E-BOOK REVIEW: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS BY LEWIS CARROLL

GENERAL INFORMATION

TITLE: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

AUTHOR: LEWIS CARROLL

PAGES: 155

PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS

YEAR: 1871

GENRE: FANTASY / CHILDREN’S FICTION

COVER TYPE: E-BOOK

www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Through-The-Looking-Glass/book-RYRsuRB30EerM64z-oyd1g/page1.html

http://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk

BLURB FROM THE COVER

In Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice once again finds herself in a bizarre and nonsensical place when she passes through a mirror and enters a looking-glass world where nothing is quite as it seems. From her guest appearance as a pawn in a chess match to her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking Glass follows Alice on her curious adventure and shows Carroll’s great skill at creating an imaginary world full of the fantastical and extraordinary…

REVIEW

PLOT SUMMARY: Alice is playing with her cat Dinah’s kittens and wonders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror’s reflection. She climbs up on the fireplace mantel, pokes at the mirror behind the fireplace and discovers she can step through it to an alternative world. In this alternative world, the country is laid out in squares like a giant chessboard and the Red Queen offers to make Alice a queen if she can move all the way to the eighth rank in a chess match. Alice sets out to do just that and meets an assortment of weird and wonderful creatures on her way.

HIGHLIGHTS: I liked it when Alice met Tweedledum and Tweedledee, fat twin brothers she’s read about in a nursery rhyme. This section was very funny. Alice encounters Humpty Dumpty as she makes her way across the massive chessboard. He’s celebrating his unbirthday and translates the poem Jabberwocky Alice found when she first entered the world. I really liked this scene. The Red Queen and The White make an appearance and are very different from the characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I liked both characters. They were quite funny. Alice is crowned queen when she reaches the eighth rank. This results in a hilarious scene where the Red and White Queen’s drive Alice demented by using word play to thwart her attempts to have a civil conversation.  The ending is also one of the worst crimes in literature it was all a dream. I would have enjoyed it more if it ended with Alice trying to choke the Red Queen.

LOWLIGHTS: Lewis had a terrible habit of intruding on the story to directly address the reader by stating Alice’s thoughts and explaining things inside brackets. This was really irritating. I wanted him to shut up, stop explaining and get on with the story. This wasn’t as bad as it was in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland but still grated me. I didn’t enjoy this as much as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It just wasn’t as magical.

THE OPENING LINE

One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had nothing to do with it; – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely…

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was another free e-book from www.kobo.com.

Through the Looking Glass has been adapted numerous times live and TV musicals, live action and animated versions. These include a 2008 opera.

Through the Looking Glass has also been adapted in combination with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Disney version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland contained many elements from Through the Looking Glass. The 2009 TV mini-series from Alice broadcast on Syfy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_(TV_miniseries) contains elements from both novels.

The events in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel, Through the Looking Glass inspired two brilliant but twisted videogames, American McGee’s Alice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee’s_Alice) and Alice Madness Returns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice:_Madness_Returns). I have both games on my PS3 and they’re great.

RATING

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