A review of Alice’s adventures, by Elena Rodríguez. Advanced level, Year 1

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

This is the story of a magical dream. The tale, written by the English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was known by his literary pseudonym Lewis Carrol, was published in 1865 accompanied by Sir John Tenniel’s atmospheric illustrations.

Alice’s adventures commence when she falls asleep while she is sitting with her sister on a bench outdoors (we don’t know where the girls are). She appears in Wonderland after having followed a peculiar White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and a wide range of strange events begin to happen chapter by chapter. She meets fantastic characters and takes part in senseless incidents, from a race with a bunch of animals to a trial on the case of the stolen tarts. Finally, she wakes up from her curious dream and tells her sister about the adventures.

The odd things that happen throughout the novel are imaginative and surrealistic, like Alice’s unusual growing or shrinking every time she eats or drinks something; the absurd conversations with herself; or the subjects that the Mock Turtle had studied: mystery, ancient and modern. I think every page has something worth mentioning.

The book is a riddle with puns and linguistic reflections that become facts, such as when Alice is in danger of drowning in her own tears.

Although I really enjoyed these famous adventures and being aware of the fact that different interpretations could be made of the book, I don’t like at all the passage of the croquet game using live flamingos and hedgehogs to play with.

I wonder if the writer had dreamt of the story before telling Alice Liddell the first version during the boating, nevertheless he showed great ability to make up such a fantastic world.

As a conclusion, a remark told by my favorite character, The Cheshire Cat: They are all mad in Wonderland!