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175 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1865
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“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.I needed an adequate amount of nostalgia to guide me through this level of crazy.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
Little Alice fellEveryone knows this story. Alice falls down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland - a place wholly unexpected, trivial and unforgettable. She meets several good friends (like the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat) and a few enemies (The Red Queen) as she stumbles her way through.
d
o
w
n
the hole,
bumped her head
and bruised her soul!
No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.Ah well. I will try it again some day just to see if I was being a grump on the day I read it and I plan to read this to my future-kids to see if their youth will allow them to interpret this more positively. After all, if Ronan Lynch from [Book: The Raven Boys] loves it then I will force myself too.
They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank – the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable.
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I – I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
«Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “ without pictures or conversations ?”»
Right from the beginning and from the first assertion of Alice, we understand that her thoughts encapsulate hard truth that make us smile for their hindsight. Alice is a little bit bored child that decides to follow a strange rabbit to its rabbit hole. However, the hole is pretty weird, there are a lot of cups, and pictures, and shelves...
The journey-dream in Wonderland as a metaphor for life contains multiple keys of interpretation. Probably the conflict between adults and children is the more direct topic of the novel, exacerbated by the crazy Wonderland where usual rules of manners are being overturned for the custom use of wacky characters. And children, chuckling and listening to the novel, several times are wondering: "What's going on?".
My daughter had a lovely time with this book. And whenever she's having fun, I'm having fun.
Vote: 9
«Alice cominciava a sentirsi assai stanca di sedere sul poggetto accanto a sua sorella, senza far niente: aveva una o due volte data un'occhiata al libro che la sorella stava leggendo, ma non v'erano nè dialoghi nè figure, - e a che serve un libro, pensò Alice, - senza dialoghi nè figure?»
Già dall'incipit e dalla prima delle tante affermazioni di Alice, capiamo che racchiudono in sè verità schiaccianti... fanno sorridere per quanto sono palesi. Alice è una bimba un pò annoiata che decide di seguire uno strano coniglio fin nella sua tana. Ma la tana è piuttosto bizzarra, ci sono tazze e quadri e scaffali e...
Il viaggio-sogno nel mondo delle meraviglie come metafora della vita, racchiude mille interpretazioni e molteplici chiavi di lettura. Quello che traspare in maniera più evidente è probabilmente il conflitto adulti-bambini, esacerbato dall'assurdo paese delle meraviglie, nel quale le usuali regole della buona educazione sono capovolte ad uso personalizzato dei suoi strambi personaggi. E i bambini che ascoltano il racconto di Alice più volte si chiedono sghignazzando: "che cosa sta succedendo?"
Mia figlia si è divertita molto. E quando lei si diverte io mi diverto.
Voto: 8