Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

The two books were revolutionary: while most children’s novels had been written to educate and instruct, Carroll’s two book were produced firmly to amuse.Ĭarroll, a mathematics lecturer at Oxford University, was always comfortable around children – its told that an incurable stammer which troubled his communication with adults would disappear in their company. Like the first Alice book, Looking-Glass is a brilliantly plotted, wonderfully inventive nonsense story, full of humour, riddles and rhymes. Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871, and is the famous sequel to Alice in Wonderland. On her travels she meets a whole host of characters: the White Knight Tweedledum and Tweedledee the Walrus and the Carpenter the Rocking-Horse Fly – and even Humpty Dumpty himself. All the world’s citizens are a part of this great game of chess, explains the White Queen, who appoints Alice to be her pawn, and sends her on a magical journey across this strange country. The looking-glass world she enters takes the form of a giant chessboard, the squares divided by green hedges and brooks.

Suddenly the glass turns to mist – and Alice passes through it to the other side. Gazing into a huge mirror above the drawing room mantelpiece, she wonders what the world would look like if everything in it was turned around, like a reflection. A winter’s day, and Alice is feeling thoughtful.

Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll