Classics Illustrated #3: Through the Looking Glass

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Classics Illustrated #3: Through the Looking Glass (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland #2)

by Lewis Carroll, Kyle Baker (Adapter)

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 34,115 ratings · 747 reviews

Kyle Baker's adaptation of the madcap sequel to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a truly inspired. It all begins when Alice wonders what's on the other side of the mirror, and is actually able to pass on through to the other side. Along the way she encounters talking flowers and such unforgettable characters as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Lion and the Unicorn, and...more

Hardcover, 56 pages

Published September 30th 2008 by Papercutz (first published 1871)

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Sep 30, 2011 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: celebrity-death-match, well-i-think-its-funny, why-not-call-it-poetry

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, The Annotated Alice (6) versus 1984 (22)

- Good morning, Mr... Dumpty, I believe it was?

- Correct. Humpty Dumpty at your service.

- Well, we hope you soon will be. I must admit, we don't normally like to employ egghead intellectuals... no offence intended...

- None taken.

- ... but you are so extremely well qualified to take over as editor of the Newspeak Dictionary that, ah, we thought we'd make an exception.

- Thank you.

- Not at all. Now, we'd just l...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Thought I saw you down the rabbit hole

Recommended to Mariel by: Thought I saw you in the mirror

Lewis Carroll was not indifferent to the reader but I have enormous difficulty in picturing Alice as Alice Hargreaves, the once young girl that Dodson famously wrote a story for. Why does she get attention or credit? She was there. Maybe she got a huge kick out of the story like the rest of the fans. Sorry, lost my train of thought. Anyway, I doubt it was Watership Down by Richard Adams. That was true interactive creating with his kids story as incurable humanity. I lived in that world too. Or t...more

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Jul 13, 2009 Aribowo Sangkoyo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It colorfully details the sham that is organized religion. The Walrus - with his girth and good-nature - obviously refers to either the Buddha, or - with his tusks - the lovable Hindu elephant god, Lord Ganesha. This takes care of the Eastern religions. The Carpenter is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was purportedly raised the son of a carpenter. He represents the Western religions. And in the poem. what do they do? They dupe all the oysters into followmg them. Then. when the oysters...more

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Nov 30, 2007 Jamie is rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favebooks

you must get a copy of this with the original tenniel illustrations. an all-time favorite of mine, have bought several editions of this over the years. currently am re-reading it as i found a copy on a discount rack in a train station in haifa (so hard to find reasonably priced books here!). over the years, i extract something different from these stories each time i read them, whether its a finer appreciation of certain aspects of its humor, a different interpretation of the events, or understa...more

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Oct 04, 2010 Gaijinmama rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kids, fiction

Really fun and trippy. What a wild imagination Lewis Carroll had! There is no actual historical evidence that he used drugs but...seriously what was he on??!!
Many of everyone's favorite bits from the various film versions (Jabberwocky, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee) are from this book, not Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, so I highly recommend reading this one. It was a little hard for my kids to understand but Mommy here had a great time with it!

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Jun 03, 2010 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland so I figured I would love this one too and I enjoyed it but not nearly as much as the other. It was fun and silly and easy to read but I'm not sure if I was rhymed out or just tired but I was having a hard time getting as engaged in the story as I did with Alice in Wonderland. It just didn't draw me in and I found that my mind would wander to other things as I was reading. It's OK though, I still really liked it

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Jul 26, 2009 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens, fiction, speculative-fiction

Some will debate whether “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is the better of the two, or if “Through the Looking-Glass (and What Alice Found There)” is one of those instances where the sequel is better than the original. For myself, I think that Lewis Carroll (a.k.a Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) produced a work that so evenly matches its predecessor that readers have a difficult time remembering which characters and adventures take place in which story, and quite often people simply refer t...more Some will debate whether “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is the better of the two, or if “Through the Looking-Glass (and What Alice Found There)” is one of those instances where the sequel is better than the original. For myself, I think that Lewis Carroll (a.k.a Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) produced a work that so evenly matches its predecessor that readers have a difficult time remembering which characters and adventures take place in which story, and quite often people simply refer to the pair of them instead of the individual stories.

Published originally in 1871, six years after the first book, “Through the Looking-Glass” takes place six months later in terms of the time which has passed for Alice. As with the first book, there are themes which run throughout Alice’s adventure. Mirror image is certainly a key theme, both in terms of things which appear the same as well as being the opposite. Alice travels through the looking-glass, much of these adventures take place on a chessboard, where the white and red pieces mirror each other. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are mirrors of each other. There are also mirrors between the second and first book, obviously with Alice herself, and then the use of games in each story, involving two colors and Kings and Queens.

The book opens with Alice talking to her cats and deciding to try to go through the looking-glass, which she does and then she finds the poem “Jabberwocky” which she has to read with the use of a mirror. From there Alice goes outside and as with the first story she is attracted by a garden in the distance, and as with the first book, there are obsticles on her way there. She then meets the Red Queen which results in her joining the game of chess as a White Pawn. The rest of the story is loosely based on her adventures in each of the squares as she eventually becomes a White Queen.

As with the first book, there are wonderful word play and logic games throughout the smaller adventures in this book. While there are certainly similarities between this book and the first one, including Alice’s attitude at the end of each, Carroll makes it different enough that one doesn’t feel as if they have read it before. The verses in this book are longer than the first book, and I would say that is to the advantage of this work. They are wonderful as well, starting with “Jabberwocky” and going on to “The Walrus and the Carpenter” and of course the other pieces recited by Humpty Dumpty and the White Knight, they are all wonderful. One can’t go higher than five stars though, so there you are.
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Feb 16, 2013 Laarni rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children, classic, fantasy

I can imagine the confusion that Alice felt as she met various characters and went to diverse places in the looking glass - I felt the same confusion as I traveled with her. Really, I was so confused about what was happening or why it was happening that I couldn't feel the same wonderful surprise she felt throughout the book.

This book is like a compilation of short stories with themes as many and as varied as the characters and the settings. These ever-changing settings and characters represent...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Truly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by
Dreaming as the Summers die

Kalau saja lorong waktu seperti yang ada dalam Pilih Sendiri Petualanganmu benar-benar ditemukan, mungkin saya juga akan ada dalam daftar antrian orang-orang yang ingin masuk . Tujuannya kembali ke sekitar zaman saya SD. Tak lupa berbekal uang yang berlaku di zaman itu. Lalu saya akan memborong buku-buku yang harganya menjadi murah meriah jika dibandingkan harga saat ini. Jadi anak-cucu bisa punya peninggalan antik......more

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Sep 09, 2010 rhea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: uno

I loved reading this and talking about it in class. The plays on words and the puns just as fun as you'd expect. The chess feel was interesting, even for someone who only slightly understand chess. I also really enjoyed it because I got to remember what was written in this book and what was taken for movies, i.e. Disney's, and combined for a fun kids' movie. It was also interesting to think back and try and remember what I thought as a kid and think about how I've always thought "Tweedledee and...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Keely rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed, uk-and-ireland

I think that the failure not only of Children's Literature as a whole, but of our very concept of children and the child's mind is that we think it a crime to challenge and confront that mind. Children are first protected from their culture--kept remote and safe--and then they are thrust incongruously into a world that they have been told is unsafe and unsavory; and we expected them not to blanch.

It has been my policy that the best literature for children is not a trifling thing, not a simplific...more I think that the failure not only of Children's Literature as a whole, but of our very concept of children and the child's mind is that we think it a crime to challenge and confront that mind. Children are first protected from their culture--kept remote and safe--and then they are thrust incongruously into a world that they have been told is unsafe and unsavory; and we expected them not to blanch.

It has been my policy that the best literature for children is not a trifling thing, not a simplification of the adult or a sillier take on the world. Good Children's literature is some of the most difficult literature to write because one must challenge, engage, please, and awe a mind without resorting to archetypes or life experience.

Once a body grows old enough, we are all saddened by the thought of a breakup. We have a set of knowledge and memories. The pain returns to the surface. Children are not born with these understandings, so to make them understand pain, fear, and loss is no trivial thing. The education of children is the transformation of an erratic and hedonistic little beast into a creature with a rational method by which to judge the world.

A child must be taught not to fear monsters but to fear instead electrical outlets, pink slips, poor people, and lack of social acceptance. The former is frightening in and of itself, the latter for complex, internal reasons. I think the real reason that culture often fears sexuality and violence in children is because they are such natural urges. We fear to trigger them because we cannot control the little beasts. We cannot watch them every minute.

So, to write Children's Literature, an author must create something complex and challenging, something that the child can turn over in their mind without accidentally revealing some terrible aspect of the world that the child is not yet capable of dealing with. Carroll did this by basing his fantasies off of complex, impersonal structures: linguistics and mathematical theory. These things have all the ambiguity, uncertainty, and structure of the grown-up world without the messy, human parts.

This is also why the Alice stories fulfill another requirement I have for Children's Lit: that it be just as intriguing and rewarding for adults. There is no need to limit the depth in books for children, because each reader will come away with whatever they are capable of finding. Fill an attic with treasures and the child who enters it may find any number of things--put a single coin in a room and you ensure that the child will find it, but nothing more.

Of course, we must remember that nothing we can write will ever be more strange or disturbing to a child than the pure, unadulterated world that we will always have failed to prepare them for. However, perhaps we can fail a little less and give them Alice. Not all outlets are to be feared, despite what your parents taught you. In fact, some should be prodded with regularity, and if you dare, not a little joy. (less)

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May 25, 2010 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unlike, for example, Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" or Charles Kingsley's "The Water-Babies" where fantasy is utilized to give some insights into the human condition, this book by Lewis Carroll is just fantasy for the sake of fantasy. Had this been written today, it would be very easy to label the stories here as drug-induced hallucinations. Even the chess here violates the rules of the game. If the Beatles have their "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds" (reportedly written by one of...more

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Aug 19, 2012 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, humor, young-adult, poetry, novellas, philosophical-novel, victorian-literature

In many ways an improvement over Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. As that earlier books is one of the best novellas in the English language, it should come as no surprise that Through the Looking-Glass must therefore be a work of true sublimity, and indeed it is. Carroll's magisterial prose, delightfully logical nonsense, endlessly imaginative characters, and effectively economical storytelling all make this a classic. In addition, it contains several of the greatest poems in the language, from...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, 19th-century

I enjoyed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, so it was only natural for me to want to read the sequel “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There”. I have to say, comparing the two that I’m disappointed in ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. All the wit and enjoyment I received from ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ seemed to be missing from “Through the Looking-Glass”. Lewis Carroll did employ some interesting writing techniques into the book including frequent changes in time and spatial d...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Marina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My favorite part is when Humpty Dumpty tells Alice about the non-birthdays, it's a really great concept haha.

It's also great to imagine a parallel world in which things happen backwards, situations like having to dish out the cake before cutting it, and remembering things before they happen are possible in this world.

I enjoyed this book very much!

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Sep 07, 2009 Madeline rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-list, fantasy, kids-and-young-adult

Apparently Lewis Carroll wrote this book while teaching the real Alice Liddel to play chess. Makes me wish I knew how to play.

The book was pretty fun, basically the same stuff we saw in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. When I saw the movie Coraline it kind of reminded me of this book - the whole idea of passing into another realm where everything appears to be the same, but is really completely different. Of course, Coraline makes it very clear that this alternate world is bad news (unlike Ali...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Gale added it · review of another edition

Lewis Carroll’s Victorian sequel to Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland continues the delightful juvenile nonsense of English-speaking childhood—with its familiar illustrations by Sir. John Tenniel. Presumably during a daytime nap in the parlor Alice finds herself in the land behind the huge mirror, where everything is in reverse—not only visually but chronologically as well. Navigating the strange country proves a challenge for the 7 ½ year old girl, who receives outlandish and contradictory instru...more Lewis Carroll’s Victorian sequel to Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland continues the delightful juvenile nonsense of English-speaking childhood—with its familiar illustrations by Sir. John Tenniel. Presumably during a daytime nap in the parlor Alice finds herself in the land behind the huge mirror, where everything is in reverse—not only visually but chronologically as well. Navigating the strange country proves a challenge for the 7 ½ year old girl, who receives outlandish and contradictory instructions from animals and normally inanimate objects.

Liberally laced with wacky poetry like “Jabberwocky” and ludicrous logic this tale introduces readers to characters still familiar in the general realm of children’s literature: Humpty Dumpty, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the Tweedle twins and those perennial antagonists: the lion and the unicorn. Alice struggles to keep her sanity while conversing with weird insects and experimenting with odd methods of locomotion.

The underlying premise in this story is that of a chess game (in 8 moves) which results in Alice’s becoming a Queen. Understanding the concept of “Noblesse Obliges” she kindly tries to help the White Royal Family, but is regarded with rancor by the Red royals. A subtle secondary theme encourages children to always remember their manners –very important in strict Victorian times, particularly when children’s literature was intended to instruct and improve. Heaven forbid that a child’s book should merely Entertain! Alice’s rambling through Looking Glass Land circuitously leads her to the end of the chess board with its dubious reward.

Carroll interjects numerous horrible puns in the guise of humor which might delight his young readers. Of lesser literary appeal than
its predecessor, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, this book nevertheless is of value as an index of Victorians view on children’s education—leaving a legacy of witticism. This children's classic proves Juvenile Jabberwocky unplugged!

(June 29, 2010. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
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Feb 14, 2013 Ioannis Savvas rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Το Through the Looking Glass είναι μαζί με το Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland τα πιο γνωστά βιβλία του Lewis Carroll και ιδιαίτερα δημοφιλή στην Αμερική. Και αυτό είναι γεμάτο από νεολογισμούς, λογοπαίγνια και «εξυπνάδες» που δεν τα βρίσκω καθόλου ευφυή. Νομίζω ότι ούτε στα παιδιά, για τα οποία γράφτηκε, λένε πολλά πράγματα.

“…if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic…”

Το Through the Looking Glass έχει εμπνεύσει μέχρι και τους εξελικτικούς...more Το Through the Looking Glass είναι μαζί με το Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland τα πιο γνωστά βιβλία του Lewis Carroll και ιδιαίτερα δημοφιλή στην Αμερική. Και αυτό είναι γεμάτο από νεολογισμούς, λογοπαίγνια και «εξυπνάδες» που δεν τα βρίσκω καθόλου ευφυή. Νομίζω ότι ούτε στα παιδιά, για τα οποία γράφτηκε, λένε πολλά πράγματα.

“…if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic…”

Το Through the Looking Glass έχει εμπνεύσει μέχρι και τους εξελικτικούς βιολόγους. Το παρακάτω απόσπασμα -διάλογος ανάμεσα στην Αλίκη και την Κόκκινη Βασίλισσα της σκακιέρας- χρησιμοποίησε ο Leigh Van Valen για να περιγράψει το φαινόμενο της συνεχούς προσπάθειας των οργανισμών να «τρέχουν για να παραμείνουν στην ίδια θέση» (Υπόδειγμα της Ερυθράς Βασίλισσας, Red Queen Hypothesis, Red Queen’s, Red Queen’s race, Red Queen Effect), σε μια διαδικασία συνεχούς λύσης προβλημάτων-προκλήσεων (Κριμπάς Κ.Β. (2009) Δαρβινισμός και η ιστορία του έως τις μέρες μας. Εκδόσεις Ωκεανίδα. σελ. 484).

«Well, in our country,» said Alice, still panting a little, «you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.»

«A slow sort of country!» said the Queen. «Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!»(less)

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Feb 03, 2013 Nathan Titus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: everything-and-nothing, fantasy

I give this book 5 stars, while Wonderland only 4, because although Wonderland had the better beggining, the story of Through the Looking Glass is very much superior. Wonderland is probably the most plot-less book ever written; it is very Stream-of-consciousness, and although this very aspect is what gives it many of its exquisite details, the way Alice jumps from setting to setting and never speaks to a character for longer than a page or 2 is a little disconcerting. Seems very ADD, which is st...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Shawn Fairweather rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The amount of imagination utilized by Carroll in the sequel to Alice in Wonderland is absolutely staggering, however coherent it is not. I understand that the concept was to utilize the actual concept of "literary nonsense" as so eloquently used years later by Dr. Seuss to tell a story. however so me it reads as if Carroll delved feet first into surrealist interpretation of his own dreams and put them to paper in a certain order that can be followed. While reading both works, I often got the imp...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Jordan Green rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book written by the infamous Lewis Carroll is simply a fairytale. Carroll really puts the readers inside of the book and makes us feel like we're a part of it almost as if were the characters. The characters are searching this house out of curiosity and being adventurous people. "You can just see a little peep of the passage in 'Look-glass House' if you leave the door of the drawing room wide open; and it's very like our passage as far as you see, only you know it might be quite different o...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Abby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll was a very imaginative story. The text was very comprehendible and would be considered an easy read. Any person young or old would like this book. Not only does it contain a good story, but good poems as well. The story begins with a young girl named Alice, who is playing with her black kitten named Kitty and her white kitten named Snowdrop. She talks to her kittens as if they can understand what she is saying. She tells Kitty how she wishes...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Lucas Oliveira rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of fantasy is the product of imagining the impossible or improbable things.The two books involving Alice, and the fantasy is clearly used because Alice creates a fantasy in your dreams. During the stories you can see the relationship between fantasy and the real world in the characters as examples the Queen of Hearts in the real world would be a boring teacher or a annoying boss, the rabbit would be an adult who only thinks about the job and the...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Stephanie Griffin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through The Looking Glass’ was first published over one hundred years ago and is a classic in children’s literature. In essence, it is about the struggle of childhood.
In Alice’s dream there are symbolisms of the constraints on childhood and what one must go through in order to become an adult. Along the way there is practically nothing that she herself does in order to move the story along – everything is presented to her without much option, just like in childhood. She touches...more Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through The Looking Glass’ was first published over one hundred years ago and is a classic in children’s literature. In essence, it is about the struggle of childhood.
In Alice’s dream there are symbolisms of the constraints on childhood and what one must go through in order to become an adult. Along the way there is practically nothing that she herself does in order to move the story along – everything is presented to her without much option, just like in childhood. She touches a goat’s beard and finds herself sitting under a tree. A fawn will only tell her something if she walks farther into the woods with it. Alice wonders which fingerpost to follow, yet there is only one road.
Near the beginning of the story, she is trying to leave her ‘house’ and get to the top of a ‘hill’, representing the initial struggle.
“So young a child,’ said the gentleman… (he was dressed in white paper), ‘ought to know which way she’s going…” is an example that signifies that the innocence of childhood precedes the decision of goals one must choose for their adult livelihood.
When Alice decides she wants to be Queen, the White Knight, representing purity and goodness, says “I’ll see you safe to the end of the wood…” meaning that if she is pure and good, she will make it through childhood. He also gives her the wise counsel, “The great art of riding…is to keep your balance properly,” meaning that if she continues with moderation in life she will be successful.
At the end, she stands before an arched doorway over which the words ‘Queen Alice’ are written, the arch representing the graduation from child to adult. As an adult she finds her voice and challenges the Red Queen (authority) by demanding that pudding be brought back to the table. Then she “conquered her shyness by a great effort and cut a slice…” and hands it to the Queen. By doing this, Alice is showing that she has become her own person.
This is one of the few older children's classics that I would actually read to a child because it does have good moral lessons in an entertaining environment. The original illustrations are really great. Highly recommended!(less)

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Jul 17, 2012 Rachel Cherry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

I just couldn't get enough of this book. I loved this book so well I can't give it enough stars. This story and its characters was so pure and simple I could imagine myself with Alice. It was humorous...sometimes I was laughing so hard I was crying. I enjoyed this book more than words can express. This book, everything about it, was beautiful, simply beautiful. The setting was so vivid and expressionfilled. The funniest parts were when Alice met the Queen of Hearts. The were playing crochet with...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think I may have liked this one better than Alice in Wonderland. These books have such a clever spin on words!! I love it. It is so imaginative - Carroll was so creative. I wish I could have an imagination like that.

I felt this story flowed better than Wonderland, and it also was full of riddles, or plays on words. For instance, the Red Queen (or is it the White?) asks Alice, if you take away a dog, and you take away its bone, what's left?" And Alice thinks for a moment and says, "I guess not...more I think I may have liked this one better than Alice in Wonderland. These books have such a clever spin on words!! I love it. It is so imaginative - Carroll was so creative. I wish I could have an imagination like that.

I felt this story flowed better than Wonderland, and it also was full of riddles, or plays on words. For instance, the Red Queen (or is it the White?) asks Alice, if you take away a dog, and you take away its bone, what's left?" And Alice thinks for a moment and says, "I guess nothing!" And the Queen responds, "you are quite wrong again. The answer is the dog's temper. The dog would have lost his temper once the bone was gone, so if the dog then disappears, his temper is what remains." I just love how awesome it is!! It plays with literal translations of phrases and builds the story on them. I love it. Like I said of Alice in Wonderland, I love how Carroll makes you think about the power of language and the importance of being precise in your word choice. And the Jabberwocky poem is in this book! I love that poem.

I think an important message I glean from these books is to hold onto dreams and aspirations. In his final poem that ends the book, he says "Life, what is it but a dream?" In other words, my words anyway, wonderful things can happen, if you lend yourself to imagination and just simply believe. Others may have a more negative connotation to that (I read a couple thoughts about this online) but I find the optimistic view more appealing. Also, I read that the first letter of each line in that end poem spells out the name Alice Pleasance Liddell, the little girl he modeled Alice after. So cool!

It was cool to learn more about Row Row Row Your Boat as well, which is what this poem is modeled after. I have never thought about that song, but it's perfect. It's about life's choices, and in what manner we should go about making those decisions. And, after all, it is a child's nursery rhyme/song. What a clever song to morph a poem out of! It's the perfect summary of some of the morals these books encompass. I love it. I just think Carroll is so wise...he may have been high, but you can't deny that he was quite a guy. I make a lovely poet myself, if I do say so. :) Anyway, I really love these books. It's rated as a 4.9 in my book. (less)

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Aug 17, 2011 Benjamin Duffy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books, children-ya

Kids’ books: they don’t write ‘em like this anymore, if in fact they ever did.

I know that this is supposed to be a kind of mirror-image response to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but I found it decidedly trippier. Where Alice kept a fairly consistent tone throughout, this book constantly goes in and out of focus: one moment, things are more or less lucid (yet still absurd, of course), very much in the style of Alice. Then the next moment, the reader is plunged into the queasy uncritical miasm...more

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May 04, 2013 Shawn Thrasher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Does anyone ever like hearing someone else describe a dream they've had? Unless you feature prominently in the dream, the answer is probably not (maybe Freud would say yes). Through the Looking Glass is like listening to someone describe their dream for a long, long time. Both Wonderland and Looking Glass are dreams; but Wonderland isn't so obviously a dream; if one has been raised on fantasy (Oz, Narnia, Middle Earth), you can accept that a girl in a book could fall down a rabbit hole and the w...more Does anyone ever like hearing someone else describe a dream they've had? Unless you feature prominently in the dream, the answer is probably not (maybe Freud would say yes). Through the Looking Glass is like listening to someone describe their dream for a long, long time. Both Wonderland and Looking Glass are dreams; but Wonderland isn't so obviously a dream; if one has been raised on fantasy (Oz, Narnia, Middle Earth), you can accept that a girl in a book could fall down a rabbit hole and the whole thing is believable; the fact that it's all a dream is both a charming part of Alice (her sister imagining that she too could imagine herself in an adventure, which was probably heady stuff for a well bred Victorian teenage girl to imagine in 1866) and annoying too (part of you wants everything to be real, right? not a dream, but a real wonderland exists for everyone, if we only can find it). Looking Glass, though, has none of this pretense. it's very, very obvious from the beginning that Alice is dreaming. And while in Wonderland, things disappear or change into other things (a baby into a pig, for example) that all seems to be part of the magic of Wonderland. In Looking Glass, the magic is all dream; Alice floats and flies, things abruptly change into other things or scenes abruptly change. That was disappointing. I always wondered why people compared Wonderland to a drug trip when it always felt like a typical fantasy; it's Looking Glass that feels like a wild acid trip. And hearing someone describe their drug induced acid trip is even more annoying than listening to them describe their dreams. Quite frankly, Looking Glass is great because Lewis Carroll wrote two of the greatest poems of all time and included them in the book: the brilliant Jabberwocky and the wonderfully comic (and under appreciated) The Walrus and the Carpenter. Then he adds one of my personal favorite poems, the beautiful and haunting "A boat, beneath a sunny sky" that perfectly captures Lewis Carroll and wonderland in several lines -- still she haunts me, phantomwise, Alice moving under skies, never seen by waking eyes" and a philosophical thought for us all to end on: "Life, what is it, but a dream?" The sharp, brittle nonsense of Looking Glass is all worth these three poems. (less)

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Nov 28, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, childrens, fantasy

I had never read a book on my iPad, but have been wanting to try it as an e-reader for some time. I chose "Through the Looking Glass" because (1) it was free, (2) it was short, and (3) it was on my [long] list of classics I wanted to read but never had. The result was a 4-star experience all around (both for the book, and reading on the iPad).

Like The Princess Bride, it is hard to divorce my feelings about the reading of the book from my cultural familiarity with the story. That said, I am proba...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Kyle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-in-2013

While markedly different from its predecessor, Through the Looking-Glass further cements Lewis Carroll's status as the ultimate writer of brilliant and imaginative children's fantasy. Of the two well-known Carroll masterpieces, Alice in Wonderland is most popular by name, but I would argue that Through the Looking-Glass has been more influential. The stories, themes and poetry from the book have seeped into our culture's conciousness. The jabberwocky, tweedle dee and tweedle dum, and countless o...more

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About Lewis Carroll

The Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer.

His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense.

Oxford s...more

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories

The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition

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Quotes from Through the Looking-Gl...

“It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.” — 44 people liked it

“Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.” — 19 people liked it

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title link	preview: Classics Illustrated #3: Through the Looking Glass
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5027034-classics-illustrated-3?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312064891l/5027034.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5027034-classics-illustrated-3?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Classics Illustrated #3: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll[/url]

Classics Illustrated #3: Through the Looking Glass (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland #2)

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