“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is a beautiful and cosy fairy tale that has been making generations of children and adults alike smile and feel happier. Very unusual for the genre, it’s not really a fairy tale, but a child’s dream – too logical and clear for a dream, but way too muddled and crazy for our boring real world.

In writing “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll has done something that few writers manage to do: he has created a new genre, something that hadn’t been heard of. Lucky are those writers who manage it: they are bound to wake up famous one day.

I remember how I first found this book in a local library when I was just starting to read in English. “Alice” was so easy to read – so much easier than most of the books I could find. And yet – who was it who said that it would be easier to move London than to translate “Alice”? I have to agree with it, because the book is full of puns built around English words that are spelled differently, but pronounced the same or very similar (“tale” – “tail”, “tortoise” – “taught us”, “porpoise” – “purpose”, etc…) and funny verses slightly similar to well-known English verses, but in fact mocking them. These would have to be rewritten in every language “Alice” is translated to, still keeping the same mocking similarity to their originals translated into the same language.

But the book is so famous and so loved that it was translated into many languages – there are, for example, several Russian translations available to this day, and my daughter has some of them. Still, they could never compete with the original.

While re-reading the book for the purpose of reviewing it, I still laughed hard at the fussy White Rabbit, touchy Mouse, ferocious Queen fond of beheading and the ridiculous trial, which, I’m told, parodies the real proceedings of the author’s time (and I’m not sure that modern ones are much better than that). I can imagine that the deep philosophical question of whether it’s possible to behead someone or something that has a head but no body could cause a serious and heated debate in certain circles. There’s definitely more in Cheshire Cat than meets the eye – and I must admit that he is my favourite character in this book.

But what I love best about the book on the whole is the air of joyful, unspoiled purity that only a child’s dream can possess. Lewis Carroll – definitely not a child at the time of writing – has done a great job of it. His book effectively pulls me out of my winter blues any day and within a few minutes – just as soon as I visualise a cake with “Eat me” written upon it.

I believe this particular fairy tale is not meant for very little kids: not under nine at any rate. But it’s very good for adults of any age, for as long as they have their inner child, however deep it mignt be hiding.