"Through The Looking Glass"

Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

This was fun, not quite as good as Alice in Wonderland, but fun nevertheless. With both of these books it felt like something was missing when I was reading them to myself. They need an audience. They need to be read aloud.

I was astonished at how much better these books are than the movies, cartoons, etc. that have been made from them. I loved the Johnny Depp "Alice" movie, but nothing I've seen captures the lightness of Carroll's writing. They have the quirkiness but miss that offhanded breeziness that makes the books so wonderful.

Another surprise was finding the passage that goes:

"'The time has come', the Walrus said, 'to talk of other things: of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings...'" . 
 
I've been hearing and reading those words all my life and had no idea they came from this book. My favourite lines are the ones where Alice is talking to the White Queen about impossible things:   

"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying'. she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.' 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen, 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'" 

In the movie they gave someone else that line - one more reason not to trust movies made from a book until after you've read it.

I have to quote one more short verse; there are so many I loved:

"He said 'I hunt for haddock's eye

Among the heather bright,

And work them into waistcoat buttons

In the silent night.

And these I do not sell for gold

Or coin of silvery shine,

But for a copper halfpenny,

And that will purchase nine.'"

Is that not wonderful? If you haven't read this book, treat yourself today, and if you have, well treat yourself again. How can you possibly resist?