Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No need to "Go Ask Alice" when you have the Annotated one, June 15, 2002
Perhaps no other set of works in literature benefits more from annotation than "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Class." Martin Gardner, the author of a regular monthly column on recreational mathematics for "Scientific American," provides expert commentary on all the jokes, games, puzzles, tricks, parodies, obscure references and other curiosities with which Lewis Carroll saturated his writing. That means that you will find out who was the original model for the Chesire Cat and how the "Jabberwocky" poem translates into French. Actually, the definitions of all of those strange words in "Jabberwocky" is quite a load off of my mind. Besides, this edition also contains the full text of each tale, together with all of the original Sir John Tenniel illustrations in their proper places. The annotation runs concurrently with the text and Gardner also provides an introduction that covers both the story of how the books came to be written and some of the most interesting analyses of Carroll's works, such as those always fun Freudian interpretations. The bottom line is that either one of these books gets 5 stars by itself, so when you put the two of them together and add all this annotation, there is nothing to complain about. This is the perfect book for re-reading these books; I would never send anybody here for their first exposure to Alice, but once they are hooked on Carroll's sublime nonsense this will open up a whole new dimension or two (or three) of his work for them.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In a word: WONDERFUL. (And I mean that literally), November 8, 1999
As the cover says:Said Gardner to Carroll,/ Come let us not quarrel/ 'Bout Looking-glass logic/ Or Wonderland lore I'm a man without malice,/ I'll annotate Alice,/ Yes, I'll wake up the Dormouse/ And tell him the score. I'll translate the Jabberwock,/ Show who the turtles mock,/ Tame the Mad Hatter,/ And analyse Chess, I'll spice and I'll season/ Your rhyme with my reason,/ And we two'll give Alice/ A new party dress.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read for Alice fans, November 16, 1998
By A Customer
Alice in Wonderland is an extraordinarily fascinating and delightful story, replete with jokes, puzzles, and nonsense of the highest order. But in order to appreciate it fully, the modern, non-Victorian reader requires some guidance, as well as an adequate background on the man and the times that produced Alice. Martin Gardner, the greatest figure ever in recreational mathematics, provides readers with all the information they need to appreciate this story at its various levels. This book occupies a place of privilege in the library of every serious Alice fan.
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