Carroll, Lewis "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Carroll, Lewis "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - 1865

When our sons were little, we used to watch all the animated films with them that were available at the time. I still watch some of them now when it looks interesting, for example, I absolutely love "Up" which came out when the boys had long left the house.

I loved them all. Except for one. I suppose you can guess it. Yes, it was "Alice in Wonderland". It just isn't my thing, too weird for my liking. When Tim Burton made a film out of it, I thought, right, it fits, I don't like those kinds of films anyway. Then our book club decided to read it and I thought, okay, I'll give it one last chance. Maybe I do like the written story.

However, I am even more confused than I was after the animation. I just find it all too ridiculous. And I didn't like Alice. Or any of the characters in the story. Nope, not for me. Maybe it is different when you read it as a child but I've read a lot of children's books for the first time when I was an adult (mainly due to the fact that English isn't my first language) and loved most of them.

Luckily, not all think like me. Here is a comment by one of our book club members:
"I loved the very complex language, rhyme, easter-eggs related to real people and happenings, and great humor. We also had a really interesting talk about the author and his life and most likely Mensa level IQ."

And another one:
"When I was about 8 years old I read this book for the first time and what I recall is the sense of anxiety it gave me. It seemed Alice could not do right. Since then I have read this book a few times, usually in an annotated version that helped make sense of the adventures.

This time around I read a very richly annotated and illustrated version. ("Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Decoded" by David Day, 2015, Doubleday Canada, 289 pages) The author explores layers upon layers of references and meanings, writing alongside the original text. Many of the characters are satirically drawn figures from Victorian England and Oxford University, especially the political opponents of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) at Christ Church. One such opponent is Alice's father, Henry George Liddell, dean of Christ Church who is cast as the King of Hearts. 

A picture of the author emerges as a clever, privileged, petty and self-serving creep. At the same time, Dodgson makes lovely puns and flourishes symbolism in religion and the Cabala and the Rosicrucians and Freemasonry. He enjoys obscure mathematical relationships. He compares the Wonderland Hall to the Great Hall at Christ Church ( of Hogwort's fame) and also to the Hall of the Initiates at Eleusius. 

On one level Alice's adventures trace the myth of Persephone. I suspect that the enduring appeal of the Alice stories is not so much the cleverness and symbolism but the underlying story of transformation and empowerment. It still makes me anxious."

We read this in our international online book club in December 2021.

From the back cover:

"... suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

So begins Lewis Carroll's famous story, which has become one of the best-loved books ever written.

Alice's adventures lead her down the rabbit-hole into Wonderland, where she meets an array of curious characters, including the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle and the grinning Cheshire-Cat."