Book – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) – A bored little girl finds more adventure than she really wanted when she falls down a rabbit hole one sunny summer day.

Written by a mathematician from a story he made up over the course of a couple summer outings with the daughters of the Vice Chancellor of Oxford, the story of Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the others has remarkable staying power over a century later.  Classed as literary nonsense, what most of us call “Alice in Wonderland” is actually an amazing piece of writing.  Any child can enjoy the ridiculous world that Alice discovers.  At the same time, adults will suddenly realize that there is a pointed parody of adult manners and politics.  The book (and those that followed it) have been a foundational piece for all of the modern fantasy that followed it.  Dodgson also wove a variety of logical and mathematical questions into young Alice’s adventure as well.

Today that story is much beloved but at the time of its original publishing, the critics were less enthused.  Within a couple decades they came around to the opinion of readers both then and now.

This is one of those books that we all think we know, even if we’ve never read it before.  This is the first time truly down the rabbit hole for me, and it was a delight not only to revisit the places and characters I thought I knew but to discover all the parts that I had missed.

Why You Will Like It – The powerful imagination that fires the story of whimsey and wonder.

Rating – ***** Read The Book!