Alice in Wonderland door Lewis Carroll

Algemene gegevens
Title: Alice in Wonderland
Author: Lewis Carroll
Publisher: George Rainbird Limited
Date of publish: reprinted 1968 (was first published in 1965)
Genre: Fantasy

Main Character:
Alice: Alice is a little girl who is very curious and likes to explore places.

Other characters:
The White Rabbit: He is a rabbit with clothes on and walks like a human. When Alice sees the rabbit it is was often saying that it was going to be too late.

Mouse: Alice met a mouse at the pool of tears. The mouse is afraid and gets scared away by the story of Alices cat.

Dinah: Dinah is the name of Alices Cat. She mentions her cat sometimes in the story. Other animals get scared away by the stories about Dinah. Dinah is a female cat.

Caterpillar: The Caterpillar smokes a hookah and told Alice that she can use the mushroom to grow or shrink. If she eats one side of the mushroom Alice will grow and if she eats the other side of the mushroom she will shrink.

The three card men who are painting the roses: These card men look like playing cards and they work for the Queen of Hearts. They have accidentally grown white roses instead of red ones and they don't want any problems with the Queen of Hearts, because the Queen of harts only likes red roses and hates white roses. So they decided to paint the roses red.

Dormouse: The Dormouse was sleeping at the mad tea party. the Mad Hatter and the March hare woke the Dormouse so it could tell a story. the dormouse kept on sleeping so they put the Dormouse inside a teapot.

Mad hatter and the March Hare: The Mad Hatter was at the Mad tea party with the Dormouse and the March hare. The Mad Hatter and the March hare kept on telling riddles and stories when Alice was at the Mad Tea Party.

Storyline:
Alice is bored sitting on the riverbank with her sister and then she sees a talking rabbit. Alice follows the rabbit inside a rabbit hole. Inside the rabbit hole she falls and sees lots of cupboards and shelves. Then she falls inside a hall with lots of doors.

She finds a little door and a key and she opens the door and sees a beautifull garden, but the doorway was too small for Alice. On the glass table in the hallway was a little bottle with 'drink me' labelled on it. Alice drunk the liquid inside the bottle and she shrinks. But the key was still on the glass table and she coudn't reach it and the little door was locked again. Then she finds a cake with 'eat me' on it and she ate the cake. She grows larger than she normally is and her head hits the cealing.

Alice couldn't go through the little door and she began to cry and her tears flood the hallway. then Alice sees the same rabbit as before and it was in a hurry, it forgot its fan and its gloves. The fan makes alice shrink so she was little again. Alice swims in her own tears and it gets crowded by animals. The animals are talking about how to get dry again and Alice tells the animals about her cat and al the animals get scared away.

The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. He orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing.The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes which when Alice eats them reduce her once again in size.

Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a caterpillar smoking a hookah. The caterpillar and Alice where talking about something and then the Caterpillar told Alice that if she eats one side of the mushroom she will shrink and if she eats the other side of the mushroom she will grow. then she ate one little bit of the mushroom and Alices neck starts to grow very high and a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent snake. Alice used the other side of the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.

A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup which has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess and her baby (but not the cook or her grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig.

The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.

Alice becomes a guest at a mad tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March hare, and a sleeping Dormouse. The Hatter and the March Hare gave Alice many riddles and stories. Alice becomes insulted and tired by all the riddles and stories so Alice left the mad tea party.

Alice enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses. There where more cards, kings and queens and even the white rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and Queen. The Queen was difficult to please and keep on shouting 'Off with his head' which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject. Alice was invited to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter. The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle.

The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which The Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.

Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. Meanwhile witnesses at the trial include the Mad Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.Alice is then called up as a witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards.

Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on the riverbank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.

My opinion:
I like this book. First I throught that I am too old for this book but then I started to like the story. I also like that part when those playing card men are painting the white flowers red. Alice in Wonderland is a nice happy story and it is funny too.