Alice/Looking-glass Box-set
Beautifully printed in an exquisite two-volume edition. Unavailable in any edition since 1978, these extraordinary illustrations, many of which were drawn on poor-quality wartime paper, have been restored to their former clarity and crispness by a combination of old-fashioned craft and the latest computer technology. Ages 10+
“And what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
Taking to heart his charming, insatiably curious heroine’s words, Lewis Carroll worked many long hours (days, months…) with illustrator Sir John Tenniel to create the most perfect pictures imaginable for what were to become instant classics: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. When thinking about Alice and her dreamy surrealistic adventures down the rabbit hole and behind the looking-glass, who can help picturing the golden-haired girl in her lilac dress and striped stockings, gazing up at the Cheshire Cat or arguing with Tweedledum and Tweedledee? Tenniel’s drawings remained black and white for over 40 years until 1911, when eight prints in each book were hand colored. Now, for the first time, every remaining illustration has been colored, making these the first editions to feature all of the original art in full color. Traditionalists need not worry: colorist Diz Wallis colored proofs taken from Tenniel’s carefully preserved woodblocks, remaining faithful to his original drawings. The beautiful tones of these new hardcover editions look as natural as can be; they could just as easily be from the 19th century. (Ages 9 and older) –Emilie Coulter
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Review by Monika for Alice/Looking-glass Box-set
Rating:
My first exposure to Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story was through the 1951 Disney film adaptation “Alice in Wonderland,” which I watched repeatedly as a child. The creative quality of the story never failed to fascinate me, and I kept going back despite my deep-rooted terror of the frightful Queen of Hearts, who always gave me nightmares! However, it was not until recently, as an adult, that I ever picked up the book/s upon which that film was based. In some ways I wish I had read it when I was younger, as the book certainly makes a great deal more sense than the movie does (as much sense as a story of this sort can, anyhow), but thankfully this book is unique in that it is just as enjoyable for adults as for children.
The story is actually spread across two books, here contained in a single volume. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was first published in 1865 and relates the events that take place after young Alice falls asleep during her lessons and dreams of following a white rabbit down a rabbit hole. Alice encounters all manner of strange creatures in her dream, and finds herself in all sorts of curious predicaments where common sense fails and the nonsensical comes to be expected. There is no central, concrete storyline, but rather Alice moves rapidly from one bizarre situation to the next before waking once more and relating the whole adventure to her sister.
The second of the two books, “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,” appeared in 1871 and is very similar in nature to the first, though having a slightly different plot. Here Alice steps through an ordinary looking-glass one day, only to find herself in a world where, if you wish to get anywhere, you must walk in the opposite direction! Walking toward your desired destination only gets you further and further away. Also, interestingly, the land which Alice has entered is essentially a giant chessboard, and she must move through the different squares to reach the other side if she wishes to become a queen (which she does).
The characters Carroll created in these two stories are some of the most strikingly unique and unforgettable in the world of literature. Alice herself, based largely on Alice Liddell, a real-life child of whom Carroll was very fond, is a wonderful heroine that you can’t help admiring. Throughout all of her backwards and upside-down adventures, she remains ever sensible and analytical, always trying to reason her way out of the most unreasonable situations. Other characters a reader won’t soon forget include the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, Bill the Lizard, the Caterpillar, the Duchess and her peppery cook, the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon, the Red and White Queens, the talking flowers, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, and the Red and White Knights. Carroll also created many fascinating new creatures in his stories, including bread-and-butterflies, rocking-horseflies, “slithy toves,” “mome raths” and more.
What I find most intriguing, as an adult reader of these books, is Carroll’s brilliant use of wordplay and symbolism throughout the stories. Nearly everything has some sort of double meaning. There are hidden messags and subtle witticisms on every page. Carroll also includes several parodies of what were well-known songs and rhymes in England at the time. Young children will love the books for their fantastic qualities and imaginative inspiration, but most readers will not pick up on the many puns and jokes until they are a little older, so these stories really do have something to offer to anyone, no matter what age. I’d highly recommend the book to any reader – and be sure to get an edition that includes the original illustrations.
This review refers to the 2004 Barnes & Noble Classics printing, with introduction and notes by Tan Lin.
Review by Monika for Alice/Looking-glass Box-set
Rating:
My first exposure to Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story was through the 1951 Disney film adaptation “Alice in Wonderland,” which I watched repeatedly as a child. The creative quality of the story never failed to fascinate me, and I kept going back despite my deep-rooted terror of the frightful Queen of Hearts, who always gave me nightmares! However, it was not until recently, as an adult, that I ever picked up the book/s upon which that film was based. In some ways I wish I had read it when I was younger, as the book certainly makes a great deal more sense than the movie does (as much sense as a story of this sort can, anyhow), but thankfully this book is unique in that it is just as enjoyable for adults as for children.
The story is actually spread across two books, here contained in a single volume. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was first published in 1865 and relates the events that take place after young Alice falls asleep during her lessons and dreams of following a white rabbit down a rabbit hole. Alice encounters all manner of strange creatures in her dream, and finds herself in all sorts of curious predicaments where common sense fails and the nonsensical comes to be expected. There is no central, concrete storyline, but rather Alice moves rapidly from one bizarre situation to the next before waking once more and relating the whole adventure to her sister.
The second of the two books, “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,” appeared in 1871 and is very similar in nature to the first, though having a slightly different plot. Here Alice steps through an ordinary looking-glass one day, only to find herself in a world where, if you wish to get anywhere, you must walk in the opposite direction! Walking toward your desired destination only gets you further and further away. Also, interestingly, the land which Alice has entered is essentially a giant chessboard, and she must move through the different squares to reach the other side if she wishes to become a queen (which she does).
The characters Carroll created in these two stories are some of the most strikingly unique and unforgettable in the world of literature. Alice herself, based largely on Alice Liddell, a real-life child of whom Carroll was very fond, is a wonderful heroine that you can’t help admiring. Throughout all of her backwards and upside-down adventures, she remains ever sensible and analytical, always trying to reason her way out of the most unreasonable situations. Other characters a reader won’t soon forget include the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, Bill the Lizard, the Caterpillar, the Duchess and her peppery cook, the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon, the Red and White Queens, the talking flowers, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, and the Red and White Knights. Carroll also created many fascinating new creatures in his stories, including bread-and-butterflies, rocking-horseflies, “slithy toves,” “mome raths” and more.
What I find most intriguing, as an adult reader of these books, is Carroll’s brilliant use of wordplay and symbolism throughout the stories. Nearly everything has some sort of double meaning. There are hidden messags and subtle witticisms on every page. Carroll also includes several parodies of what were well-known songs and rhymes in England at the time. Young children will love the books for their fantastic qualities and imaginative inspiration, but most readers will not pick up on the many puns and jokes until they are a little older, so these stories really do have something to offer to anyone, no matter what age.
This particular edition (2004 Barnes & Noble Classics printing, with introduction and notes by Tan Lin) also contains several extra “goodies” in addition to the text of the two books. There is a brief biography of Lewis Carroll, a timeline of his life and career, a fascinating and insightful introduction (well worth the read!), information on various film adaptations, a short story by Carroll – “What the Tortoise said to Achilles,” commentary on the text by various individuals and publications, and a set of questions designed to aid the reader’s thought and analysis of the text. The book also contains all of the original illustrations, which are indispenable to a full enjoyment of the story. Highly recommended to any reader.
Review by Bernard M. Patten for Alice/Looking-glass Box-set
Rating:
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was a shy, eccentric bachelor who taught mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford. He had a great fondness of playing with mathematics, logic, words, for writing nonsense, and for the company of little girls, especially a little girl called Alice Liddell (rhymes with fiddle), the daughter of Christ Church’s Dean. Dodgson’s passions somehow fused into two great masterpieces of English literature, the Alice Books, immortal fantasies whose fame surpassed that of all of Carroll’s collegues at Oxford put together. If the Alice books had any “purpoise” other than to entertain little girls, it is to send you, the reader, to the pleasures of logic and philosophy and, as Carroll says in the introduction to Learners (1897) “to give a chance of adding a very large item to your stock of mental delights.” Carroll’s special genius lies in his ability to disguise charmingly the seriousness of his concerns and to make the most playful quality of his work at the same time its didactic crux. In the case of Alice, we are dealing with a very curious, complicated kind of nonsense, which explores the possibilities of the use and abuse of language and is actually based on a profound knowledge of the rules of clear thinging and logical thought. In fact, most of Carroll’s apercus and all his jokes are inversions of the rules. Reason is here in service to the imagination, not vice versa. And oh my! Those interesting characters! I like to think that most of the characters that Alice meets are Oxford Dons that the real Alice knew. They sound like Dons with their fine mastery of Socratic logic, their crushing repartee, and the disconcerting and totally unself-conscious eccentricity of their conduct. The wealth of material which Carroll presents for the illumination of his subjects is almost without end. The more I read it, the more I think about it, the more I find. In fact, I have reached the conclusion that AAW is in actual fact a story so deep as to yield results in exegesis almost beyond belief. Also consider purchasing The Annotated Alice by Gardiner. It will help increase your reading pleasure.
Review by Jesse Rouse for Alice/Looking-glass Box-set
Rating:
I had not read these books since I was probably seven or eight, and I am glad that I finally got around to reading them again. These are some of the most fun childrens books (or any books for that matter) ever written. A previous reviewer gave this book a poor rating because it was only a childrens book. I fail to understand how being a childrens book means that a book is bad. Many childrens book are among the best books that I have ever read. Just because a book is a childrens book does not mean that it is a book just for children. Lewis Carroll wrote this for children, but it is probably even more enjoyable for me to read now than it was when I was a child, for now I understand many of the double meanings and world plays that you would never understand as a child. Carroll is better with word plays than any other author that I can recall reading. He is a master of molding sentences that simply slide right off of your tongue because they flow so smoothly. This is definitely one of the best childrens books ever written.
Overall grade: A+
Review by for Alice/Looking-glass Box-set
Rating:
I first read this book when I was eleven because I thought that I might be missing out on something if I didn’t. I found Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland kind of boring but still good. Then I read Through the Looking Glass, and I loved it! I memorized all of the poems (jabberwocky being my favorite poem in the world), read it about a million times, and recomended it to people. Between Tweedledum and Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty and all the reat of them, I had a lot of pleasant laughs and thoughts and dreams. Unfortunately, I read that Alice is losing popularity because people aren’t at the reading level to read it before they outgrow fairy tales. This is a shame. people should preserve their imaginations just to read an excellent book like this and dream about it for a while. Now I am 13, and I stll treaasure this book. The poem at the very end of the book was so sad in way. it really summed up about how I feel about the magic of childhood.