Alice's Adventure
My first impressions of this book were that it was like reading
C.S. Lewis on cheap drugs. The events are complete non sequiturs
and the changes in plot are worse.
It appears to be a spoiled child wandering in a world she does not
understand, nor is willing to learn about - unlike Lucy in The
Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe who seeks to understand the local
customs and circumstances.
The book is very easy to read but it leaves distaste in my literary
mouth. I know it is considered a classic but I just do not see it,
and if I did not have to read it for school I would not have
bothered to finish it.
(First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)
Through the Looking Glass
Though this book is not much better than Alice's Adventures, the
chess motif and theme does make the book much more interesting.
With the bossy, dominant Red Queen and the quiet, kind, messy white
queen, the book is a study in contrasts.
The interweaving of the Nursery Rhyme Characters and the frequent
fish poetry references does provide more continuity and a sense of
sequential events than Alice's first adventure. I also appreciated
the linking of the cat at the beginning and end of the story.
It does still feel like Carroll did way too many opium pipes in his
time.
(First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)