~ Alice in Wonderland – A Review

– – –
This was *supposed* to go up last week… Hmm… Methinks that I need to start trying to be a wee bit ahead of schedule more often. Anyhow… My sisters and I listened to Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll on Saturday a week ago, while we cleaned up a rather messy house. This is my first review of an audio book, so hopefully I can manage fairly well without a hard copy to reference.

The Author:
Lewis Carroll was an Englishman born in 1832, in Cheshire, England. Born to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, he was the fourth of twelve children given to Rev. Dodgson and his wife. A clergyman, as well as an author, he is best known for Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, though he was also the author of several other works, including those of a mathematical nature. As far as I can ascertain, he never married and died in 1898 at the age of 65.

Technical Details:
Macmillan Publishers, originally published Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, in 1865. Illustrated by John Tenniel, Appleton also published the book in New York the same year. At some point, before the author died, the title was changed to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland. The entire story is 12 chapters long. The audio that we listened to was read by Loraine Montgomery for Lit2Go and can be found here. The reader enunciated well, kept her tone clear and consistent, and had a pleasant voice, not to mention the fun voices she did for some of the characters.

The Story:
Alice, a young girl living in Victorian England, is spending the afternoon with her older sister outdoors. Sleepy from the heat, Alice is thinking rather lazily about daisy chains, when she is startled from her drowsiness by a white rabbit in a waistcoat walking right in front of her, audibly worrying that he is running late. Thoroughly curious, Alice, without much consideration, runs after the rabbit, following him down a deep hole and into a tunnel. From then on follow a series of contradictions and nonsensical occurrences that often leave Alice bewildered and confused. Babies turning to pigs, a river of tears and an insane game of croquet contribute to the adventures, all while Alice changes height from mere inches to several miles – and everything in between! At last, the young girl begins to wonder if she’ll ever make sense of anything and, worse, will she ever be able to get where she wants to go?

The Writing Style:
The writing style is light and cheerful. Fairly easy reading and certainly simple enough for a child to understand, yet written at a level that an adult can enjoy the language as well. The chapters are well written and well arranged.

In some ways, the pure nonsense in portions of this story is simply disturbing. Nothing happens for any obvious reasons. My research, however, seems to reveal, that what appears to be nonsense at the outset, really has a hidden reason. That or, what is written, is a parody on some truth. In short, in order to really understand this story, you need to understand the mathematics and logic of the author’s day. Then you can recognize the reasons behind much of the story.

The poetry and songs scattered liberally throughout this book are very well done. The rhythm and rhyme are exceptional, though the content usually seems lacking in any sense. Most are parodies of popular rhymes of the author’s day.

The Characters:
From the ugly Duchess, to the touchy Mouse, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Mock Turtle, the characters of Alice in Wonderland are certainly colorful and varied. Names are usually the species or kind of the creature, such as the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, etc… The Mad Hatter is an example of an exception. As far as I am aware, there is no such animal as a “hatter”.

Alice, as the main character, is also given the most brains in the entire story, with the exception perhaps of the Cheshire Cat. She looks for reasons in everything and usually fails to discover any. She is, however, at times, very rude to what could be considered her elders (even if they aren’t all human) on more than one occasion. Knowing that she has more sense than all of the animals, people and cards put together, she becomes quite haughty with everyone, especially in the end, an aspect I found rather sad. She should be appealing to them, rather than telling them off. (First Timothy 5:1)

As to my favorite character, that would probably be the Cheshire Cat. Though strange, I found his character interesting and amusing.

Conclusion:
Overall, I enjoyed Alice in Wonderland well enough, though it isn’t likely to be a favorite. A good book to give some light study to for an author especially, but I probably won’t be buying it. If I were to recommend this book to anyone, I would do so with the caution that it basically makes no sense, unless you are a mathematician and/or a logician like Lewis Carroll. (Or, like me, you research the background and the logic behind the story!) :)
 
To the KING be all the glory!