Original Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Genre: Children's book
Original publisher: Macmillan
Date first published: 26. November 1865
Date first read: Ca. November 1992
Main character(s): Alice
Favorite quote: N/A
Synopsis:
On a warm sunny day, during a picnic day with her family, a little girl named Alice finds herself very bored. Her boredom quickly disappears, however, when she sees a white rabbit, dressed in a waistcoat, disappear in a rabbit hole while muttering, “I’ll be late.” Alice follows the rabbit and finds herself in a strange world, a wonderland, full of even stranger characters. There’s the Cheshire Cat, who can appear everywhere and anywhere and leaves only a smile behind; the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, whom Alice joins for a never ending tea party; and many other unusual characters that drive Alice from adventure to adventure. In the end, she attends a trial before the Queen of Hearts - whose favorite thing is to behead people that annoy her - and almost gets in trouble for defying her. Before that can happen, however, Alice wakes up at the family picnic, realizing she has fallen asleep and leaving the reader with the assumption she had dreamt the whole story.
Review:
Alice in Wonderland is one of the most famous stories in the English speaking world, and really world-wide. Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, based the story at least in part on his acquaintance with the Liddell family, in particular little Alice Liddell and her sisters. Different people have tried to interpret the story in different ways, finding different reasons for Dodgson writing the story in the first place.
The most common explanation is that the book was written to entertain the Liddell sisters, using one of them Alice as a proxy to help them make the story come alive. Some theories even go so far as to posit that there were some unsavory reasons for Dodgson focusing on Alice. This story behind the friendship between Dodgson and the Liddells is quite lengthy, and there’s plenty of information to be found on it elsewhere.
However, the most interesting interpretation of Alice in Wonderland is one that posits that Dodgson wrote the story as a critique on modern mathematics. The theory explains that Dodgson, who was a mathematics professor, saw new concepts in mathematics, such as imaginary numbers, as complicated and not real mathematics, a craziness of the likes only found in Wonderland. All the characters, all the actions the characters in Wonderland take, appear outlandish by any standard - they seem mad, like the Mad Hatter. Dodgson, who was a traditionalist and believed only tried-and-true concepts of mathematics should be taught, could have used the story of Wonderland and particularly the land of Wonderland to criticize these new concepts without truly revealing himself and risking his position as a professor that has accepted these new ideas.
For most new readers of Alice in Wonderland, the story is just a little crazy, a little funky, but mostly entertaining. It is a good way to get young readers to develop an imagination. Wonderland is truly a weird place, which in order to fully appreciate one must construct mentally while reading. The exercise of making something as odd and illogical as Wonderland come alive is something that truly fires up the imagination of anyone and certainly of children. It is a great way to foster this kind of thinking in young people, to have him develop a sense of thinking outside the box, which is always useful.
I barely remember reading the original, though of course I know the story nowadays. I know that I read it after visiting my dad's family in Koeln (Cologne), shortly after we made it into Germany. One of my cousin's gave me a copy, a tiny little booklet, which I still own somewhere.
I do enjoy the multiple ways the story has been filmed, from Disney's animated film to the newest Johnny Depp version. I also am a huge fan of the reimagined story as portrayed by Briana Garcia at When Curiosity Met Insanity.
I should probably re-read the original book.
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