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

Possibly one of the most famous books around, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is my latest children’s literature read. I read it in the run up to Easter (end of March this year) as there is a strong cultural link between this story and Easter (I’m guessing due to the White Rabbit??) but in this edition of the book there is also an Easter note from Lewis Carroll at the end.

Lewis Carroll was actually the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. A mathematician, he wrote mathematical books under his real name and kept Lewis Carroll for his children’s writing.

Opening sentence: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,‘ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversation?‘

A trip to wonderland

I first read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a teenager, but my plot knowledge of it mainly comes from the animated Disney version. Also the reason I keep wanting to call it Alice in Wonderland as that’s the version of the title the film went with.

“It’s really dreadful,’ she muttered to herself, ‘the way all the creatures argue. It’s enough to drive one crazy!’

So, to summarise the plot: Alice is sitting under a tree one day when a white rabbit with a pocket-watch runs past her. She follows him down a hole and falls, falls, falls until she reaches wonderland. Nothing makes sense there, animals talk – there’s a floating Cheshire cat, a smoking caterpillar, a mad hatter’s tea party and a bloody-minded Queen of Hearts with an army of playing cards. Among others.

It’s just such a mad story fantasy, it’s a true celebration of imagination.

Curiouser and curiouser

I really enjoyed the way Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is written. It’s far funnier than I was expecting, really quite dry in tone in places.

Of the children’s classics I’ve read this year so far – Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz and this, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has had the best tone and writing for me. Packed full of word play and puns, it’s clever and aimed at children but never patronising. Definitely one I’ll be encouraging my boys to read.

“A dream is not reality but who’s to say which is which?”

Interestingly, there are a few things I was expecting to be in the book, due to the film version but weren’t. For example Tweedledum and Tweedledee (and the walrus and the carpenter) have a lot of screen time and are quite famous in the film, but do not actually appear in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. They are in the book’s sequel though – Alice Through the Looking Glass and were added to the film.

Side note: I’m reading the Puffin classics (as per my box set) as my 2024 reading challenge – more about that here. Also, I could not get Alice by Lady Gaga out of my head while writing this review.

• Get your copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland here;
• First published 1865. This edition 2015;
• 141 pages;
• My rating: