I recently acquired a beautiful copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, complete with original drawings. The silver leafed pages and innocent curiosity drew me down the rabbit hole and into this classic story.

Being raised on Disney, scenes from the two books were constantly picked up in my mind and slotted into the version I knew. But it doesn’t matter. Plot is a thin concept to Lewis Carroll. I found Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to be not only more familiar, but also more enjoyable, with the exception of the Duchess with a pig for a baby and a cook who seemed intent on cooking said baby. Within the pages, I finally found the reason as to why the Mad Hatter and March Hare are caught in a constant tea-time, but sadly not the answer as to why a raven is like a writing desk.

This first story is filled with cards who are alive while Through the Looking Glass is told like a game of chess with the red and white Kings and Queens living in the strange and opposite land (because Alice had to go through the looking glass to get there, everything that should be forwards, is backwards and if you want to go left, you ought to go right). In Through the Looking Glass, Alice learns that the whole world is a giant chess board and that if she can make it to the final square, she too can be a queen. But whether she likes being a queen is a whole other matter.

I think I still like the Disney version better, but am happy to have read these books, seen the beautiful drawings and understood a little more about the white rabbit. But I am still curious… would you go down the rabbit hole?

Until next time,

Happy reading