Summary:
Source of legend and lyric, reference and
conjecture, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is for most
children pure pleasure in prose. While adults try to decipher
Lewis Carroll's putative use of complex mathematical codes in
the text, or debate his alleged use of opium, young readers
simply dive with Alice through the rabbit hole, pursuing "The
dream-child moving through a land / Of wonders wild and new."
There they encounter the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the
Mock Turtle, and the Mad Hatter, among a multitude of other
characters--extinct, fantastical, and commonplace creatures.
Alice journeys through this Wonderland, trying to fathom the
meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be
"curiouser and curiouser," seemingly without moral or
sense. For more than 130 years, children have
reveled in the delightfully non-moralistic, non-educational
virtues of this classic. In fact, at every turn, Alice's new
companions scoff at her traditional education. The Mock Turtle,
for example, remarks that he took the "regular course" in
school: Reeling, Writhing, and branches of Arithmetic-Ambition,
Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. Carroll believed John
Tenniel's illustrations were as important as his text.
Naturally, Carroll's instincts were good; the masterful
drawings are inextricably tied to the well-loved story. (All
ages) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
Tags: [ZDC:THSH, CNTY:UK]