Key themes
- The child who refuses to be managed by an absurd adult world
- Language and logic turned inside out
- Growing and shrinking — the body as an unstable site of identity
About this book
A girl falls down a rabbit hole into glorious nonsense; a children's book that adults never stop rereading.
Published in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland grew from a story Carroll told three children on a boat trip in 1862. Alice Liddell kept the original handwritten manuscript, which Carroll later expanded for publication.
Discussion questions
- Wonderland runs on its own internal logic that makes no external sense. What is Carroll saying about the logic of the adult world — and about the child who encounters it for the first time?
- Alice repeatedly asserts herself by insisting on rationality in an irrational place. How does Carroll use this opposition — is Alice right, or is the novel ironising her insistence on order?
- The Queen of Hearts' 'Off with their heads' — the absurd exercise of absolute authority — is one of the most quoted images in the novel. What is Carroll's politics?
- The book was written for a specific child, Alice Liddell, and is partly a portrait of her. Does knowing this biographical context add anything — or does it raise questions that the novel shouldn't have to answer?
- Alice has been read as a dream, a satire of Victorian children's literature, and a psychological study. Which reading do you find most productive — and does the novel need interpretation to be enjoyed?
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