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This is a beautifully written book from the Nineteenth Century about a little girl who falls asleep and has an unforgettable dream. The book is mostly prose with poetry inserted (the characters speak primarily in rhymed verses). It is such a beatifully written book, and is not a long or difficult read, but the book can be read for enjoyment or analyzed and interpreted, as Lewis Carroll was a master of writing with multiple layers of possible interpretations.

Great quick little logline of this book. You really only used the first sentence and truely summed up the essence of the book. Always impressed when someone can resist using too many detail and get right to the basics. And big kudos on not mentioning the movie-version.

I love this book! This is how obsessed I am with it...I used to work in an Alice in Wonderland themed shop in Brighton! I also played the Queen of Hearts in an independant short film which is going around the festivals at the moment It's one of those books which you can enjoy at any age. When you're young you love the innocence of it all as well as the characters. But when you get older you find yourself being wrapped up in the subtext and being drawn to the mind and genius of Lewis Carroll himself

I can remember reading Alice in Wonderland when I was a young child. I recently found a old version of the book and read it as an adult. As an adult I saw the story in the eyes of a adult and found myself in the same magical place as I had been when I was a child reading it.

I loved reading Alice in Wonderland. It was beautifully written and allowed the reader to create their own images of what was happening because Carroll uses very little detail in his book.

-- 15 Oct 2013, 09:15 --

I loved reading Alice in Wonderland. It was beautifully written and allowed the reader to create their own images of what was happening because Carroll uses very little detail in his book.

I agree, Alice in Wonderland is one of my early memories of getting lost in an author's creation.

This book has always been special to me as my middle name is Alice. I was recently inspired to download an original antique copy from Amazon which includes the wonderful Tenniel illustrations! Highest recommendation!

One of my absolute favorites. BTW, Alice Liddell, the little girl who most scholars believe inspired the story (and to whom it was told), lost two sons in WWI. So strange that someone who was captured in such a magical way in a work of art has had to struggle through "normal" life with all of its loss and pain.

She was also the owner of the original manuscript (L.C. gave it to her), but had to sell at to raise money at old age to avoid eviction.

I never knew it was inspired by an actual person. I pity the woman. It's awful - the way real life took its toll in such ways on her.
And as far as the book, I don't know if children are obliged to read it for school in other countries, but I remember I enjoyed it as a child. However, I didn't find Through the Looking Glass as good as the wonderland of the first book. Now that I've seen the topic, I'm considering rereading both.

I love the characters of both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. It's awesome how Carroll was able to take everyday objects and stories and turn them into a whole new world. No wonder Alice thought she was dreaming! Also, the poetry is great - I especially love The Jabberwocky.

Don't know what people see in this, it and Through the Looking Glass i found quite boring and pointless, only decent bit in either is the Jabbawocky poem. Both stories are also remarkably short, its amazing film and other media have gotten so much from so little.
Personally i think Carroll should have stuck to poetry, Hunting of the Snark is at least ok.

I haven't read the book in English and to be honest it has been quite some time since I last read it, so cards on the table: my thoughts on it may not be very valid.

As far as I can remember, I can say that the book was definately full of smart puns and clever word plays. So much to the point that thinking of a random scene reveals to have some deeper meaning. It introduces to us many wise characters who seem crazy at first but you don't want them to just those crazy-but-kind-hearted characters because you love them and therefore they have to be more than that. To give an example to how much depth I could manage to find, I just thought of the teaparty scene and realised that the table is filled with clean cups filled with tea but not everybody gets to drink. (This might be obvious to you but wasn't to me when I read it )

Even if Alice in Wonderland is living under cover as a children's book with talking animals and a bunch of playing cards, it still isn't hard to find that the book has so much more meaning to it than it can present to a kid. That is what makes it a book for adults (just like the Little Prince) as much as - maybe even more than - a book for kids. It may require a lot of deep analysis of the context to figure them all out but the book has wordplays leaking everywhere that it is impossible to miss all of them.

I thought this book was a bit trippy. It was definitely set up to be a child's dream because it reminded me of having dreams where I would get so frustrated I would wake myself up. Overall Carroll could made millions selling it to universities as an into to "psychoanalysis: dreams" textbook.

Some of my favorite books of all time, no doubt about it. I love how it can be read from either a child's view, who sees a wonderful world of fiction with rich characters, or from a more adult view, and you can analyze the aspects of the stories and the character and what Lewis wanted them to represent. The Jabberwocky is one of my all time favorite poems. I memorized it a few years back, I think I can still recite most of it. There's also an Alice in Wonderland retelling that I love. It's The Looking Glass Wars trilogy by Frank Beddor. If you love Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, then I would definitely recommend The Looking Glass Wars

This has always been one of my favorite books, although I didn't actually read it as a child, which is too bad. As an adult, I have read it many times. I love how he captured the essence of a dream, where things don't always connect in logical ways and sometimes the illogical way is the best way.