Lewis Carroll Books

This Alice in Wonderland music by Alec Wilder was transcribed in part from a 1958 recording. Very charming, and music was only written for parts that Lewis Carroll specifically said were songs. Lobster Quadrille is quite fun. Flute parts are written in small print which could be tricky to prepare for performance, I don't know if separate flute parts are available.

I loved it, and I can't wait to read the sequel,Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Many of us read this book as a child and then to our own children. After I read it again for bookclub, I went and looked up study guides and found that there was so much more to the book then just reading it as a children's book. There are many themes in this book. Alice falls down the rabbit hole and her adventures begin. She not only grows in size- small, large, small again, normal, but she grows in wisdom and maturity. Her goal is to reach the garden she sees through the small door. In order to get through the door, she meets many characters who will teach and perplex her throughout her journey. Each character has a purpose or refers to an old truth we may not know. It is a learning experience. Teaching is brought up throughout the book in the form of story telling, playing games, comparing your own education with others, and then not being sure what you really know. During the jury scene, Alice is able to grow up on her own without the help of outside source as she stands up to the King insisting on justice and true evidence. We see Alice grow from a child to becoming more adult. When she awakens, she tells her sister of her dream. Her sister then dreams or pictures what Alice heard and saw, and sees her sister as someday being a young woman who will have children to hear this story. Carroll was a mathematician. He loved games of all sorts, especially word games and logic puzzles. This is quite evident with his play on words of logic,and the relationship between sense and nonsense. The illustrations in this book by Mr. Foreman, are based on the actual pictures of Alice Liddell. Alice was a child of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. In researching the author, you will find some disturbing things, but do not let that take away from the story itself. 'Through the Looking Glass" continues Alice's adventures into Wonderland.

It is getting harder and harder for people to remember what a fresh breath of air Lewis Carroll's Alice stories must have been in stuffy Victorian nurseries. (After all, today's culture has replaced the romantic nursery with the plastic daycare.) In those days, standard fare for children were characters who earned "sweetmeats" for memorizing a psalm or some other school lesson, who never got dirty without being punished, who were generally good (albeit boring) role models for young people who were to be seen, but not heard.

Then, one "golden afternoon," an eccentric, avuncular, dear man told a group of children a story about a girl who tumbled down a rabbit hole and found herself in a world called Wonderland. I can picture the delight on the listeners' faces at each strange new twist--be it a talking animal that is as mad as they come . . . or an admittedly hilarious pun.

Take the Mock Turtle, who tells Alice of a school master he and his classmates called Tortoise. Since this teacher was a turtle, why was he called "Tortoise," Alice wanted to know. The Mock Turtle replied, "We called him Tortoise because he taught us."

Admittedly, the title character is still very Victorian. (I would say, hopelessly wishywashy.) That she exhibits only healthy curiosity, not outright astonishment, at the fact that a world like Wonderland can exist is a hint of what kind of children will enjoy this book. These ideal readers are those who see no difference between the mad world around them and the mad world down a rabbit hole. (Once they start to see, and to expect, rhyme and reason in what they read, it is time for J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan".)

As for you adults, don't worry about the plot, because there are several, all of them wiggly, that keep the story going. Don't look for much substance either. Unlike other fantasy worlds, Wonderland is a place where anything goes and so everything does go. Go mad, that is.

Despite this _and_ the fact that children are no longer confined by Victorian standards, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" remains popular and in print. This may have something to do with Carroll's "golden afternoon" of storytelling (honored with its inclusion in the lyrics of a Disney song). I personally consider it an apt symbolism of the truth that the _place_ called Wonderland just happens to be hidden somewhere in the _time_ called childhood. How fortunate are those who have known that golden afternoon and all its wonders, and who remember how to return!

When spinning a tale for a young acquaintance, Lewis Caroll produced something pretty nifty indeed. Talking rabbits, size changing, crazy playing cards and all sorts of weird animals, things and people. Highly entertaining to just about everybody is what Wonderland has become. Definitely a lot of fun to follow Alice's adventures.

There's sooo much more down the rabbit hole this time. _The Annotated Alice_ is liberally spiced with glosses which illuminate hidden allusions and parodies Carroll makes on politics, logic, and nearly everything else. Some of these are so obscure they were an inside joke of only a few of Carroll's friends and colleagues. A story we always believed to be a charming childrens' fantasy turns out to be much less innocent but so much richer. This is an entertaining and eye-opening read that will appeal to anyone who loves literature

If you are a cat lover, I recommend that you read or listen to this book or audio cassette. I think you will find it entertaining. Each of the stories includes a significant story-line about a cat with a cute, mischievous or whimsical personality. I could see my cat or a cat that I know in many of the main characters. The stories and/or poems are told by readers with British accents each suited to the theme of the story. My favorite, though eerie, is The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe. I am amazed how brilliant the story sounded...like poetry, yet the end had an amazing, morbid twist. Definitely unforgettable.

'The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works, Deluxe Edition' of lewis Carroll's works may actually be more than you really want. While three of Carroll's works, the two Alice fantasy novels and the long poem, 'The Hunting of the Snark' are major classics of English literature, Carroll wrote an equal or greater amount of pretty dull stuff, primarily the two 'Sylvia and Bruno' novels, which I have never been able to finish.

My suggestion to all but the Carroll scholar and people who want to see his logical works is to buy the annotated versions of the two Alice novels and the annotated 'Snark', all annotated by Martin Gardiner. This way, you are also guaranteed of getting Henry Holiday's illustrations for 'The Hunting of the Snark', which are not in all 'Complete' collections.

My mother read both of these books to me when I was about six years old. They were a wonderful way to explore where imagination could take you. I highly recommend these to anyone!

The text of this book can be read in not much longer than it takes to watch the film itself, and so it provides a good diversion for those without convenient access to the film (i.e. while waiting for the DVD release [which had BETTER be in WIDESCREEN format and have lots of extras!!!]) Of particular note are extra details, based no doubt upon the original screenplay for the film, that help to explain more of the story (e.g. why Owen had at first picked out the lethargic dog to adopt from the animal shelter) and also give readers a few extra fun jokes ("How much is that person in the window?"). It's hard to go wrong purchasing this novelization at such an affordable price! (More than one cover exists for this book, and although the one I own shows the normal movie poster scene, I'm assuming that all versions include color photo inserts in the middle just as my copy does. One of the photos is from a deleted scene, which is also described in the story. Hopefully, such deleted scenes will be placed on the DVD release!)