Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Sterling Classics)
by Lewis Carroll
List Price:
Our Price: $3.99
You Save: $5.96 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Lewis CarrollIllustrator: Scott McKowen
Afterword: Arthur Pober
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-01
ISBN: 1402725027
Number of pages: 136
Publisher: Sterling
Book Reviews of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Sterling Classics)
Book Review: "Begin At The Beginning..."
Summary: 5 Stars
"... and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Good advice for reading this book, from the Red King himself.
To say that "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a classic would be to state the obvious. Published originally in 1865, it was taken from stories which the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) told to three girls, the daughters of Henry George Liddell, including Alice Liddell who is the basis for the heroine of the stories. The stories inside are wonderful and superb nonsense which appeal to readers of all ages, as long as you don't try to read too much into it. The stories are filled with all sorts of absurdities based on language, logic, math, and parody. If you obtain a copy which has notes that discuss what is being parodied, it will add to the fun, certainly, but it isn't necessary because even without the parody it is still great fun. Also, you can certainly find references online to help find the sources which are being parodied.
Other than to say that the book is about Alice's adventures it would be difficult to say that there are any great lessons here, other than perhaps to not take things too seriously. At the same time there are certainly some running themes throughout the stories. Size is a key element at some times Alice is very tiny, and at other times incredibly large, and food and drink are the main triggers for these changes. Sense and nonsense is another running theme as there are those who try to make sense out of the nonsense, and others who just enjoy the ride.
The book opens with Alice following the white rabbit down the hole, and plummeting deep into the Earth. She meets many characters in her adventures, like the White Rabbit, a mouse, a lizard named Bill, a Caterpiller smoking a hookah, the Duchess, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle, the Red Queen, and many others. The adventures include her descent into Wonderland, her loss of identity with her changes in size, her babysitting a baby which turns into a pig, the endless tea-party, a very unusual croquet game, listening to the Mock Turtle's story, and of course the trial at the end.
The stories clearly have long lasting influence as well. In books, movies, music, and art, there are countless examples of works based on the Alice Adventures as well as references to them. One thing those works have done is led to some confusion with regards to the Alice stories. Characters like Tweedledum, Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, and the Red Queen are not in this book, but rather in the sequel "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There".
Summary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Sterling Classics)
One of the most magical concoctions in children's literature, Lewis Carroll's tale follows Alice into the upside-down, inside-out world of Wonderland where she attends the tea party of the Mad Hatter and plays croquet in the court of the Queen of Hearts
Source of legend and lyric, reference and conjecture, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is for most children pure pleasure in prose. While adults try to decipher Lewis Carroll's putative use of complex mathematical codes in the text, or debate his alleged use of opium, young readers simply dive with Alice through the rabbit hole, pursuing "The dream-child moving through a land / Of wonders wild and new." There they encounter the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, and the Mad Hatter, among a multitude of other characters--extinct, fantastical, and commonplace creatures. Alice journeys through this Wonderland, trying to fathom the meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be "curiouser and curiouser," seemingly without moral or sense.
For more than 130 years, children have reveled in the delightfully non-moralistic, non-educational virtues of this classic. In fact, at every turn, Alice's new companions scoff at her traditional education. The Mock Turtle, for example, remarks that he took the "regular course" in school: Reeling, Writhing, and branches of Arithmetic-Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. Carroll believed John Tenniel's illustrations were as important as his text. Naturally, Carroll's instincts were good; the masterful drawings are inextricably tied to the well-loved story. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter
Classics by Age Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics by Age Books
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia)by C. S. Lewis
HarperFestival; Published: 2005-10-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $7.68
Price in other shops:
The Horse and His Boy (adult) (Narnia)by C. S. Lewis
HarperCollins; Published: 2005-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.87
Price in other shops:
These Happy Golden Years (Little House)by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 1953-10-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.39
Price in other shops:
Little House in the Big Woodsby Laura Ingalls Wilder
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 1953-10-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Buenas noches, lunaby Margaret Wise Brown
Rayo; Published: 1995-08-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Businesssby Esphyr Slobodkina
HarperCollins; Published: 1947-01-01; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops:
Where the Wild Things Areby Maurice Sendak
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 1964-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.93
Little Town on the Prairie CD (Little House)by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Spring Arbor/Ingram; HarperFestival; Published: 2005-07-26; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops:
By the Shores of Silver Lake CD (Little House)by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Spring Arbor/Ingram; HarperFestival; Published: 2004-10-05; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $14.94
Price in other shops:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glassby Lewis Carroll
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1962-05-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Grimms' Fairy Tales (Collector's Library)by Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, Wilhelm Carl Grimm
Collector's Library; Published: 2009-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.26
Price in other shops:
Pooh's Library: Winnie-The-Pooh, The House At Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six (Pooh Original Edition)by A. A. Milne
Dutton; Dutton Children's Books; Published: 1988-10-31; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Signet Classics)by L. Frank Baum
Signet; Signet Classics; Published: 2006-10-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.34
Price in other shops:
The Wizard of Oz (Collectors Library)by Lyman Baum
Collector's Library; Published: 2010-08-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.95
The Jungle Book (Dover Children's Evergreen Classics)by Rudyard Kipling, Children's Classics
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 2000-03-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.95
Price in other shops:
Little Women (Penguin Classics)by Louisa May Alcott
Penguin Group USA; Penguin Classics Hardcover; Published: 2010-09-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.09
Price in other shops:
The Jungle Book (Sterling Classics)by Rudyard Kipling
Sterling; Published: 2007-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.08
Price in other shops:
Snow Whiteby Brothers Grimm
Harper Design; Published: 2012-02-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.19
Price in other shops:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Sterling Illustrated Classics)by Kenneth Grahame
Sterling Children's Books; Published: 2011-09-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.33
Price in other shops:
Peter Pan and Wendy: Centenary Edition (Sterling Illustrated Classics)by J. M. Barrie
Sterling; Published: 2010-08-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.83
Price in other shops: