Alice is a curious little girl who has an overactive imagination and a longing for adventure. One day while sitting on a river bank with her sister she finds herself becoming exceedingly bored. As Alice is considering what she could do to pass the time a talking rabbit with a pocket watch runs past complaining that he is late. This intrigues the young girl as she has never before seen a rabbit carrying a watch before. Alice follows the strange animal down its rabbit hole and finds herself in a convoluted new world. She has in many adventures as she attempts to reach a beautiful garden and eventually find her way home. Along the way Alice encounters many strange characters like the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts.

After Alice’s first series of adventures in Wonderland we find her again bored and looking for something interesting to do. She stares into the mirror above her fireplace and wonders what it must be like in the Looking-glass World. Along with her young kitten, Kitty, Alice climbs onto the mantle and finds herself slipping through the looking-glass. The Looking-glass World is stranger than she could have expected, in fact it is nothing more than a giant game of chess. As she struggles to reach the final tile and become a queen she finds herself in a garden of talking flowers, in the presence of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and having a conversation with Humpty Dumpty.

Lewis Carroll’s timeless novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass may not be literary masterpieces but they are fun. Carroll takes his readers through a nonsensical adventure with funny and entertaining short stories that push the narrative along. Carroll’s stories are almost a satirical take on the literature of his own time that was full of symbols and morals. Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) wrote the stories to entertain a young friend of his named Alice. They were for pure enjoyment unlike many of the other stories of the time.
Both of Carroll’s novels were both fun and enjoyable to read. It is not world changing or poignant in its symbolic views of everyday life. It is just a book about a little girl who goes on adventures in a mysterious world. These are a few of the reasons I enjoyed it so much because it wasn’t trying to be anything more than it was.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are both children’s books so obviously that is the target audience. The books have survived, however; because of their ability to be entertaining to both adults and children. The writing style and strangeness of the story may be a little tough to get past but I enjoyed both books.