Showing posts with label Carroll Lewis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carroll Lewis. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2118
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Through the Looking-Glass By Lewis Carroll
If you've read and loved Alice in Wonderland, you wouldn't want to miss reading about her further adventures, the strange and fantastical creatures she meets and the delightful style and word-play that made the first book so appealing. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll is thematically much more structured and cleverly constructed as compared to the earlier Alice book but still retains its childhood elements of wonder, curiosity and imagination.
Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a gifted mathematics professor at Oxford during the late 19th century. He suffered from lifelong shyness, a debilitating stammer and several physical deformities including partial deafness. Awkward and uncomfortable with adults, he bloomed in the company of children and had a special insight into their world. He portrays Alice as a well-mannered child, brought up in a privileged background. Based on a real little girl whose father was also at Oxford during the time Dodgson was there, Alice and her sisters formed the inspiration for these books which went on to be ranked among the best loved in children's literature. |
Chess forms the framework of the plot, the mirror-world is made up of squares which Alice moves through sequentially in pawn-like moves, symbolizing the dominance of fate in our lives. Funny poems and delightful turns of phrase that Lewis Carroll is justly famous for, continue to sparkle in this book too. The dream-like quality is retained in Through the Looking-Glass, with abrupt changes in location and characters. In the years that followed their publication, Lewis Carroll's books have been intensely studied by literary critics, psychologists, mathematicians and chess enthusiasts. Yet despite all the analysis and study, Through the Looking-Glass remains a charming and innocent portrayal of childhood imagination and creativity.
If you've read and loved Alice in Wonderland, you wouldn't want to miss reading about her further adventures, the strange and fantastical creatures she meets and the delightful style and word-play that made the first book so appealing. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll is thematically much more structured and cleverly constructed as compared to the earlier Alice book but still retains its childhood elements of wonder, curiosity and imagination.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
An acclaimed
children’s classic depicting the odd, but riveting journeys of the
curious Alice as she explores the surreal world of Wonderland. Written
by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or better known under his pseudonym Lewis
Caroll, this episodic novel is assembled in twelve chapters each
containing a prominent adventure. The departure from logic and its
embracement of pure imagination is what makes Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland a model for fantasy novels and a timeless classic.
The novel begins when the self-aware young Alice, who grows bored of
sitting by the river with her sister, and spots a peculiar looking
rabbit, dressed in a waistcoat. She hears the rabbit, which is seemingly
in a hurry, mumbling whilst dangling its pocket watch. Impulsively,
Alice inquisitively rushes after it making her way down a rabbit-hole
which descends to the fantasy realm of Wonderland. Finding herself in an
unknown corridor encircled by doors of all shapes and sizes, Alice is
subject to her first of many bizarre encounters. In order to fit through
a tiny door, which separates her from a beautiful garden, she drinks a
shrinking potion. Unfortunately, she forgets the key to the door on the
normal sized table and faces the beginning of her troubles. In her
pursue of the White Rabbit throughout Wonderland, Alice goes through
immense individual changes and revelations as her perception of reality
is altered. After a sequence of events, Alice discovers the unsettling
features of the strange world as she encounters zany characters
including the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Hare
and the intimidating Queen of Hearts.
Caroll’s use of wordplay is another interesting concept in the novel.
Not only does he invent new words and expressions, but he also twists
the meanings of the already existing. Illustrating the purity of
childhood innocence, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland serves as a
playful fairy tale for its youngest readers and a limitless playground
for the imaginative minds of older enthusiasts.
An acclaimed children’s classic depicting the odd, but riveting journeys
of the curious Alice as she explores the surreal world of Wonderland.
Written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or better known under his pseudonym
Lewis Caroll, this episodic novel is assembled in twelve chapters each
containing a prominent adventure. The departure from logic and its
embracement of pure imagination is what makes Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland a model for fantasy novels and a timeless classic.
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