The Annotated Alice - The Definitive Edition

Title: The Annotated Alice - The Definitive Edition

Author: Lewis Carroll, Notes by Martin Gardner, Illustrations by John Tenniel

Pages: 312

Genre: Children's Fiction, Fantasy

Grade: A-

Synopsis: The Annotated Alice consists of the books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, both by Lewis Carroll. The full text of each book is included (as well as parts that were taken out) and there are annotative notes through the text of each chapter.

Alice in Wonderland: Alice dreams that she falls down a rabbit hole chasing a white rabbit and meets a bunch of interesting fantastical creatures. She plays croquet with the queen of hearts, has a baby turn into a pig in her arms and is continually changing sizes.

Through the Looking Glass: 6 months to the day after her dream about wonderland, she has another dream about climbing through the mirror into the house/parlor on the other side. She finds herself a pawn in a chess game and works her way across the board so that she can become a queen. Everyone she meets seems to recite poetry to her (where the annotations really help) including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Knight and Humpty Dumpty.

My Review: I've been wanting to read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for quite a while. I very much enjoyed reading them with the annotations because there is so much more to the stories than you would ever know or realize without them. Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), was a shy, eccentric bachelor that taught mathematics at Oxford. Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson) was a man obsessed with little girls, especially one Alice Liddell. While his obsession with young girls is a little creepy, it was amazing to read the cleverness of his stories.

From the Book: "(p. 22) Alice took the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking. "Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!" And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

"I'm sure I'm not Ada," she said, "for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I ca'n't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, of, she knows such a very little!"

"(p. 148) Jabberwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.