Customer Reviews

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

5 star:		(124)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm not reviewing the story (we all know what a masterpiece it is :) but this edition is fabulous! It is actually two seperate dust-jacketed hardcover volumes, one for each tale, and they come in one very sturdy slipcase with beautiful art. For the current Amazon price it is a *total* bargain - I wasn't expecting it to be so nice. We also got the jigsaw puzzle book to go with it and it is also better than expected. They make a great gift for a lucky little gal!

For some reason Amazon bundles all reviews of every edition of under a single product making it very difficult to evaluate a particular one. So you may be looking for the Ingpen edition but unable to find an Ingpen review.

I fell in love with the Ingpen edition when I saw it in the store. Every page turn features an outstanding color illustration by one of the of the world's leading illustrators.

In Alice she says:'what good are stories without pictures?' We can read a story without a picture, yet when we have a picture it really helps us in imagining the story, and Ingpen has a great imagination when it comes to the picture story.

This is the kind of book you will leave on the coffee table just so you can show it off to your friends. Whether you are a parent or just reading it your own pleasure, I found reading it this way much better. I do own a pictureless version which I never got around to reading.

Sterling publishers have published other stories with Ingpen such as the Wizard of Oz. So if you wish to enjoy a classic story and to fire your visual imagination at the same time this is a great way to do it. I passed my version along to a niece and have the occasional pang of regret for having given it away.

I highly recommend it, think you will love it and hope this was helpful.

I couldn't put it down, man. I checked this book out at the local library and read through the opening 130 pages in one sitting until I was falling asleep at three in the morning. Lewis Carroll's classic tale of adventure and fantasy "Alice in Wonderland" is one of the best books I've ever read.

The story is about a little girl, Alice, who falls into a very deep rabbit hole, seemingly straight to the middle of the earth! Her adventures once she lands are as wonderfully imagined as any in the history of literature. Her encounters with the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the King and Queen of Hearts, the Duchess, The Mock Turtle, The Gryphon, and The Wise Old Caterpillar are as fun and as pure and as well intended as any characters I've ever read a writer write.

The story behind how Alice in Wonderland came to be is equally interesting, and one worth reading up on. That Carroll wrote it without any pretension to selling it, or for money, or even to publish it, is truly one of the remarkable stories of world literature. His motives were pure, and (at least to me) this is one of the reasons why this book is so dear and so readable.

I highly recommend "Alice in Wonderland" to readers young and old and can only say that I look forward to reading "Through the Looking Glass" next! A marvelous, wonderful book, as fun as any book I've ever read.

Yours,
Stacey

I found this story kind of weird and hard to keep up with, but the illustrations helped provide a better mental image.

To give as a gift to my cousin who remembers it well and who is now ill with cancer. Update your web site to incorporate the question "was this book purchased as a gift"?

After recieving all my books in excellent condition this particular book was my favourite. The binding, the hand drawn pictures, everything about this book is incredible and at the price of 9.50 and it being hardcover was the best part!
almost want to frame it. greatest book ever bought.

My nephew loved this book and had me read it to him. I always saw the movies but this was the first I actually read the book. I thought it quite better than any of the movies. The fact that it inspires my nephew to read is a wonderful achievement.

For those who love adventure books with very little sex, profanity or graphic violence, then I'd reccomend The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. This book was another of my nephew's favorites as well as some teens that I'm acquainted with. I liked it as well. He's a new author, but writes a good tale.

I have nothing against Disney, and I love animation, but the fact that someone would stand up for the commercial, Mickey Mouse, dumbing down of a classic piece of literature like this is hillarious. Both of these stories are poetry. There is as much beauty in the language as in the general outline of the story. Keep in mind that these stories were written for children in a day without television and video games who were actually required to use their imagination. Today, it sadly seems that imaginations have to be churned through an animation factory and packaged for the mass market to have any relevance. Also, there are many editions of Alice in Wonderland in print, so if you don't like annotations, don't buy a copy that claims to have more than any other.

People tend to lump "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass (and What Alice Found There)" into one collection which has taken on the new title of "Alice in Wonderland". This is probably a product of the movies, which took bits and pieces from each and made a composite adventure. This was possible, because Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) managed to make the stories so even in quality that they can be put together seamlessly. He also managed to keep the stories enough different, that one can still enjoy reading both of them one after the other, without the feeling that the second is just a retelling of the first.

To be sure, there are several ways in which the stories are similar, but not to the point where it detracts from the reader's enjoyment of the story. There are only three characters which appear in both books, one of which is Alice. The other notable characters (the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, etc.) are well distributed between the two books. Thus there is a looking-glass between the two, just as the looking-glass plays such a key role in the second book.

The Penguin Classics edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass" includes both books including the illustrations by John Tenniel. It also includes the original "Alice's Adventures under Ground" which includes Lewis Carroll's artwork. For additional features, it includes `"Alice" on the Stage' an article which Lewis Carroll wrote after seeing a production of the stage version, and it includes preface's to the books which Lewis Carroll wrote in 1896 for the 1897 editions. There are wonderful notes for both books, and a very informative introduction by Hugh Haughton. There is other supporting material as well. To sum up, this edition has pretty much anything one could want, other than a complete collection of Carroll's work.

A last comment on the introduction, it covers the biographical information for Reverend Dodgson, and the information on how the stories came about. Some of this information may detract from one's enjoyment of the story, but one can certainly understand the decision to include it for those who are interested in Reverend Dodgson and his life. All in all, this edition is packed with everything and will suit those who just want to read the stories as well as those who want to delve deep into their origins.

This is a must for "Alice" collectors of all ages. The art is beautiful and the design is unusual.

I disagree with the Booklist reviewer that the design makes for difficult reading or is distracting. The design flourishes enhance the reading experience.