Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass (Books of Wonder) [Box set] [Hardcover]

Lewis Carroll (Author), John Tenniel (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0688120504 | ISBN-13: 978-0688120504

This deluxe slipcased set of the two facsimile editions of Lewis Carroll's masterpieces, the first with prints taken directly from the original woodblocks, is the perfect gift for every Alice fan. A Books of Wonder® Classic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

That Alice. When she's not traipsing after a rabbit into Wonderland, she's gallivanting off into the topsy-turvy world behind the drawing-room looking glass. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's masterful and zany sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she makes more eccentric acquaintances, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Queen, and a somewhat grumpy Humpty Dumpty. Through a giant and elaborate chess game, Alice explores this odd country, where one must eat dry biscuits to quench thirst, and run like the wind to stay in one place. As in life, Alice must stay on her toes to learn the rules of this game. Through the Looking Glass immediately took its rightful place beside its partner on the shelf of eternal classics. And luckily for generations of enraptured children, Carroll was again able to persuade John Tenniel to create the fantastic woodblock engravings that have become so indelibly associated with the Alice stories. For almost 130 years, Alice's curious adventures have amused, perplexed, and delighted readers, young and old. This gorgeous, deluxe boxed set of both volumes contains engravings from Tenniel's original woodblocks that were discovered in a London bank in 1985, and reproduced for the first time here. "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures?'" What indeed? (All ages)

Review

"A book of wonder and nonsense laced with lethal wit."
--Guardian

"Precise, dream-like, subversive."
--Independent on Sunday


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (September 23, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688120504
• ISBN-13: 978-0688120504
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (323 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the pen name of Oxford mathematician, logician, photographer and author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is famous the world over for his fantastic classics "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," "Through the Looking Glass," "The Hunting of the Snark," "Jabberwocky," and "Sylvie and Bruno."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

149 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Curiouser and curiouser!", October 26, 2004

By 

Monika "equestrienne_23" (Davis, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

My first exposure to Lewis Carroll's classic children's story was through the 1951 Disney film adaptation "Alice in Wonderland," which I watched repeatedly as a child. The creative quality of the story never failed to fascinate me, and I kept going back despite my deep-rooted terror of the frightful Queen of Hearts, who always gave me nightmares! However, it was not until recently, as an adult, that I ever picked up the book/s upon which that film was based. In some ways I wish I had read it when I was younger, as the book certainly makes a great deal more sense than the movie does (as much sense as a story of this sort can, anyhow), but thankfully this book is unique in that it is just as enjoyable for adults as for children.

The story is actually spread across two books, here contained in a single volume. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was first published in 1865 and relates the events that take place after young Alice falls asleep during her lessons and dreams of following a white rabbit down a rabbit hole. Alice encounters all manner of strange creatures in her dream, and finds herself in all sorts of curious predicaments where common sense fails and the nonsensical comes to be expected. There is no central, concrete storyline, but rather Alice moves rapidly from one bizarre situation to the next before waking once more and relating the whole adventure to her sister.

The second of the two books, "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There," appeared in 1871 and is very similar in nature to the first, though having a slightly different plot. Here Alice steps through an ordinary looking-glass one day, only to find herself in a world where, if you wish to get anywhere, you must walk in the opposite direction! Walking toward your desired destination only gets you further and further away. Also, interestingly, the land which Alice has entered is essentially a giant chessboard, and she must move through the different squares to reach the other side if she wishes to become a queen (which she does).

The characters Carroll created in these two stories are some of the most strikingly unique and unforgettable in the world of literature. Alice herself, based largely on Alice Liddell, a real-life child of whom Carroll was very fond, is a wonderful heroine that you can't help admiring. Throughout all of her backwards and upside-down adventures, she remains ever sensible and analytical, always trying to reason her way out of the most unreasonable situations. Other characters a reader won't soon forget include the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, Bill the Lizard, the Caterpillar, the Duchess and her peppery cook, the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon, the Red and White Queens, the talking flowers, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Sheep, Humpty Dumpty, and the Red and White Knights. Carroll also created many fascinating new creatures in his stories, including bread-and-butterflies, rocking-horseflies, "slithy toves," "mome raths" and more.

What I find most intriguing, as an adult reader of these books, is Carroll's brilliant use of wordplay and symbolism throughout the stories. Nearly everything has some sort of double meaning. There are hidden messags and subtle witticisms on every page. Carroll also includes several parodies of what were well-known songs and rhymes in England at the time. Young children will love the books for their fantastic qualities and imaginative inspiration, but most readers will not pick up on the many puns and jokes until they are a little older, so these stories really do have something to offer to anyone, no matter what age. I'd highly recommend the book to any reader - and be sure to get an edition that includes the original illustrations.

This review refers to the 2004 Barnes & Noble Classics printing, with introduction and notes by Tan Lin.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Trip Down The Rabbit Hole All Grown Up, July 14, 2005

By 

Michael L. Kauffmann (Wayne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback)

There is one thing that all potential customers must keep in mind when buying any Alice book: Do not purchase one that does not include the illustrations of John Tenniel! This edition includes all of them and the quality of the reproductions on the pages are excellent. Tenniel's illustrations help add to the childish excitement of Carroll's stories and will be especially invaluable to teenagers and adults, having just by nature of growing up lost some of the imaginative innocence, that ability to stretch reality, that we all possessed as kids.

Of course, the illustrations wouldn't mean jack if they didn't have a captivating story to work with. Carroll's amusing tale of nonsense is targeted as a kid's book, and that is always where many of our fondest memories of it will remain, but as a college student reading it I was amazed by its power to suspend reality and return me to a level of imagination that I had simply thought I lost somewhere along the way. The trip down the rabbit hole can be quite a different experience from a different point of view.

This particular edition also includes a good introduction and very helpful explanatory notes organized chapter by chapter. The introduction and notes offer insights to Carroll's life and his relations with the real life Alice and her family that, from a student viewpoint, reveal an interesting and more personal side of the Alice tales.

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kindle version info misleading, December 18, 2009

By 

B. Williams - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Annotated with Biographical Background and Bibliography) (Rekindled Classics) (Kindle Edition)

This is not a review of the book, you can refer to the printed (or many of the Kindle versions) for that. Rather this is a comment on the Kindle file. I was specifically looking for a version that included the illustrations, and as this version listed John Tenniel under author information I hoped these would be included... they aren't. It does look like a well formatted version of the book, with an introduction by the editor, the original poetry from the beginning of the story (which some public domain versions lack), the original italicized text rather than CAPITAL letters as in some public domain versions, and a good approximation of the unique text formatting as seen in the printed book. It does not have a table of contents.