Book Discussion: Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass SPOILER FREE

Have at it!

It was a fun book though I liked Through the looking glass better.

The names, images, and quotes are so much a part of our culture, it's hard to separate what I know from what I feel.

It is hard to imagine the world before Alice. So many quotes and images, it's amazing isn't it?

I want to know the stats on the copy that each of you is reading.

My copy was published in 1934 (copyrighted 1931) and illustrated by John Tenniel and Henry Holiday.

My copy did not have a date though if I had to guess, I'd say late 60's. I'll check on the illustrations when I get home.

If any one knows how to find dates for 'International Collectors Library' editions I have 2 that have no printed date.

Mine's published by Smithmark Publishers, 1995, with illustrations by Tenniel. It includes both books.

eta: I have an old edition of my mom's from the 1930's that's just Through the Looking Glass, but it's pretty fragile. I've been enjoying looking through it too.

My copy is a centennial edition (Random House, 1965) with the Tenniel illustrations. It's my childhood copy, and looks like it was well loved, alas.

I lost my old copy, so picked up a Barnes & Nobles Classics edition. It's got the original illustrations and a really crappy introductory essay. (Freudian interpretation, how quaint!).

I just finished reading the first two books in the Looking Glass Wars trilogy, and, while the series is worse than popcorn fiction in many ways (imagine a movie in book form) it did do one thing, inspire me to take another look at AIW and TTLG, which I plan to do this summer. Personally a lot about Alice in Wonderland just pisses me off, the dutchess especially. Actually, she kind of reminds me of VP Cheney, which explains a lot. Haven't read Through the Looking Glass in years, but I remember liking it a lot more than the first book.

Mine is an Illustrated Junior Library copy from Grosset and Dunlap. no date. Illustrated by John Tenniel.

Mine are all pencil sketches, no color. :o(
And it's The Dial Press edition.
My introduction is by Richard Herrick.

I have a colored frontispiece, but everything else is pen and ink.

My edition was published 2003 and was purchased at The Strand. It's nondescript but not bad looking.

I have Alice's Adventures and Through the Looking Glass in one volume. Mine doesn't have a date. It was published by J.J. Little & Ives Company, New York, has 92 illustrations by John Tenniel, black and white. It says De Luxe Editions on it. I think it must have been published in the 1940's, because it was either my mother's or her brother's, and that's when they were kids.

Haven't started reading it yet, I'm just cheating and reading all the comments made. ;)

I just picked up a copy of More Annotated Alice from the library. Anxious to start it.

My edition was published in 1998, by Penguin Classics, with an introduction and notes by Hugh Haughton... b&w illustrations by Tenniel... and words by some guy called Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ;-) (Actually I think Charles Lutwidge Dodgson sounds more like a pseudonym than Lewis Carroll...) - it contains both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass.

I did in fact take up JPB's suggestion, and read some of the beginning of Alice outside, as the sun was setting (unfortunately the weather has turned, which put an end to all that)... it's an enjoyable book, incredibly visual, and even though I've never read it before, I feel that I know quite well... I guess it's become part of our cultural heritage, thanks (in no small part) to the Disney version I'm sure, but I think it goes deeper than that...

I've yet to read Through the Looking Glass, I wonder if that one will have the same feeling - as if I know it already?

Mine is actually called The Lewis Carroll Book and has Alice, Phantasmagoria, Looking-Glass, The Tangled Tale, The Hunting of the Snark and Nonsense from Letters in it.

I love that word 'Snark.'

Snarky snarky snark snark...

...it's just such a fun word to say :-)

I've started it and am laughing at how well I know the beginning; however, soon run into pages I don't remember ever having read before. I must have started this book multiple times ... hheehhehe, this time, will finish, also.

We're rooting for you, maggie.
Someday, I will even start it!

#19 - Snark snarkitty snark snark'em.

Mine's published by Carlton House, New York. No publishing date, ills. by Tenniel. It's Alice, Throught the looking glass and The hunting of the snark. I'll be back on the snark stuff.

#22
Oh, Snark it!

Mine's The Annotated Alice - The Definitive Edition with the original illustrations by Tenniel, copyright 2000.

I've never read any Alice and I'm finding it delightful.

I was really hoping to get The Annotated Alice from our public library for the group read, but they no longer have it. So I picked up a B&N Classics edition for $5. How's the annotated version? Is it worth picking up?

I was watching a documentary last night on Michael Moore and they quoted him saying something about Bush and Gore being "Tweedledum and Tweedledee". See how much Alice is part of our vocabulary? It just never grows old!

#24 - Snark this. ;o)

#28 I'll snark you good!

Um... where we?

Snark Attack!

Just curious if anyone has yet READ the books, so as to start on the spoiler thread?

I'm done and was waiting to see if anyone else was...

I already started on the other thread, I've been waiting for someone else to join me!

I haven't even started yet. I want to finish my ER book first.

My Alice showed up 3 days before my ER book, so it got read first, I should be finishing my ER book tonight, then I get to review it.

I finally started. I realize that I have read this before, possibly for a class or something.

I thought I owned a copy, but it certainly doesn't seem to appear in my LT catalog, Did I overlook, or is my memory in error? I'll have to actually hunt on the bookshelves. I do so enjoy looking for something that might not be there, NOT. Wonder what I'll be distracted by instead.

I'm a little late to this. Thank goodness these threads never go away. It always seems like everyone is still around waiting for more people to show up, no matter how late the date.

I read this book when I was a kid so don't remember it too well (except that I do remember, because of the Disney movie and the movie with Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat). I wasn't sure if I was going to join in the discussion but I think I'll try to convince my 7yo we should read it next after The Philosopher's Stone. I wasn't even sure I had a copy but LT assures me I do.