From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)

Lewis Carroll,

John Tenniel (Illustrator),

Peter Glassman (Afterword)

Start date: March 1, 2020

Finish date: March 31, 2020

Why we're reading this: March 2020 Old School Group Read
[close] March 2020 Old School Group Read

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Jan 01, 2019 RJ - Slayer of Trolls rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000-read, 1001-books-read

The second installment of Alice's nonsensical adventures is not quite as fun as the first, although we do meet Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Jabberwock and Bandersnatch get a mention, and Humpty Dumpty makes a cameo along with the King's horses and men. Chess is the overriding theme instead of croquet. Feel free to explore the themes to your heart's content, or just read it for entertainment. ...more

18 likes · Like · see review

Dec 09, 2018 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, audio-books, british-literature, fiction-19th-century, children-ya, fiction, read-2018

From BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama:
By Lewis Carroll, dramatised by Stephen Wyatt It's mid-winter, the snow is falling against the window, and Alice is learning how to play chess but then, on a whim, she goes to the mirror and pretends her black kitten is the Red Queen and suddenly everything changes ...

With Jim Al-Khalili, Roger McGough, Jenni Murray, Jane Garvey, Eric Robson, Pippa Greenwood, Peter Donaldson, Kirsty Young, Andrew Marr, Evan Davies, Garry Richardson & Melvyn Bragg.

This dramatisat From BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama:
By Lewis Carroll, dramatised by Stephen Wyatt It's mid-winter, the snow is falling against the window, and Alice is learning how to play chess but then, on a whim, she goes to the mirror and pretends her black kitten is the Red Queen and suddenly everything changes ...

With Jim Al-Khalili, Roger McGough, Jenni Murray, Jane Garvey, Eric Robson, Pippa Greenwood, Peter Donaldson, Kirsty Young, Andrew Marr, Evan Davies, Garry Richardson & Melvyn Bragg.

This dramatisation brings out the intellectual spine of Lewis Carroll's classic story - while losing none of the fun.
When Alice crashes through the looking glass she enters a world set out like a giant chess board and discovers science, maths, poetry, riddles, and wordplay. It is instantly entertaining and tantalizingly offers the listener more than meets the ear.

In this fast-moving and surrealist world, Alice has to decode the bizarre rules of the mirror-world. If Alice can get to The Eighth Square she will be Queen. Lewis Carroll is ever present. He sets out the chess game for Alice, teasing the listener into having an overview of his story and exploring the ideas within it.

On her chess journey Alice will meet the Red & White Queen, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledee and Tweedledum (who might be more familiar than the listener can possibly imagine) and the Red & White Knights. But there's a twist here - Alice will also discover that Radio 4 can be found on the other side of the glass.

Published for Christmas 1871 this story is the mirror image of Alice In Wonderland: the characters are chess pieces instead of cards. It is Winter rather than Summer and time runs backwards. Tim Burton's film was 'inspired' by Lewis Carroll's books but it wasn't Lewis Carroll's book. This is a chance for the Radio 4 listeners to discover the real thing and show them why this classic appeals to philosophers, linguists and chess fans, prefaced Modernism, has provoked a wealth of academic study, and in doing so remind them of the bits they loved in childhood (and the bits they've forgotten).

Mathematician Carroll, prefaced his book with a chess problem. It is claimed the game is a part of a sequence of numbers - that Alice's journey is code - that Carroll was flirting with numerology and esotericism. It is intriguing because Carroll loved number games and puzzles. He was frighteningly clever. He regularly invented things. You could say he was the Mark Zuckerberg of his time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01... ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 24, 2010 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, kids

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! ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 02, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, 1001-books, childrens

Charming and silly. Smart and sweet. Never has the game of chess been so enchanting. It was a fun book to listen to and made me wish that someone had read it to me as a child.

2 likes · Like · see review