Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I refuse to believe that there are people who are reading this who haven't heard of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and who, even if they haven't read the book yet, aren't familiar with little Alice and what happens to her after she tumbles down the rabbit hole.  So I won't waste time in writing a synopsis.  Let's not kid ourselves.  We're all familiar with it.

But there is a huge difference between knowing what happens in the pages, and actually reading Lewis Carroll's story about a curious and bored little girl who finds herself hopelessly lost in the world of her own illusion.  I've seen two versions of the movie (no, not the Tim Burton fest of weirdness, but the Disney animation and a made-for-TV musical -- more about that later), and I thought I knew the story inside and out. I was wrong.

For one thing, reading Carroll's prose is quite different from simply knowing the story (I've found this can be detriment in some ways -- such as with Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter -- love the story, hate the actual prose).  I really did enjoy Carroll's style of writing, and I was surprised to find that it really is a children's book.  I could easily have read this when I was eight or nine, at the same time as I was reading The Secret Garden -- which is much longer than Alice.  I'm just a little sad that I didn't forge ahead with Alice as a child, and have resolved to read it to my children as soon as they're old enough to understand it.

I'm also, in hindsight, disappointed with the Disney animated adaptation, and wish they had been a little more faithful to the book.  The made-for-TV musical, made in 1985 and starring Natalie Gregory (shown on the right) as Alice, is a much better adaptation, with the added bonus of co-starring every famous person from the 1980's (except Michael Jackson).  There's also a second part, which is Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice.  If you can find a copy (try Amazon, I think that's where my sister got hers), give yourself a treat and watch it.

I loved Alice.  It was just what I needed right now, in the middle of this really dreary New England weather -- a short, fun book I could snap up and read really quickly, and enjoy 100%.

Rating: *****