Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (Penguin Classics)

I believe I was about seven years old when I first read Alice under the mistaken impression that it was a children's book. I didn't much like it. I came to appreciate it more when I was a college student. It is not, in fact, a book well-aimed at young or middle-grade kids.Charles Dodgson, who wrote the two books of Alice under the pen-name Lewis Carroll, was a well-known Oxford mathematician and philosopher. Alice is full of logic tricks and clever word-play. Consequently Alice is much beloved of mathematicians and such-like degenerates (among whose company I now count myself). Indeed, mathematics writer Martin Gardner annotated an edition (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass), and in Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid mathematician and artificial intelligence researcher Douglas R. Hofstadter has much to say about Alice, particularly about the translation of the nonsense poem Jabberwocky, which is almost as famous a poem as there is in the English language.I'm not claiming that there is no entertainment for middle-grade kids to be found in Alice. Indeed, it is interestingly subversive in introducing children to mathematics and logic. But there are much better children's books out there. It serves better as adult entertainment (the type of adult entertainment without naked ladies).

There were so many versions and styles of this book. Took a long time considering which one I preferred. Very happy with the version I went with. I am an illustration artist and this story has always been a childhood favorite. Smart choice if wanting this collection in your library.

I first saw this edition in person at Barnes n Noble but it was going for 40 dollars so I knew I had to find it for cheaper online. Glad I did! I already own the book but had to get this edition because it matches my purple color changing Alice tea cup perfectly! The cover is a beautiful soft type of fabric texture, almost with some cushion. The drawn design is beautifully iridescent! The pages were not painted gold like the Barnes N Noble one but that doesn’t matter.

Curiosity in every way… I read Alice when I was a teenager, but didn’t remember much of it, only more of the wonderful movies of Tim Burton that reinvented the worlds and the characters I’d say in a very much more exciting way. Returning to the source was quite a bizarre adventure. A curiosity, a trip in a twilight zone… I must say I enjoyed the most Looking through the glass.Some stories, some myths are better left blurred in our memories, and explored through our contemporaries lens.

I received this book right on time. I like the fact that the illustrations are colored in. I didn't like the fact that the illustrations weren't retraced like they are in The Complete Alice book by Macmillan. Still, they are great colored illustrations.

I decided to read this little book due to some recent questions that I was having about perception and reality. With so many AIW references in “The Matrix” and other discussions about who and where we are, I decided to go down this rabbit hole (sorry, I had to do it) and revisit this classic. I have to admit, I had never read this “real” version before, only the kiddie versions in school, as well as heard the story told to me or watched multiple cartoons and movies on this tale. So while I knew what it was generally about, was not quite sure what to expect on paper.This particular book has two parts- Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I found the first part deep, weird, philosophical, and taking many notes on some of the memorable quotes, situations, and contexts. In “Through the Looking Glass”, I found it harder to follow, and just let myself go with the story and its absurdity. I think that was the point, but while the story in the first part was better, there were specific scenarios that kept a reader in attention- for example the word games, number games, crazy puns, and weird questions or statements that sound so crazy, you can’t believe how realistic it is. So I would highly recommend this classic as a great story, or a possible window, if you will, into learning more about yourself, perceptions, and the “wonderlands” that you expose yourself to.

As a child, I would often fall asleep listening to various adaptations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I came to love the story and its characters, but have never, since entering adulthood, considered this book from a literary perspective. Perhaps, in my mind, it will always be a children’s book; after all, its protagonist is a child, and it considers such imaginative creatures and scenarios that it would seem out of place alongside the Victorian realism of its time. I was therefore surprised when I noticed this book, along with Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, on my reading list for this university term, but having now appreciated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as an adult, I realise my mistake: whilst it was once written for children, it has long since been considered an adult read, dealing with issues and themes that are considered in many other Victorian novels, such as Brontë’s Villette, and Dickens’ Great Expectations.I’m going to be honest: I read this book in a day, and look forward to getting stuck into Through the Looking-Glass as soon as I can, because, when it really comes down to it, Lewis Carroll knows how to tell a good story. There’s nothing quite like these books when it comes to imagination, not even Terry Pratchett’s or J. R. R. Tolkien’s works. They’re fantastical, unbelievable, and somehow mesmerising, if only because they are just so different to what we are used to reading. So, whether you’re already familiar with Alice’s adventures or not, I thoroughly recommend you give this book a read, and see whether you think it is only meant for children. It’s very short, and each chapter is only a couple of pages long, which makes it easily accessible and a good read for when you only have a few short breaks in a day. Read it to analyse it, or read it for the sake of a good story; either way, read it!

Reading a book recently about childhood reading, I realised that I had never actually read Alice in Wonderful so resolved that I would and bought this book.I suspect this edition would be great if you were going to be studying the text but the introduction and the notes influenced my reading experience very negatively and I didn't get an much joy from the story as I expected.There is wonderful elements to these stories but I think they should be read from a book designed for children rather than a book which is presented as a dry academic text book. I think I wanted colourful pictures and a larger font to get the childlike enjoyment that I hoped for.

This is one of the books which we all think we have read. Most of the time we know the headline bits. The true pleasure is to just read both stories and enjoy the simple pleasure of a story that goes where it will, written by a very clever creative mind. An adult who can be child like and silly. Both are odd but there's nothing wrong with that. Then if you want to there is the introduction and all the detailed notes which take up more pages than the stories themselves. Perfect for the geek, but just read the stories and enjoy.

I picked this up via a search for an illustrated version, which brought up a hardback copy but I wanted paperback as it’s for a decoupage project. This was listed as an alternative version of the hardback one, which explicitly stated it was the illustrated version, however, it appears that that only related to the hardback. I found this somewhat misleading as I would have thought that only other versions that were identical to the listed one would be attached to the listing in that way.

Having done, though not completed, an Alice in Wonderland jig-saw puzzle I felt I’d like to read the story again which I read it must be 60 years ago but it really is a child’s book. In my opinion it’s not in any way suitable for an adult to read so I passed the book on and didn’t bother reading Through the Looking Glass which is also in this book. Not for me!!