A wonderful sojourn back into Wonderland through Alice’s looking-glass.
Plot
Alice’s adventures are not finished. The white kitten had nothing to do with it, but it was most certainly the black kitten’s fault. If the black kitten had not been bad, Alice would not have had to ‘talk’ to it. And if she had not had to 'talk' to it, the Looking-Glass world would never have come into discussion, and Alice, poor Alice, would not have gotten up on the mantle to look through the mirror, and she would never have tumbled through.
But tumble through she did, into the world of the talking flowers and the Jabberwocky, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and the whole dream world of Wonderland.
Morality
While there is nothing untoward in the book, morality is never an issue to be addressed.
Spiritual Content
Apart from the story being a dream, none.
Violence
The Lion and the Unicorn fight for the crown; the White and Red Knights have a tussle over capturing and rescuing Alice; Tweedledee ruins Tweedledum’s nice new rattle and the two do battle over it. All violence is written lightly and comically, suitable for children.
Drug and Alcohol Content
None.
Sexual Content
None.
Crude or Profane Language or Content
None.
Conclusion
I find Through the Looking-Glass to be even more enjoyable than Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. With the infamous Queen and her propensity for removing people’s heads confined to the previous book, Through the Looking-Glass is very light-hearted and cheery, a very mixed-up dream of Alice’s dealings with her kittens. The characters are laughable, the scenes remarkably dream-like, and the poetry quite lovely. This is a delightful continuation of Carroll’s first book, a good classical addition to a child’s library.
A note of interest to the reader, the poem at the end of the book is an acrostic, and spells out the name of the girl commonly taken as the inspiration of Carroll's character: Alice Pleasance Liddell.
This review is brought to you by Jenny.
