson | Book Review

• X (Twitter)

Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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Alice's adventures in wonderland.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 7 Reviews
• Kids Say 18 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Monica Wyatt , based on child development research. How do we rate?

A classic that both adults and kids love.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that constantly changing predicaments, strange creatures, and the watercolors are very child-friendly. But difficult language, Carroll's nonsense poems, and adult humor will leave some children bored or confused. Still, it's a classic well worth the trouble and particularly fun as a read…

Why Age 9+?

A blue caterpillar smokes a hookah.

The Queen of Hearts frequently shouts "Off with his head!" and "O

Any Positive Content?

Alice is polite, friendly, open-minded, and resilient as she navigates the chaot

Exposes kids to wordplay, crazy riddles, and nonsense poetry, as well as Victori

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is more nonsense and dreamscape than moral

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

The Queen of Hearts frequently shouts "Off with his head!" and "Off with her head!" She orders the execution of the Cheshire Cat and threatens the Duchess and Alice with execution. The Duchess' cook throws dishes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Alice is polite, friendly, open-minded, and resilient as she navigates the chaotic world in which she's landed. She encounters all sorts of characters, some of whom are confusing, such as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat, and some are mean, such as the Queen of Hearts.

Educational Value

Exposes kids to wordplay, crazy riddles, and nonsense poetry, as well as Victorian language and customs and a little French.

Positive Messages

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is more nonsense and dreamscape than moral lesson. But it does imply the advice to, when in crazy, confusing, or challenging situations, try to keep your head (even when someone is constantly yelling "Off with her head!") and not be intimidated by outrageous characters who are insulting and threatening you and causing you trouble. In short: Roll with the punches.

Parents need to know that constantly changing predicaments, strange creatures, and the watercolors are very child-friendly. But difficult language, Carroll's nonsense poems, and adult humor will leave some children bored or confused. Still, it's a classic well worth the trouble and particularly fun as a read-aloud.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

• Parents say (7)
• Kids say (18)

Based on 7 parent reviews

What's the Story?

What strange and marvelous creatures will Alice find down the rabbit hole, and what amazing thing will happen next? The inventive language and charming fantasy make this a classic that both adults and kids love. Older ones will appreciate the satire, but some younger children will be confused or bored. Updated illustrations are appealing to children.

Is It Any Good?

Though there are many video versions and a lot of simplified retellings of this story, all kids deserve to know this wonderful adventure as Lewis Carroll wrote it. But it takes a particular kind of child to enjoy this: Complex language, nonsense, and the lack of a sensible plot are not to every child's taste. The book needs to be thoughtfully read aloud by an adult; few children will read this on their own. But, read aloud, the rhythmic poems can delight kids for their sounds and silly images.

The book works on two levels: as a delightful children's fantasy and as an impish poke in the eye to adults. Alice's strange new world remains just enough like the polite society of Victorian England that we can recognize it -- but it isn't terribly polite, allowing adults to understand much of the book as satire. Of course, kids usually don't see the satire; they simply enjoy the nonsense. If you've forgotten how to do that, Alice can help you remember.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the strange creatures in Wonderland. Which is the strangest?

Why do you think the queen is so mean? Are you confused by parts of the story? Which parts?

Do you like stories you don't understand right away? Why, or why not?

Book Details

• Author : Lewis Carroll
• Illustrator : Helen Oxenbury
• Genre : Literary Fiction
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Candlewick Press
• Publication date : November 26, 1865
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
• Number of pages : 207
• Last updated : November 15, 2019

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Alice in Wonderland (Book Review)

Reviewed by Bruce Heydt By Lewis Carroll Available in many editions, both soft and hardcover

Within the pages of Lewis Carroll’s signature novel, Alice in Wonderland, the worlds above and below the famous rabbit hole nowhere intersect. Above the hole the reader finds calm and order, bright sunlight and the gently flowing Thames. Down below, the laws of nature and logic have been turned on their heads. Seemingly, never the twain shall meet.

Things are not always as they first appear, however. For a century and more, children have enjoyed the sheer silliness of Wonderland’s residents, but to the initiated they are a wry reflection of Carroll’s Victorian-era England, or at least Victorian England as Carroll himself perceived it.

The reign of Britain’s very own aboveground Queen of Hearts was a time of rapid change, exemplified by advances in science and by the Industrial Revolution—as well as by an increasing subservience to schedules and timetables that created a manic, rabbitlike response to the dread of running late. (The white rabbit is, in fact, a dead-ringer for every railway conductor I’ve ever met.) Even while industrialization transformed Britain, 18th-century social customs—most notably a rigid class structure in which every card had its proper place in the deck—lingered on.

Carroll himself was something of a square peg in Victorian Britain’s round hole, and he viewed the world into which he had fallen, through no fault of his own, as a Wonderland in many ways no more strange than Alice’s. A mathematician himself, Carroll had a keen sense of logic and order. He also had a sense of the absurd, and saw many of the intellectual trends of his day in the latter light. In contrast to the mock intellectualism of adults, Carroll seems to prefer the innocent common sense of children, who therefore became, like Alice, the heroines of most of his stories. Alice’s greatest challenge in Wonderland often seems not to be how to return to the aboveground world, as might be expected, but in remaining uninfected by the dangerous and surreal logic of the “adult” Wonderlanders she encounters—an ultimately futile endeavor, since Alice, along with every other little girl, is on an inevitable progress toward adulthood herself. The journey, however, often proceeds in fits and starts and takes many false turns, as Alice discovers to her ongoing frustration when she alternately shrinks and grows at the mere sip of drink or bite of cake. That alone would be frightening enough even without the possibility—a very real one, as Alice learns—that any child may grow up to become a “pig.”

Despite its unpredictability, Wonder land is seductive and almost preferable to the real (but bland by comparison) contemporary world. Readers can safely give in to its enticements by joining Alice as she tumbles down the rabbit hole. The creatures and situations that visitors to Wonderland will encounter include, famously, a grinning Cheshire cat, a maddeningly absurd tea party, a sagacious caterpillar, a mind-bending croquet match, a thieving knave and a queen with an attitude who seems more than capable of bringing the entire world under her dominion. (Presumably, the real monarch would not have been amused by any suggestion of a simi larity.) So well-known are these creations that Carroll’s imagery is said to be more frequently alluded to than is any other literary source, save only the Bible and Shakespeare.

Today’s readers have an abundance of editions to choose from when settling down with this classic, perhaps with a child or grandchild on their knee. Do select one that contains the original illustrations by John Tenniel, which have become classics in their own right, or perhaps the edgier color images of Arthur Rackham.

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A Summary and Analysis of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

There is a famous anecdote about Lewis Carroll and Queen Victoria: Victoria enjoyed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) so much that she requested a first edition of Carroll’s next book. Carroll duly sent her a copy of the next book he published – a mathematical work with the exciting title An Elementary Treatise on Determinants .

Unfortunately, like most good anecdotes, this one isn’t true, but such a story does highlight the oddness of Carroll’s double life. Carroll, despite the radical nature of his nonsense fiction, was a conservative mathematician and don at the University of Oxford, real name Charles Dodgson.

But what does this novel, one of the most popular Victorian books for children, mean? Before we analyse Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , it might be worth recapping the novel’s plot.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland : summary

The novel begins with a young girl named Alice, who is bored with a book she is reading outside, following a smartly-dressed rabbit down a rabbit hole. She falls a long way until she finds herself in a room full of locked doors. However, she finds a key, but it’s for a door that’s too small for her.

However, there is a bottle labelled ‘DRINK ME’ on a table, so she drinks down its contents and promptly shrinks. But now she’s too small to reach the key on the table! She eats a cake labelled ‘EAT ME’, and she now grows to be too big – much bigger than her usual size. She begins to cry.

After shrinking back to her usual size, Alice starts to swim on the tide of her own tears, meeting a range of other animals including a mouse and a dodo. The latter declares there should be a Caucus-Race: everyone runs around in a circle but nobody wins. When Alice starts to talk about her cat back home, she inadvertently frightens all of the animals away.

The White Rabbit orders Alice to go into the house and find the gloves belonging to a duchess. Alice finds another potion in the house, which makes her grow large again when she drinks it. When animals hurl stones at her, these turn into cakes and she eats them, returning to her normal size.

Alice meets a blue caterpillar sitting on a mushroom and smoking a hookah pipe. The caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller, while the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom and eats them. Sure enough, one side shrinks her again, while the other side makes me grow into a giant.

Alice sees a fish, working as a footman, delivering an invitation for the Duchess who lives at the house; he hands the letter to a frog who is working as the Duchess’ footman. Alice goes inside the house again. The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare’s house. He disappears but his grin remains when the rest of him has gone.

Alice attends the Mad Hatter’s tea party, along with the Marsh Hare and Dormouse. They throw lots of riddles at her until she becomes fed up with them and leaves. She finds herself in a garden in which playing cards are busy painting flowers.

Alice meets the King and Queen, the latter of whom orders her to play a game of croquet in which live flamingos are used instead of croquet mallets (and hedgehogs are deployed as balls!).

The Duchess, who owns the Cheshire Cat, turns up just as the Queen is trying to have the Cheshire Cat beheaded. A Gryphon takes Alice to meet the Mock Turtle, who tells Alice he used to be a real turtle and is now sad because he was mocked when young. The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon then dance to the Lobster Quadrille.

The Queen of Hearts demands Alice’s head be removed: ‘Off with her head!’ But when Alice stands up to her, the Queen falls silent. Alice attends a trial at which the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. Alice realises she is starting to grow bigger.

She is summoned as a witness at the trial, but she has grown so big now that she accidentally knocks over the jury box containing the animals on the jury.

The Queen accuses Alice of stealing the tarts and once more demands her head. Alice stands up to them, and as the playing cards advance on her, she is wakened from her dream, and finds her sister shaking her: the playing cards have become leaves that have fallen on her. She is back in the real world.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland : analysis

‘Lewis Carroll’ was really a man named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematician at Christ Church, Oxford. As such, he led something of a double life: to the readers of his Alice books he was Lewis Carroll, while to the world of mathematics and to his colleagues at the University of Oxford he was (Reverend) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a man who formed his pen name by reversing his first two names (‘Charles Lutwidge’ became ‘Lewis Carroll’).

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began life on 4 July 1862, when Charles Dodgson accompanied the Liddell children – one of whom was named Alice – on a boat journey, and told them the story that formed the basis of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , which appeared three years later.

Although its working title was Alice’s Adventures Underground , it was published with the more enchanting title which captures the magic, illogic, and nonsense which characterise the world ‘down the rabbit-hole’ in which Alice finds herself.

Carroll’s was by no means the first portal fantasy novel of this kind: two years earlier, in 1863, Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies had appeared. The book tells the story of the boy chimney-sweep, Tom, who goes beneath the water and becomes a ‘water-baby’.

In many ways the tale of a child slipping underwater into an alternate world of fantasy, where the Victorian world is curiously inverted, foreshadows Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , although Carroll came up with his story independently, before Kingsley’s novel was published. (Curiously, the phrases ‘mad as a March-hare’ and ‘grinning like a Cheshire cat’, by the by, both appear in The Water-Babies .)

But for all of their passing similarities, the chief difference between Carroll’s novel and Kingsley’s – and, indeed, between Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and 99% of the children’s fiction produced at the time – is that Carroll refused to use his story to offer his young readers a moral.

You can see the moral message of a Victorian children’s story coming a mile off, but Carroll not only avoids such heavy-handed moralising, but actively criticises the very idea:

She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. ‘You’re thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can’t tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit.’

‘Perhaps it hasn’t one,’ Alice ventured to remark.

‘Tut, tut, child!’ said the Duchess. ‘Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.’ And she squeezed herself up closer to Alice’s side as she spoke.

This exchange, from ‘The Mock Turtle’s Story’ (Chapter 9), pit the mainstream Victorian attitude held by adults against the rebellious innocence of the child, with the censorious morality of the adult (‘Tut, tut, child!’) immediately closing down the child’s instinct to speculate, question, and retain an open mind (‘Perhaps it hasn’t one’).

So much for the moral meaning of Carroll’s novel. But does that mean that the glorious nonsense of the book, the subversion and inversion of the reality of the world, the fantastical creatures and episodes, are just that: ‘nonsense’, not meant to mean anything beyond themselves?

Critics have been tempted to analyse the novel through a Freudian or psychoanalytic lens: the novel is about a child’s awareness of itself in the world, discovering its own body and its place in that world.

In finding herself in a completely mad world – full of tyrannical queens and mad hatters – Alice must learn to assert herself (something she does decisively at the end, when confronting the Queen of Hearts) and also, quite literally, keep her head about her while all about her are losing theirs (and often blaming it on her).

Or, even if we drop the Freudian label, we might view the novel as an exploration of a child’s journey through the world, making sense of everything and realising that sometimes grown-ups – those authority figures the child is told to obey because they are older and wiser than she is – are the stupidest people in the room.

For all that, should we analyse Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a scathing satire on radical new ideas in nineteenth-century mathematics, ideas for which Carroll/Dodgson had little time? Melanie Bayley thinks so, and published an article in the New Scientist in 2009 in which she set out her thesis. You can read Bayley’s article here .

If you enjoyed this analysis of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , you might also like our summary and analysis of the book’s sequel, Through the Looking-Glass .

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The latest book reviews and book news, alice’s adventures in wonderland: book review.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland book review

Nobody really knows what makes a children’s books popular and why some don’t catch on. A book that has stayed relevant for over a century is Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Find out why that is so as well as reading a short summary of the novel!

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Summary

Alice is sitting by a riverbank and is bored out of her mind when out of nowhere she sees a white rabbit with a pocket watch pass her by commenting that he is late. Curiosity gets the best of Alice and she follows the rabbit down a rabbit hole. 

That leads her to a room where she is encounters a tiny door and a tiny key. In the room, Alive finds a bottle that says drink me and she shrinks as a result. Now she is able to open the small door and follow the white rabbit.

But the effects of the potion does not stop and Alice keeps shrinking as a result. This makes Alice cry and she gets mistaken for a maidservant and tells her to go to the house where she finds another potion and she drinks that also. This one makes her bigger but like the first potion, she keeps growing.

Other creatures Alice meets include a caterpillar smoking a hookah that makes her face her current identity crisis. She also meets the Duchess and the Chesire Cat. Alice gets imprisoned and is put on trial. Will Alice be freed and return home or will the Duchess keep her locked up?

First published in 1865 , the novel has remained in the mainstream ever since. There are numerous movies and adaptations of the popular children’s book. The idea for the book came when Lewis went on a boat ride with three little girls and told them the story of Alice in 1862.

The novel has been translated into 174 languages and has never been out of print. Those two facts are ridiculous and beyond impressive. You can find this story on many forms such as screen, radio, art, ballet, opera, musicals, theme parks, board games, and video games. At this point, it is safe to say this story is almost universal. 

What makes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland great is that it is conceived for a child’s mind but told by an adult so it also appeals to them. It is a wonderful book about wild adventures that children daydream about and adults can remember when they also used to do as a kid.

Reading this book makes you remember what it felt like to be a kid when the world was limitless. Maybe that’s why adults keep coming back to this book throughout the years. There’s a reason why The Chronicles of Narnia and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have become classics and something most children end up reading at least once.

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‘The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland’

By Michael Wood

• June 8, 2015
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Lewis Carroll loved puns, like those about the tortoise who taught us, or the lessons that lessen the need for any more of them. He especially loved puns that could be found hiding in one word, like wonderland: a place full of wonders and a place where you wonder what is happening to you. These meanings are not only different, they can be read as opposites, as Robert ­Douglas-Fairhurst reminds us, quoting a Victorian evocation of a person “who, being in a chronic state of wonder, is surprised at nothing.” Sentimental memories of the Alice books often stress the first, dazzled meaning, but a fresh reading of Carroll is likely to leave us much closer to the second, which Douglas-Fairhurst neatly formulates as “being puzzled at what we do not know.” This is how the flowers talk in “Through the Looking-Glass”: “I wonder how you do it,” a rose says to ­Alice, referring to her odd human ability to move about. “You’re always wondering,” an irritated tiger-lily says.

We are still wondering about Alice, where she came from and where she went, and Douglas-Fairhurst, the author of a well-regarded biography of Dickens, wants to inform our wonder rather than put it entirely to rest. His book doesn’t explore a great deal of new material, but it does offer a thoughtful, far-­reaching narrative, the story of three very different lives: those of Lewis Carroll, Alice Hargreaves, née Liddell, and the literary creation they both had a part in.

Late in life, Carroll referred to Alice Liddell as one “without whose infant patronage I might possibly never have written at all.” He is thinking of a trip he and a clerical friend took with the three Liddell girls — Alice was 10 at the time — up the river outside Oxford, and of Alice’s begging him to write down the story he told them then. He wrote “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” for her, and gave her a handwritten, illustrated copy. Meanwhile he was expanding this text into what became “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865). Alice’s role in the book’s begetting was known to her and to family members, of course, but not to anyone else much, and in 1899 Isa Bowman was able to publish a book about Carroll “told for young people by the real Alice in Wonderland” — “real” here meaning the actual actress who had appeared in a stage version of the adventures. In 1932, when Alice Hargreaves received an honorary degree from Columbia University, it had been known for some time “that there had been a real Alice, and that she was still alive,” but the news had not really sunk in, and the apparent revelation was so exciting that no one seemed to hesitate over — or wonder about — the notion of a person’s getting a degree for being a fictional character, or for nagging a writer into fame.

The Alice books are about many things, and identity is important among them. Alice worries a lot about who she is or has become, and there is much talk about growing in several senses: getting bigger, getting older, becoming an adult. “There ought to be a book written about me,” Alice says to herself. “And when I grow up, I’ll write one — but I’m grown up now.” She is crushed inside a tiny house at this point. Did Charles Lutwidge Dodgson grow into Lewis Carroll, or was there some other sort of mutation? His gravestone calls him Dodgson and puts Lewis Carroll in parenthesis. The first biography, by his nephew, does the reverse. When Alice Hargreaves died, headlines in The Times of London called her both Mrs. Hargreaves and ­Alice in Wonderland. The Evening Standard settled for Alice. ­Douglas-Fairhurst says, “What nobody outside her immediate family seemed entirely sure about was whose life had just ended,” and one might think the same of the other case. ­Douglas-Fairhurst’s ability to make room for such doubts without giving in to them is one of his book’s great attractions.

Because this work is a history as well as a biography, it covers a large stretch of ground and time: from the myriad possible sources for the Alice books to all the adaptations made of them in print, onstage and on film, to say nothing of all the games and toys and tea towels. “By the end of the 19th century,” Douglas-­Fairhurst says, Wonderland “had become something . . . like a cultural multiverse, a loose network of real places and intangible ideas.” He also suggests that his reconstruction of the lives of “two real people,” along with a historical world caught up in myth, presents us with “a world we do not usually associate with the Victorians — one that is noisy, colorful, brimming with energy.” This is half-true, I think, but the author has got a little carried away by the less troubling sense of wonder.

There is a lot of noise here: inventions, fairgrounds, freaks, superstition, scandal. But there is a lot of darkness too, a landscape of skilled and persistent repression and denial, especially in the lives of those “real people” outside fiction — precisely what we do associate with the Victorians. Perhaps we can’t be too sorry for Alice Hargreaves in her well-off, adult married life, and indeed Douglas-Fairhurst can’t resist a satirical tone here, especially when he describes her honeymoon in this way: “Alice picked mushrooms, and Reginald blazed away at the local wildlife.” Still, we have other evidence for real dreariness at least. Dodgson was an ardent photographer, and his last picture of Alice, dating from 1870, when she was 18, looks like a study in depression. She is dressed in frills and has a tidy bow on her upswept hair; her head tilts slightly sideways and forward. Her eyes avoid the camera. ­Douglas-Fairhurst says this is Carroll’s “worst” photograph of her, and it is certainly the saddest. In another light we might see it as a masterpiece. Perhaps her expression signifies a “desire to escape, to be elsewhere and live otherwise.” What is more striking, though, is the steadiness of her gloom, the clear conviction that things are not going to get any better than this, and may get worse. Even if the mood was temporary, photographs don’t treat time that way, and they could be right.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Children’s Storybook or a World of Violence?

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“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll is probably the most popular children’s fantasy novel of the nineteenth century. The book gave way to a brand new era of children’s English literature: books that did not intend to impart lessons and morals to the children. These books just inaugurated imaginative worlds where the ‘mind is without fear’ and can wander off to places. This led to the emergence of a writing style that simultaneously embraced logic and nonsense.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Review)

While books like Tom Brown’s Schooldays offered rules for the right way of life, these other books, on the other hand, just gave a free space to live. Children’s literature owes its elements of fantasy, silliness, and curiosity to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and its sequel “Through the Looking-Glass.” These two stand apart from the typical cautionary tales for children. Without these texts, literature would not have branched out and flourished in the world of imagination.

While the Alice books insinuate that the primary intention is to gain the children’s attention as the audience, the main themes are contrary to the readers’ expectations. As one scrolls through the pages of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, it becomes crystal clear that the violent themes are undermining the societal moral codes that we typically believe that children should adopt. Throughout these texts, there is a constant feeling of fright of being in a strange place occupied by strange creatures. It is quite terrifying to find out how adult human figures in Alice in Wonderland behave.

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Alice exists in a violent, aggressive world that is different from the world of Maggie Tulliver and Jane Eyre. Images of Alice that we come across are often melancholic and sinister. Interestingly, Wonderland is devoid of certain threats that Alice introduces. These would include death, sickness, and rationality. In a world devoid of logic, there is neither any real threat nor the fear of death. William Empson even points out the death jokes present in the text. Alice, while mentioning the burnt candle, muses about death.

The text is loaded with morbid jokes and, at times, wanders through the possibilities of death. Conflict, battle, and even warfare are seen as inevitable but pointless. The violent moments of Wonderland stand in sharp contrast to the lighthearted fantastical moments. People are shown to be bloodthirsty and irrational, resorting to violence, even when it is clearly unnecessary. There is no attempt to make sense of violent or brutal behavior, although it is deplored and resisted. Violence and pain do not illustrate any moral point about the world; they are simply something to be noticed and avoided.

Carroll uses ineffectual and diluted violence to entertain his young readers. For something to be truly violent, there has to be a physical force that results in damage or injury. However, the violent acts projected in Wonderland lack the aspect of damage and injuries, making the violence fizzle out and turn ineffective. Through this kind of ineffectual violence, the author attempts to preserve Wonderland’s unrealistic appearance, where the pains and injuries of the harsh reality are kept at bay.

One of the most distinct examples of such ineffectual violence is the instance of the cook and the Duchess. The actions of the cook toward the Duchess, at first glance, appear to be very violent. The author describes her actions, “at once [the cook] set to work throwing everything within her reach at the duchess and the baby. The fire-iron came first; then followed a shower of saucepans, plates, and dishes.” The lullaby that the Duchess sings for her baby also has violent lyrics like “And beat him (baby) when he sneezes.” Even while singing, the Duchess keeps tossing the baby up and down while he kept howling.

You must be picturizing a very violent scene by reading this. However, Carroll does not let real violence take place as it would crumble apart his magical sanctuary for children from reality. “Pain is one of the most powerful sensations in real life, and by showing the pain of any kind, the author would have brought a strong sense of unwanted reality into the stories.” Carroll designed his stories in a way that they acted as a passage to escape for the kids from the big bad world and its hardships.

Therefore, for preventing his wonderful world from shattering, he added, “The Duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her.” By telling the reader that the cook’s violent actions did not cause any pain or discomfort, the author can preserve his fanciful universe. Also, by implementing ineffectual violence instead of real violence, the author was able to both use violent actions while preserving its surreal appearance.

In the chapter ‘A Mad-Tea Party,’ we see the Hatter, March Hare, and the Dormouse being rude, ill-mannered, and snappy at each other. While moving out, Alice saw the Dormouse being forced into the teapot by Hatter and March Hare. Sounds bizarre, right? Well, that’s Wonderland for you! Savage matriarchs dominate Wonderland. The Queen is in direct contrast with Alice.

Comments such as “chop her head off” and “you deserve to be beheaded” are very common commands that frequently come from the Queen. Even in the croquet game, the Queen kept shouting “Off with his head” or “Off with her head” every now and then. The inhabitants of Wonderland were apparently obsessed with the idea of beheading people. Yet, surprisingly, everyone was always left unharmed. Even the Gryphon states that “It’s all her (Queen) fancy, that: they never execute anybody…”

In one of the weirdest instances, the cheering guinea pigs at the court were “suppressed” by the court officers. And by “suppressed,” they literally mean SUPPRESS! They stuffed the guinea pigs in a huge canvas bag, tied its string, and then sat on it! Later, the Queen, as usual, keeps screaming to get the Dormouse beheaded, pinched, or his whiskers to be chopped off! Throughout the text, we come across numerous instances where violence is shown as a casual matter, orders of killing and beheading people are passed just randomly, and yet, there are no lives lost.

That is what makes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland such an intriguing and fascinating text. The creatures talk of violence all the time, they even indulged in fights, but there is no grave violence that actually takes place. This text, with all its interesting elements, makes for a delightful read for people across ages. You can get the book here! 📖

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll is probably the most popular children's fantasy novel of the nineteenth century. The book gave way to a brand new era of children's English literature: books that did not intend to impart lessons and morals to the children. These books just inaugurated imaginative worlds where the 'mind is without fear' and can wander off to places. This led to the emergence of a writing style that simultaneously embraced logic and nonsense.

URL: https://bookwritten.com/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-by-lewis-carroll-review/1972/

Author: Lewis Carroll

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1 thought on “ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Children’s Storybook or a World of Violence? ”

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a story about Alice who falls down a rabbit hole and lands into a fantasy world that is full of weird, wonderful people and animals. It is classic children’s book that is also popular with adults. Personally, at 16, I found the book strange and uninteresting. However if I was 8-14 I would have loved the fantastic fantasy world Carroll creates. I never expected the events that happened because they were bizarre and unpredictable. I loved the Cheshire cat’s wit and intelligence. I also love the hatter because his eccentric personality reminded me of the eccentric people I know. My favourite part was when Alice met the caterpillar, this was because of his ambiguous conversation with Alice.

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Book Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, is a rather peculiar adventure tale filled with all sorts of oddities and misfits. The story begins with the main protagonist, Alice, as she follows the White Rabbit into the infamous rabbit hole. In Wonderland, or so it seems, she meets several creatures all with the strangest backstories and personalities. The story is carefully crafted so that much of the book confuses the casual reader. A great concern for detail is needed to understand the novel and its full meaning. The book shares the complexities and hardships of growing up, in which the Lewis Carroll absolutely nailed. He also shares his negative opinions about the British government through the main antagonist, the Queen of Hearts, who is meant to be a high and powerful monarch, but never does anything. Overall, the book is a great read and it is certainly entertaining to spend some time to pick out the many small details hidden in the book. 8th Grade.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – Book Review

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

• Author – Lewis Carroll
• Illustrator – Grahame Baker-Smith
• Publisher – Templar Publishing
• Release Date – 30th November 2021
• Pages – 128
• ISBN 13 – 978-1787415607
• Format – Hardcover
• Star Rating – 5

I received a free copy of this book. This post contains affiliate links.

A stunning new edition of Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tale.

‘Curiouser and curiouser!’

Reimagined by the illustrations of Kate Greenaway Medal winner Grahame Baker-Smith, this stunning new edition of a childhood favourite will transport a whole new generation of readers down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland.

Conjured one ‘golden afternoon’ in 1867, the story of Alice has charmed readers for more than 150 years. Now readers can rediscover a host of favourite characters, from the despotic Queen of Hearts to the riddling Cheshire Cat, in a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

Review by Stacey

This new version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll has been illustrated by Kate Greenaway Medal winner Grahame Baker-Smith. I’m sure I don’t need to go over what I thought of the story, though this classic tale is still loved today as much as it has been throughout the decades and numerous copies are still purchased year on year for collectors and those wanting to share their love of the story with their children.

This version of the book is amazing from cover to cover. Beginning with the cover, the colour is gorgeous and the feel of it is so soft, it just makes you want to keep on rubbing your hand over it. The inside is pretty special too.

There are full-page colourful illustrations, small brown or blue ones dotted throughout, and the occasional midsized image. These drawings are divine. They capture the eye and are such a delight to look at.

This is a book that could be given as a present, whether to a grown-up or a child. I adore this copy. Pictures open your mind to what is happening in the text and this book does this perfectly.

Purchase Online:

• Amazon.co.uk
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Grahame Baker-Smith

Grahame Baker-Smith, a self-taught illustrator, was inspired to create this book after his experiences of being a son and now having a son of his own. His first title for Templar Books, Leon and the Place Between, was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and FArTHER went on to win in 2011. Grahame Baker-Smith lives in Bath, England, with his wife and three children.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , widely beloved British children’s book by Lewis Carroll , published in 1865. With its fantastical tales and riddles , it became one of the most popular works of English-language fiction. It was notably illustrated by British artist John Tenniel .

The story centres on Alice, a young girl who falls asleep in a meadow and dreams that she follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole. She has many wondrous, often bizarre adventures with thoroughly illogical and very strange creatures, often changing size unexpectedly (she grows as tall as a house and shrinks to 3 inches [7 cm]). She encounters the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Duchess (with a baby that becomes a pig), and the Cheshire Cat , and she attends a strange endless tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare . She plays a game of croquet with an unmanageable flamingo for a croquet mallet and uncooperative hedgehogs for croquet balls while the Queen calls for the execution of almost everyone present. Later, at the Queen’s behest, the Gryphon takes Alice to meet the sobbing Mock Turtle , who describes his education in such subjects as Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision . Alice is then called as a witness in the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of having stolen the Queen’s tarts. However, when the Queen demands that Alice be beheaded, Alice realizes that the characters are only a pack of cards, and she then awakens from her dream.

The story was originally told by Carroll to Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell (the daughters of Henry George Liddell , dean of Christ Church, Oxford , where the author had studied and held a fellowship) on a picnic in July 1862. Alice asked Carroll to write out the stories for her, and in response he produced a hand-lettered collection entitled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground . A visitor to the Liddell home saw the storybook and thought it should be published, so Carroll revised and expanded it. Appearing at a time when children’s literature generally was intended to teach moral lessons, the book at first baffled critics, who failed to appreciate the nonsense that so captivated its young readers. But Carroll understood how children’s minds worked, and the way he turned logic on its head appealed to their sense of the ridiculous. In the riddles and the poems—such as “How doth the little crocodile” and “You are old, Father William” (both parodies of well-known didactic poems)—he reached even more absurd heights. The work attracted a following and led to a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (dated 1872 but published in December 1871). By the end of the 19th century, Alice (taking the two volumes together) had become the most popular children’s book in England, and within two more decades it was among the most popular storybooks in the world. It inspired numerous films, theatrical performances, and ballets as well as countless works of scholarly analysis.

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Book review: Alice in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Sir John Tenniel, MacMillan Children’s Books, ISBN 9781509865727

Molly reviewed her own copy of this book. This review was shortlisted in Alphabet Soup’s 2020 Young Book Reviewers’ Competition. 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a fictional novel written by Lewis Carroll in 1865 and illustrated by Sir John Tenniel. It was published by Macmillan Publishers.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story made up of many adventures. It is about a young girl named Alice. Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole and that is where her weird and wonderful journey begins. Along her journey she meets some interesting characters like the Cheshire cat, Caterpillar, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, the Mad Hatter and many more.

One of my favourite parts in the book would definitely be the tea party with the Mad Hatter, which I would describe as, in the words of Alice, “curiouser and curiouser!” because the tea party was absolutely crazy.

I would rate this book 5/5 because it is very interesting. My favourite character is Alice because even though she is put in strange and crazy situations she manages to remain calm and reasonable. I found the book fun and exciting never knowing what was going to happen next. This book is a delightful book for any age. I found I grew more curious as to what would happen next with every page I turned. If you love adventures this book is definitely the book for you.

During May and June Alphabet Soup will be posting all the book reviews by those longlisted in our 2020 Book Reviewers’ Competition. 

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This post was added by Rebecca Newman. Rebecca is a children's writer and poet, and the editor of the Australian children's literary blog, Alphabet Soup. For more about Rebecca visit: rebeccanewman.net.au. View all posts by Alphabet Soup

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Kid’s Book Review: Alice in Wonderland

By Sarah Tyson

About the Book and Illustrator

Reimagined by the illustrations of Kate Greenaway Medal winner Grahame Baker-Smith, this collectable picture book edition of Lewis Carroll’s classic story will transport a new generation of readers down the rabbit hole to a crazy tea party in Wonderland 150 years after the story was first published!

Grahame Baker Smith has worked as a freelance illustrator for 30 years, working mainly in publishing creating children’s books. He won the Kate Greenaway award in 2011 for a story he wrote and illustrated called; FArTHER.

Book Review

I really liked having the pictures to look at while we were reading because they helped to make what was happening clearer

I thought I already knew the story of when Alice goes to Wonderland! But I was wrong! I have watched the Disney movie and have also read about Alice in other story books, but reading the actual story was different than I thought it was going to be.

This book was quite hard to read by myself. The story is very confusing even though it is very funny. So instead of reading it by myself, my mum read it aloud to me and my little sister.

The part of the story that I liked the best was the Hatter’s Tea Party. The tea party was quite funny, I liked how it didn’t really make any sense and that in the end, when Alice walked away the Hatter and the March Hare were trying to stuff the Dormouse into the tea pot! I also liked the bit when Alice visited the Duchess. Her cook was putting so much pepper in the soup that everyone was sneezing, even the baby (who turned out to be a PIG)! It was a calamity!

I really like the illustrations in this edition because they made me feel like I was actually in the story with Alice. One of my favourite illustrations was probably the picture of the Hatter’s Tea Party (You can see it below). I really liked the pictures of the food because it looked just like real life. It made me feel really hungry! I would probably have eaten the sandwiches and the cream buns all up! I liked that some of the smaller pictures were just in one colour. They were very detailed. My favourite of these was when the Hatter was the first witness at the trial. I just really like the Hatter.

I really liked having the pictures to look at while we were reading because they helped to make what was happening clearer.

I think I will have to be much older to read this book again by myself but that doesn’t stop me giving it 10/10 because it is funny, creative and the illustrations are spectacular.

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Whichever you choose, we hope you enjoy being part of your unique reading community – happy reading everyone!

Reviewer Profile

• Age: 8 years
• Likes: reading, drawing and writing
• Dislikes: being quiet and standing still
• Favourite Book: Pages & Co by Anna James
• Favourite Film: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Favourite Song: My Love is like Red Red Rose

BUN Kids’ Reviews is a non-profit project committed to promoting reading for pleasure and enabling young readers to discover new books and authors

If you are aged 2-17 years and enjoy reading books or listening to stories why not  apply to join our junior review panel by contacting Books Up North by email or via social media? *You will receive a FREE copy of the book!

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Book review: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded” by David Day

The recently published book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland decoded” claims to explain the meaning of the ‘Alice’ story. The author identifies all kinds of hidden references behind the story on many levels, including links to mathematical problems, the classics, and real people that lived in Victorian Oxford.

The premise

Day argues that the story is centrally:

• a hidden way to provide Alice with a classical education: Lewis Carroll used the book as a way to teach Alice about the classics (Latin and Greek, mathematics, logic, philosophy, literature, rhetoric, etc).
• based on the descent of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna (or Greek goddess Persephone) into the underworld;
• a ‘who’s who’ of Oxford: Many people (and locations) that Carroll knew, are represented (and often parodied) in the form of a Wonderland character or place. Mainly the book is supposed to be about the continuous feud between Carroll and Alice’s parents.

The arguments

During the course of the book, Day provides us with many original theories about what’s behind certain passages and characters in the story. If you are familiar with the background of the Alice story and have read books like Gardner’s ‘Annotated Alice’ or Elwyn-Jones and Gladstone’s ‘Alice Companion’, not all of Day’s theories will be new to you. He repeats several known references that can be found in earlier publications, like how the three sisters in the well relate to Alice and her sisters. However, many are his own and therefore new to the reader.

Some of his theories are more convincing than others. Several seem quite likely, others seem too far-fetched. And although almost all come across as interesting thoughts and finds, unfortunately most simply lack evidence.

For example, Day links the Mouse to amongst others philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus and The Sorcerers Apprentice. Although you can indeed argument there are similarities between them, this also goes for many other historical figures and stories, as long as you make an effort to look for it.

The problem with the ‘Alice’ books is that you can link them to virtually anything. Day does not succeed in convincing me that his findings are more likely sources of inspiration than any other pieces with similarities.

Also, he undermines the credibility of his theories by linking one character or event to many different sources. It is very unlikely that Carroll actually had all of them in mind when writing the story.

Amongst the theories I found interesting, is that the Mad Tea Party is supposed to represent a perpetual rotating calendar, but is also a reference to a bacchanal of three gods.

On the other hand, I think the claim that the word ‘wow’ in the Duchess’ song ‘Speak roughly to your little boy’ is a pun on the word ‘doublet’ (a wordplay game invented by Carroll) and therefore she predicts the ‘BOY’ evolving into a ‘PIG’, definitely goes to far…

a page from the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland decoded”

With regards to the alleged central themes of the story, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the author does not succeed in making these plausible. To do that, he should have structurally linked most of the references to these main themes.

The classics are indeed often mentioned as being a source. The cited texts seem quite random though, and together they in no way form a structured way of educating a child about the classics. Also, it is very much the question whether a child would be able to understand these references without someone actively explaining them to her.

Furthermore, the claim that the  Wonderland story is based on the descent of a goddess into the underworld, is quite an overstatement. One may indeed find resemblances to the beginning and end of the  Wonderland story, as in both stories a daydreaming woman sitting next to her sister decends into an underground world. But as Day links the rest of the story to other classical tales, I would certainly not claim that the Wonderland  book is ‘based on’ this classical story.

Day does lists many possible real life sources for almost all main ‘Wonderland’ characters. For example, the White Rabbit is supposed to be Alice’s family physician. Therefore the ‘who’s who’ theme is the most substantiated one.

Still, Day’s claim that the book represents the feud between Carroll and Alice’s parents, is also too far-fetched. Although Carroll has indeed mocked the way Christ Church college was being run and how he was being treated by Mr. and Mrs. Liddell in his other non-fiction publications like pamphlets, the actual number of links Day identifies between the ‘Wonderland’ story and these real life disagreements, is too few to substatiate this claim.

I also found a couple of factual errors. For one, he tells us that the original manuscript did not contain the Mock Turtle’s story, nor the Lobster Quadrille or the trial of the Knave of Hearts. This is untrue . Also, Martin Gardner (the author of ‘Annotated Alice’) is erroneously being referred to as ‘Gardiner’ in the bibliography. These errors however do not detract from the validity of his theories.

Lay-out and illustrations

A lot of attention has been paid to the design of the book and I find its lay-out to be quite pleasant. In the middle of the pages you can find the original text of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. In the margins around it, or sometimes on full pages, you can read the commentary from the author in a different text color.

another page from the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland decoded”

The set up is a little like Martin Gardner’s ‘Annotated Alice’, although Day’s writings are too long to be called mere annotations. They are placed around the concerning passages in the original text. But as he does not use footnotes and structurally describes or quotes the relevant passages in his explanations, and also because these explanations often encompass more than just this piece of the story, I don’t believe including the original story is of added value.

Some theories are more extensive than others. Therefore these are not always placed around the original text, but in between the pages as separate chapters. Even though these theories are printed in yet another color, it sometimes hinders readability, as the other explanations are suddenly interrupted mid-sentence and then continued two or three pages later.

The book is well illustrated. It contains only some of the original illustrations from John Tenniel, which are supplemented by drawings from other illustrators. Also, many images and photographs are included to clarify or support the theories of the author. It reminds me of my illustrated copy of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code .

Notably the book contains one of the photographs I took during my trip to Oxford, and I get a mention in the credits. 🙂

Although many of Day’s theories are far-fetched, and although he does not convince me that his theories are more credible than other theories about ‘the meaning’ of the book, I still think his efforts are to be applauded. His book does shine a new light on the ‘Alice’ story and indeed gives us many things to think about.

I agree that, given the personality of Carroll, it is very likely that he put mathematical problems, (critical) personal references and the like into the story. However, I think Day should not have claimed that there are specific central themes in it, or the author had specific intentions with it, as he was not able to support that claim (other than ‘it structurally contains references to classical works and links to real life people’). It would have been better if he had merely linked aspects of the original story to all things Carroll may have been influenced by, and shown how his personality, interests and knowledge (of classics) formed the story.

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland decoded” did make for an interesting read and obviously a lot of hard work and research has been put into it. I therefore would recommend the book to all of those interested in reading more about the possible references that are hidden into “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

Where to buy

Interested in buying it? You can order the book via my webshop or directly at Amazon.com .

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Top 20 Facts You Didn't Know About Alice in Wonderland

How many of these whimsical facts about the classic book alice in wonderland did you know we've put together 20 of the coolest facts all about alice.

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most famous children's classics of all time. The tale of Alice following the White Rabbit down the hole one summer afternoon is as popular now as it was when it was written over 150 years ago. But how much do you really know about this fascinating book? We've put together 20 top facts you never knew about Alice in Wonderland. Find out all about the author, the real Alice, why it was banned in China and the gross facts behind the Mock Turtle! And if you liked these, you can check out loads more facts here ! How about these cool facts about Japanese culture ? Or how about these brilliant facts about Vincent Van Gogh ? Or perhaps you want to learn all about the gravity defying Isaac Newton !

1. It was written in 1865

The book was published in 1865, in the middle of the Victorian era. It was a time of change and invention, but also a the first time that childhood was seen as something important and distinct. Before then, children were seen as mini-adults, and many of them had to work for a living. Alice in Wonderland was one of the first books written especially for children.

2. Lewis Carroll wasn't the author's real name

Lewis Carroll was actually a pen name for the writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was also a professor of Mathematics at Oxford University. He was also an inventor who came up with a stamp organiser, a device to help you read in the dark, and an early version of scrabble!

3. Alice was a real girl

Alice was based on a real life girl, Alice Liddell of Oxford. She and her family were friends with Carroll through her father, who was his boss at the university. Lewis Carroll originally came up with the story whilst trying to entertain Alice and her sisters. Alice in Wonderland is not exactly like Alice Liddell though - and she's also not blonde! The original illustrations by the author show her as having brown hair.

4. It contains lots of mythical creatures

Not only did Lewis Carroll invent lots of creatures like the Jabberwocky, the Cheshire Cat and the Snark, he also included lots of animals and monsters from myths and nursery rhymes, such as the gryphon, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and a unicorn. In addition he added lots of everyday animals and gave them fantastical personalities, like the grumpy caterpillar or the anxious White Rabbit.

5. It coined lots of words

Did you know that Lewis Carroll invented many of the weird words we use today? Yup, in Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, he makes up his own words! These include 'chortle' (laughing), 'galumph' (move clumsily) and 'snark' (to saying something sneeringly). He also coined the phrase 'portmanteau word' meaning a word made of two other words and meanings.

6. John Tenniel illustrated it

The illustrations of Alice in Wonderland are almost as iconic as the book itself. They were created by Sir John Tenniel, who normally did cartoons for newspapers and magazines like 'Punch'. Nowadays you can find his illustrations on almost everything, from tea pots and tea towels to playing cards and children's toys. They might even be more recognisable than the Disney version of Alice!

7. But Lewis Carroll also did his own drawings

Although John Tenniel did the official illustrations, Carroll also drew his own whilst he was working on the book. They show Alice a bit differently, with long dark hair instead of fair. While they aren't as good as the official ones, they add a certain charm to the stories!

8. It has lots of poems

The Alice books are almost as famous for their poems as for their stories. Some of these poems have become so famous people don't even realise they are from Alice in Wonderland! These include You Are Old, Father William, Turtle Soup and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat, and in Alice Through the Looking Glass, Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter. Lots of these poems were actually parodies of well known poems of the day.

9. It uses logic

Alice in Wonderland is often described as a 'nonsense' book that doesn't make sense, but actually lots of the book is about logic. It contains word play, puzzles, puns and parodies, some of the references for which have been lost since it was originally published. For example, when the Mock Turtle talks about learning 'drawling, stretching and fainting in coils' is actually a pun on 'Drawing master' teaching 'drawing, sketches and painting in oils'.

10. Lewis Carroll was a mathematician

One of the reasons there's so much logic in the book is that Lewis Carroll was a mathematician who specialised in algebra. He also taught mathematics, and his pupils recount him using puzzles and riddles to amuse them. Some mathematicians even theorise that scenes in the book, such as the caterpillar, as meant to reference maths.

11. It's never been out of print

Over 150 years after it was first published, Alice in Wonderland is still as popular as it has ever been. It's never been out of print, and it's been translated into nearly 200 languages. Phrases like 'through the looking glass' 'grinning like a Cheshire cat' and 'off with his head!' show that we are just as keen on Wonderland as we've ever been!

12. The Dodo Was Supposedly Based on Carroll

According to some people, the character of the Dodo (whom Alice meets in the caucus race) is based on Lewis Carroll himself. Apparently, the name 'Dodo' was a play on the fact that, due to his stammer, Lewis Carroll would introduce himself as 'Do-Do-Dodgeson' You can also see a human hand sticking out from under his feathers, holding a cane.

13. Some of the weird things in the book are real

Whilst things like talking cats and babies that turn into pigs aren't real, a few of the more unbelievable parts of the story are! This includes mock turtle soup, which was a real Victorian dish! Turtle soup was a popular delicacy at the time, but if you couldn't afford it, you could always make 'mock turtle soup' which used calves meat instead. So although the Mock Turtle wasn't a real animal, the soup was a real food!

14. It was banned in China

It's fair to say that some of Alice in Wonderland is a little bit, well, silly. In fact, during the 1930s, the Chinese government decided that depicting animals talking to humans was not something they wanted people to read about, so they banned the book!

15. It was nearly called 'Alice in Elfland'

Can you imagine? Yup, one of the original title ideas (along with 'Alice's Adventures Underground') was 'Alice in Elfland'. This doesn't really make any sense, since there aren't actually any elves in the book, and we're glad Carroll decided to go with the title that everyone loves so much today.

16. The original manuscript is kept in the British Library

You can still see the original manuscript that Lewis Carroll hand wrote today. It's at the British Library in London, where it is closely guarded! It rarely leaves the museum, except to be exhibited abroad, where it has very tight security!

17. It was one of the first films

Alice in Wonderland was one of the first films ever made - in 1903, a silent version that's only about 9 minutes long (although originally it was 12 minutes). The film uses some brand new special effects techniques to show Alice growing and shrinking, and you can watch all of it for free online!

18. It has a sequel

Although they often get confused with each other, Alice in Wonderland has a sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, which is all about her time in a world through the mirror. Lots of the characters from that book, such as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Jabberwocky and Humpty Dumpty, are mistaken as being from Alice in Wonderland, but they're actually from this book! Many films like to merge the two stories together.

19. It's been adapted many times

Alice in Wonderland has been filmed many, many times, although some versions, like the 1951 Disney version and the 2010 Disney version, are more famous. There have also been spoofs, spin offs and other stories based on Alice!

20. July 4th is Alice in Wonderland Day

If you want to celebrate all things Alice, you can do on July the 4th, which is known as Alice in Wonderland Day (July 4th being the day that Lewis Carroll originally told the story to Alice Liddell and her sisters). Lots of people celebrate by dressing up, having tea parties and reading the book!

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Alice in Wonderland Circus

Alice has run away to join the circus but found herself in a wonderland of bizarre people and pursued by a terrifying jabberwocky. The classic story by Lewis Carroll reimagined with stunning... Read all Alice has run away to join the circus but found herself in a wonderland of bizarre people and pursued by a terrifying jabberwocky. The classic story by Lewis Carroll reimagined with stunning aerials and circus acts. Alice has run away to join the circus but found herself in a wonderland of bizarre people and pursued by a terrifying jabberwocky. The classic story by Lewis Carroll reimagined with stunning aerials and circus acts.

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• February 20, 2021 (United States)
• United States
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