| Child of the pure unclouded brow And dreaming eyes of wonder! Though time be fleet, and I and thou Are half a life asunder Thy loving smile will surely hail The love-gift of a fairy tale. — Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass |
Lewis Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1871) begins not with a rabbit hole, but with a puzzle: a chessboard diagram. It foreshadows the story to come, as Alice steps through her mirror to find herself in a world where all is structured as a great game of chess. If Alice, a pawn, can cross the board in eight moves, she can become a queen.
| “It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played — all over the world — if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn’t mind being a pawn, if only I might join — though of course I should like to be a Queen, best.” |
— Alice
Dreaming in Reverse
The book opens with kittens (white and black), snow falling outside, and Alice’s favorite phrase: “let’s pretend.” The mirror above her parents' hearth softens into silvery mist. She climbs it and slips into the Looking Glass and the world beyond. Chess pieces come to life, books can only be read by holding them to the mirror, and a menagerie of strange creatures, riddles and poems await.
Here, paths change direction, daisies and roses insult Alice, and the Red Queen of chess famously declares: “Now, here, you see, its all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” This metaphor that has since been claimed by philosophers, scientists, and economists, alike.
Songs, Quarrels, and Inversions
Alice encounters Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who fight over a rattle, sing “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” and armor themselves in pots before dueling for their rattle. Alice also meets the White Queen of chess too, who remembers not the past but the future and insists that one should practice believing “six impossible things before breakfast.” Alice also shops with a knitting sheep, debates Humpty Dumpty (who coins the idea of “portmanteau words”), and watches absurd duels.
Queens and Conclusions
Alice at last becomes “Queen Alice,” crowned amid chaos, only to shake the Red Queen back into her kitten form—waking from the dream—or was it real?
Final Thoughts
Through the Looking Glass felt richer than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--more structured, layered with characters and witty dialogue, and with a clear goal for Alice to achieve. All the while, Carroll's wacky, random, playful world shines a bit clearer and brighter. Alice matures slightly—she achieves queenship. As far as children's stories go, I still much prefer Burnett's The Secret Garden, and Alcott's Little Women. [JG]
The book opens with kittens (white and black), snow falling outside, and Alice’s favorite phrase: “let’s pretend.” The mirror above her parents' hearth softens into silvery mist. She climbs it and slips into the Looking Glass and the world beyond. Chess pieces come to life, books can only be read by holding them to the mirror, and a menagerie of strange creatures, riddles and poems await.
Here, paths change direction, daisies and roses insult Alice, and the Red Queen of chess famously declares: “Now, here, you see, its all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” This metaphor that has since been claimed by philosophers, scientists, and economists, alike.
Songs, Quarrels, and Inversions
Alice encounters Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who fight over a rattle, sing “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” and armor themselves in pots before dueling for their rattle. Alice also meets the White Queen of chess too, who remembers not the past but the future and insists that one should practice believing “six impossible things before breakfast.” Alice also shops with a knitting sheep, debates Humpty Dumpty (who coins the idea of “portmanteau words”), and watches absurd duels.
Queens and Conclusions
Alice at last becomes “Queen Alice,” crowned amid chaos, only to shake the Red Queen back into her kitten form—waking from the dream—or was it real?
Final Thoughts
Through the Looking Glass felt richer than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--more structured, layered with characters and witty dialogue, and with a clear goal for Alice to achieve. All the while, Carroll's wacky, random, playful world shines a bit clearer and brighter. Alice matures slightly—she achieves queenship. As far as children's stories go, I still much prefer Burnett's The Secret Garden, and Alcott's Little Women. [JG]
“In Wonderland they lie
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?”
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?”
— Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
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