Book Review: Alice in Wonderland

Though I know this is a classic, I sadly have never read it until now. As an English major and voracious reader, I feel a bit guilty about this confession. Yet, I think that reason why I held off was because I was waiting for this specific edition. With it’s dark and slightly eerie illustrations, it certainly evokes the unsettling atmosphere that I think Lewis Carrol was aiming for. This is not the Disney version with bright colors and funny animals. Instead, this is a twisted dream that is far from comfortable but not exactly nightmarish.

For those of you who live under a rock, Alice is a young girl who accidentally falls dow a rabbit hole one day while in her garden at home. While falling, she sees a white rabbit with a pocket watch and begins to wonder what kind of place she has found herself in. She eventually hits the ground and must find a way to pass through a tiny door in a room with no other exits. Once she opens the door, she is faced with a myriad of complex situations from a caterpillar that smokes a hookah to a mouse that lives in a teapot. The deeper and goes into this surreal world the more she wonders if she will ever find a way home.

Being that this is my first reading of the novel, I found the characters to be a lot more sinister than I had expected. I had watched many films of the story and they all seemed bright and wholesome though odd. However, this tale is far more darker than Disney portrayed it to be. It is for this reason that I have to endorse this edition which has beautiful intricate pictures with vibrant colors but also a sinister twist that I think Lewis Carrol would appreciate.

-DLP