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Alice's adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

Boekverslag 5 Januari 1997. Gemaakt door Walter ter Maten, Son en Breugel.

Author:	Lewis Carroll (real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
Title:	Alice's adventures in Wonderland, 1865.
Publisher:	Penguin Books Ltd., England, 1981.
Pages:	163.
Genre:	Fantasy.

Main characters:

Alice is the leading character of the book. She takes all the decisions by her own, which gives her a grown-up look.
The Queen of Hearts, she always takes the same decision: "off with his or her head".

Summary:

Like fairy tales always start with "once upon a time", also the book of Alice adventures starts with well-known words: "Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and having nothing to do...". Alice follows a White Rabbit with pink eyes within a rabbit hole. After a long fall she arrives at a hall where she finds a small key by which she can open a small door that gives access to a beautiful garden. However Alice is too tall to enter it. The story is like a learning-game for kids on computers: you have to gain experience and properties before you can go on. So the first part of the book is devoted to the process of getting smaller and larger at the right moment. Indeed growing up is a very important issue for kids and so it is also in this book.
Alice with the dodo

The shrinking happens after drinking from a bottle labeled "drink me". Growing occurs after eating a piece of cake at which also a note is found ("eat me"). At first it is very disturbing for her and when she is very large she starts crying, creating a large pool of tears. By fanning (the White Rabbit has left a fan to her after he disappeared again) she becomes smaller again and falls into her own pool of tears. Here she meets the Mouse (who doesn't like stories about Alice's cat) and other animals. All are swimming out of the pool. The Mouse starts acting like a history-teacher. The Dodo proposes a "Caucus-race" to get dry. After the race the Dodo decides that all have won. Alice has to provide the prizes - and she has not to forget herself. After this the Mouse starts a tale, however Alice only looks at his tail (this playing with words that sound similarly is everywhere in the book). Angry the Mouse disappears and now Alice has to tell a story. Because Alice again starts with talking about her cat, all animals ran away.
Now the White Rabbit returns and orders Alice to bring him a new pair of gloves and a fan. She finds them in his house. However, here again a bottle with "drink me" is found. After drinking is she grows until she fills the whole house. The rabbit and other animals throw pieces of cake inside the house, which she eats. After becoming smaller again she leaves the house and escapes for the wood. Here she plays some time with a large puppy and finally she meets a caterpillar that is smoking a long hookah (popular at that time). Because Alice is very confused after the rapid changes she can't remember a well-known poem which the caterpillar asks her to recite. In fact it a parody. After this the caterpillar teaches her that pieces of the mushroom he is sitting on can help her to grow or to shrink in a smooth manner.
After having a conversation with a Pigeon to who she is a kind of serpent, because she has eaten eggs in the past, she arrives at the house of the Duchess, where she meets the Duchess, a crying baby (that appears to be a small pig), and the grinning Cheshire Cat. This chapter teaches that answers to questions depend on more important questions (the answer to "is this the proper way I ought to go" depends on "where do you want to go today").
In the next adventure Alice is involved in a mad tea party at the house of the March Hare where she also meets the Hatter and the dormouse. Here manners are important: no rude, personal remarks. Sentences should be formulated in a precise manner in order to allow a clear understanding, which is also very important for riddles. Because of the watch of the Hatter, that is fixed to six o'clock (tea time [a century ago]), there is discussion about time. For Alice time is a property, for the Hatter a kind of person that you can give commands.
After leaving and entering a door in a tree she again comes in the hall of the little golden key. Now she is able to enter the beautiful garden. Here she meets the Queen of Hearts and is invited to a croquet party. With a flamingo she has to move hedgehogs through arches formed by bowed solders (cards). It's a dangerous game because any minute the Queen shouts "off with his or her head". When the grinning Cheshire Cat should beheaded a problem arises, because only his head is visible (the cat has a fading property) and you can't behead a head when there is no body. The game is over when all victims require so many soldiers that no arches can be formed any more. Alice now hears the story of the school experiences of the sobbing Mock Turtle. Because of the word "lesson" his school hours decreased each time ("lessen"). After this she has a confusing discussion on the lobster quadrille.
At the end there is a trial in which Alice is a witness. This is dangerous because she will be easily accused of some mischief. However, because she grows again, she is not anxious anymore. Suddenly she awakes: all was a dream.

Remark to the enclosed picture:

Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. In real life Dodgson was a teacher in mathematics at Christ Church in Oxford. This may explain a bit the attention to technical details in the book (geographical data, time, watch). Dodgson stuttered a bit. In the book he appears as the Dodo ("Do-do-Dodgson").
Alice actually was Alice Pleasaunce Liddell, 7 years old. She had two sisters: Lorina, the elder sister, and Edith, her younger sister. In the picture of the meeting with the Dodo they also appear as animals: the Lory is Lorina ("she knows better" - because she is older), and the Eaglet is Edith. The Duck is a friend of Dodgson: Canon Duckworth.

My opinion of the book:

I can recommend the book anyone. It doesn't matter what age your are; you will like the book. It's because when you are reading the book, you just don't know what comes next. The whole book is full of unexpected things. Alice really is in a "Wonderland".
The book is very easy to read, because the book is originally ment for little children. It has nice pictures of what is going on in the book. The pictures illustrate the text in a positive way. It gives you more fun in reading it.

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