Lewis Carroll
Castle
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+
The Best of Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass/The Hunting of the Snark/A Tangled Tale/Phantasmagoria/nonsense from Letter
The Best of Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Castle
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***+
The Best of Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass/The Hunting of the Snark/A Tangled Tale/Phantasmagoria/nonsense from Letter
DESCRIPTION: Five of the noted late-nineteenth century author's works are reprinted in this volume, with miscellaneous excerpts from various correspondences over the years. The classics Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass share space with the poetry of Phantasmagoria and The Hunting of the Snark, in addition to the mathematical story problems presented in A Tangled Tale.
REVIEW: This is yet another part of my ongoing effort to read books I probably should've read long ago, thanks to reprints and Half Price Books. I suppose I should've reviewed each story separately. I gave the whole an Okay rating on average, for while Carroll's writing style is memorable and rather charming, I don't care for his nonexistent plots. I like stories to have a discernable progression from beginning to end, with some manner of reason to the events and characters encountered. But, again, that's just me being me. A Tangled Tale was my least favorite, for all that it was about the only one with a recognizable story arc, in part because of all the math. I never did like story problems... As for Alice's adventures, they would be ideal for out-loud bedtime reading, when the child doesn't really need to remember what came before, might nod off for a while in the middle of a chapter, and is just enjoying the adventure in the here and now. The fact that so many people read so much meaning into every aspect of her tales... that, I fail to understand. Carroll did an excellent job capturing the lucid-yet-not-quite-clear consciousness found in dreams, and the breaking and melding of themes as one wanders through them, but beyond that there's nothing there, except maybe whatever a reader builds up through nostalgia.
You might also enjoy:
Peter and the Starcatchers (Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, YA? Fiction - Prequel to classic Peter Pan)
The Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum, YA Fiction - The classic American fairy tale)
The Water Mirror (Kai Meyer, YA Fiction - In an alternate-world Venice, an orphan girl is apprenticed to a maker of magical mirrors)
Un Lun Dun (China Miéville, YA Fiction - Two girls stumble into the "abcity" mirror of London, where wonders and dangers abound)
The 100 Cupboards trilogy (N. D. Wilson, YA Fiction - A boy finds mysterious little doors leading to other worlds)
Alice in Wonderland (2-Disc Special Un-Anniversary Edition)
Alice in Wonderland
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