Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

One of the classics of children's literature, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is world-famous and has inspired a culture all of it's own. It's a fixture in the childhood of many Western children, myself included. 

I've read a fair few books this year that I enjoyed the film versions of as a child, but if I learnt one thing it is that the book is always different. At least I thought so until I read this book. Disney's animated version seems to sum it all up if I am perfectly honest. There are a few minor changes and additions to the story, but ultimately if you watch the film you really have read the book. 

Focusing just on the book itself, the pace felt very slow despite Alice's constantly changing predicament which I think is mostly due to the fact that I didn't understand what was going on. Although I can recall most of the plot I still didn't really 'get' it. I've heard before that Alice's Adventures has prose full of adult humour, that could potentially bore children. If this is true then I must have the mentality of a child because I was often bored. 

Carroll's nonsense poems also proved a sticking point for me as I could not understand what they were for. I like that the book encourages the imagination and demonstrates that sense and logic should not always be thought higher of than creativity. In this respect Carroll's novel is very much responding to it's time when Romanticism was for the most part over and science was beginning it's ascent to the pedestal. That being said, I like logic and the story lacked logic, at least in my opinion.

Another issue that I had was with Alice herself. I found her character to be bad-tempered and pretentious. She seemed to me to be argumentative and a little prissy. Dorothy at the end of her adventure in Oz had made many friends, but Alice really hadn't made any. It was very apparent that as a character she did not belong in that world and maybe that's also true for me. 

As a classic I can appreciate its merit and understand why it has stood the test of time. However, much like Peter Pan this just wasn't for me. Perhaps this is a children's book I really should have read as a child. However, I am glad that I read it and completed my goal of reading five children's books that had fantastical worlds and can now give away my copy for someone else to read.

Rating: ★★