Alice in Wonderland

Written by Lewis Carroll

Narrated by Jane Asher

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic fiction read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first time.

No story captures the uneasy feeling of being in a strange new world quite like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

The beloved tale, read by the iconic Jane Asher, sees Alice following a peculiar White Rabbit into the bizarre world of Wonderland, where nothing seems to make sense and everything she knows is turned on its head.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Sep 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9780008439644

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) was an English children’s writer. Born in Cheshire to a family of prominent Anglican clergymen, Carroll—the pen name of Charles Dodgson—suffered from a stammer and pulmonary issues from a young age. Confined to his home frequently as a boy, he wrote poems and stories to pass the time, finding publication in local and national magazines by the time he was in his early twenties. After graduating from the University of Oxford in 1854, he took a position as a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, which he would hold for the next three decades. In 1865, he published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, masterpiece of children’s literature that earned him a reputation as a leading fantasist of the Victorian era. Followed by Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), Carroll’s creation has influenced generations of readers, both children and adults alike, and has been adapted countless times for theater, film, and television. Carroll is also known for his nonsense poetry, including The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and “Jabberwocky.”

Reviews for Alice in Wonderland

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Nonsensical for certain! Alice's adventures in Wonderland, complete with size changes, talking animals, vengeful queens, and mad hat-makers, can be difficult to follow with all the frequent changes and tangents. However, this very nature also hints at Carroll's genius in capturing the momentary thoughts of a person (however senseless), giving a new depth to a magical adventure.

[alexandraarose · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was okayy..

[mariasavva_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely love this book. It's complete nonsense of course, but that's the great thing about it. Alice, a little girl, falls down a rabbit hole and enters Wonderland, filled with talking animals and strange creatures, and a pack of cards that has a life of its own. It's a dream, and like most dreams it makes absolutely no sense at all. It was one of my favourite books as a child, so I decided to re-read it after 30 odd years, and I'm glad I did. It made me laugh out loud.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You have to love a children’s book that features a large blue caterpillar smoking a hookah. This is a classic of fancy and imagination, featuring iconic characters in the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and Queen of Hearts among others. It stands up to the test of time and is an enjoyable read even for an adult; there is a lot of cuteness here. I love the different branches of arithmetic per the Mock Turtle: “Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."

[pussreboots · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I see something new in this book every time I re-read it.

[meorens · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent story and drawings

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alice is always interesting. The Jackson illustrations are not the classic Tenniel,. but good of their kind.

[alisak. · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So I finally read it. After reading Splintered, I was expecting something more darker and with other characters. I was also hoping that Alice wouldn't be an idiot. Sadly, I was disappointed on all accounts.Just because Alice is seven or something doesn't mean she has to be annoying. That was my main problem with this book: I didn't like Alice. Carol may have been trying to capture the innocence of children, but children can be innocent without acting ignorantly.I also didn't like the way the plot developed. It was very hazy and hard to understand. Alice would go to this place, and then forget about it. Then she'd go to another place, all throughout the novel. She'd figure out one problem, but then forget how to solve it in the next chapter.This ending is one of the most cliche endings of all time, and I think it started with this book. It was probably a huge surprise in the nineteenth or twentieth century, but for me, it was boring.Carol described things in the most limited way possible. I don't know how, but he seemed to make it work.It was like Carol gave just enough information for a reader to know what he was talking about, but left all the details to imagination. I feel like this will be a hit or miss for many readers, but I liked it.Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the classics that won't make you fall asleep while reading them, so if you don't mind annoying main characters and backwards logic, you should definitely pick this up.

[ccookie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First line:~ Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictiures or conversation, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?~I found this book intriguing and boring at the same time. I think that I have been contaminated by the movies and television shows so the book seemed too 'plain'. Not enough colour. It is one of the few times that I can say that I enjoyed the movie more than the book; usually it is the other way around.I did find that the change of topics from chapter to chapter was inconsistent but when you see that the whole thing is a dream, well, that is how dreams work isn't it? Not much connection between one thing and another, jumping from scene to scene. If I was going to read this to my children I would choose some kind of a Disney version because I think that the graphics, in this case, add a valuable dimension to the reading experience.I am glad that I read it but it will never be a re-read, unless I have a grand-child!

[jessmahler · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The best thing I can say for this book is it is short.

I had a friend who loved Lewis Carroll, I had some time and it was cheap and I figured I'd give it a try. Honestly not sure why I finished. I remember thinking "WTF? I don't know if I can stand to finish this", checking the progress bar and seeing I was already a third of the way through. And just figuring if it was that short might as well.

It never was so bad I wanted to throw it through a wall, but the most enjoyment I got out of it was recognizing scenes from the animated Disney movie. Kudos to Disney for managing to make an engaging film out of this word vomit.

[shelbystancil · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Summary: A little girl by the name of Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole where she ends up in another world. She has many many adventures in this world but eventually grows tired of it and wants to go home. After trial and error she finally gets there.Personal Reaction: I adore this book. It's one of my favorite books as well as movies. It is a crazy story but it really opens up a persons imagination. Classroom Extension Ideas:1. Have the kids draw their own types of Wonderlands.2. Use it to teach about being open to different things.

[calisoleil · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A 2000 christmas gift for my collection.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've never seen the Disney movie, or read the book before this. I wasn't sure what I was getting into. What I found was a very enjoyable read, not dated, full of delightful nonsense, gentle satire, and a perfectly little girl. I can see why this is a classic. Small children will love the nonnensical plot, while older kids and adults will enjoy the puzzles that are cleverly hidden inside the story line. A true classic.

[unlikelyaristotle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think this book is the epitome of English eccentricity, which is why I loved it. There are several stories around the author, one that he was an epileptic, and that the falling down the hole was a description of one of his seizures, another one which my sister insists on was that he was a drug addict, which sort of taints my view of this as a children's book. I prefer to think he was a brilliant man with a vivid imagination, why is that so hard for people to believe? It's the perfect book to read to a child to spark their own imagination and give them a love of books and reading.

[diaryofanairess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At first I thought that this was a story that I would love to read to my children. However, after reading this I am not so sure. There were times when I laughed at the child-like humor and then there were times when I was just like what? Some of the logic and the tales told in this story were hard to follow, so I am pretty sure it would be hard for children as well. I do understand the moral behind the story though. If you ever need to take a step back from stressful everyday life then this may be the story for you.

[cillasi_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are reasons why some books retain their popularity.

[bnielsen_30 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dette er den originale håndskrevne version af historien "Alice's Adventures under Ground", urmanuskriptet. Den blev oversat til dansk som "Maries Hændelser i Vidunderlandet" allerede i 1875, men den var dårligt oversat og vakte ikke større begejstring. Der er et efterskrift, der fortæller bogens historie og fx at "How doth the little busy bee, improve each shining hour..." er et digt fra 1715 af Isaac Watt.Historien kender vi jo: Alice følger efter en kanin, falder ned i et hul, havner i en sal med døre, drikker af en flaske og bliver mindre, men kan nu ikke længere nå nøglen. Hun spiser af en kage, der gør hende for stor. Hun har grædt en stor vandpyt og falder selv i den sammen med en mus, en and, en dum dodo, en dværgpapegøje og en ørneunge og en masse andre dyr. Den hvide kanin dukker op igen og hun følger efter den til dens hus. Indenfor drikker hun igen en flaske og bliver kæmpestor. Peter Kanin truer med at brænde huset af, da firbenet Ole ikke kan få hende ud, men hun når at blive lille igen. Hun stikker af og møder snart efter den blå kålorm. Hun læser en underlig version af "Du er gammel, far Vilhelm" op for kålormen. Derfra går det via Filurkatten over til gartnerne, der maler hvide roser røde. Den Røde Dronning har let ved at dømme folk til døden, men Alice redder gartnerne ved at stikke dem i lommen. Dronningen spiller kroket med Alice, men snyder groft. Næsten alle bliver dømt til døden, men faktisk er det indrettet så ingen bliver henrettet. En forloren skildpadde og en grif bliver afbrudt i deres historie af en retssag, hvor Dronningen vil have først dommen og så beviserne.Netop da vågner Alice.Fremragende historie oprindeligt fortalt til Alice Liddell. Historien er både bundet til Carrolls egen tid og alligevel stadig holdbar.

[rolyat-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i don't care how old you are, this is a great story!!

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel and its' counterpart, Through the Looking Glass, form a unique portrayal of fantasy that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. Adults may also appreciate the wonderful wordplay and levels of humor that make these books classics. As a result, Lewis Carroll has been one of my favorites for more than fifty years.

[absc0603 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was really... random. Some parts were really boring.Personally, I like the mad tea party the best.

[longhorndaniel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

hard to believe i've never read this but wonderful story

[lostvampire_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic book! Wonderfully illustrated!

[hunybadger · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I had never really liked the storyline before reading but having never formally read it I felt it was unwise to judge. I hoped this could be a turning point, where reading would make me enjoy it finally. Sadly, while reading, I couldn't wait to be finished! I only somewhat liked the last two chapters. Nothing made any sense and even the puns, which might have been interesting, were so annoyingly redundant that I only grew exasperated with the whole thing. Like a child that keeps asking why, this story goes around in circles, never finding a solid base to stand on. I find there are specific kinds of silliness, silly-stupid and silly-zany, for instance. I think silly-zany was the goal but I only find it silly-stupid. Now that I've read the book, I am sad to admit that I still don't know what others find amusing about it.

[sararomancelove · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author of this book was either crazy or a genius, maybe both as they tend to walk in pairs.
Well, this is a classic fable set in a fantasy world where everything could happen. There are so many extravagant characters that you'll lose count. It's is impossible not to fall in love with this book.
I think I'll rename one of my cats Cheshire.

[librarylou · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I remember this book scared me as a child!

[melissafreed · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I recently read this aloud to my child. Oh how I wanted to love it! It is iconic but the language and some of the plot was just too strange for us. We did giggle over the tea party and the croquet game.

[sharese_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Summary: Classic storytale of Alice as she travels through Wonderland and has great adventures. This story is of a little girl who is bored and falls asleep only to dream of following a rabbit down his hole and into a magical world of make-believe. Review: This story is a fairy tale and has all the classic marks of one: talking animals, the rules of science and nature being bendable if not all together breakable, and all of her adventure happening during a dream. The particular book I own has 42 wonderful ink illustrations by John Tenniel. It is the oldest book I own and I believe the story is still very relevant in children's literature. The best part of my book is the inscription: "Happy Christmas - To Little Hattie, December 25th, 1895. From Mrs. Flora Feige".

[sayaka6o · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The reason why I read this book, this story is much talked about in a movie.But I havn't watch that movie and I don' t know this story in detaile.One day, the main character whose names Alice sees a white rabbit. which has a clock.Alice follow that rabbit and wander into a strange world.It is interesting story. But sometimes I found a sentence which I can't understand.

[aoibhealfae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alice in Wonderland might have been the world most reinterpreted work in every form of living history. While I love the interpretative works like ABC's Once Upon A Time, SyFy's Alice, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and such, unfortunately, it's one of my most hated Disney movie of all time despite it is one of a setting of Square-Enix's Kingdom Heart which I used to like playing it.

Alice's Adventure in Wonderland started when the curious Alice who followed a rattled rabbit in waistcoat into a whole that leads to a place where she called Wonderland. She had the most curious response to her environment and tried logically to make sense of her surroundings. She met with countless of creatures of all shapes and sizes. She did however shapeshifted to various shapes and sizes from eating and drinking things in the nonsense world.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was a mathematician and to me, it was evident that he uses applied mathematics and probabilities in his plots despite the confusion in story progressions and the deux es machina nature of the book. He added puzzles and contradicting poems and often offering questions and dialogues to an other ignorant audience. In what probably an attempt to elevate himself in a way that no one could comprehend his inner joke that I need The Annotated Alice to make sense what it is. Well, thats what I think....

I would say the most content that you get from the book was from the characters in it. There are also a bulk of poetry and riddles that occupied the book that made the premise sounded like the "Inception" within a story. The bulk of what AiW meaningful were the multitudes of intriguing characters and unpredictable qualities of all of them which are interesting even when you see them being caricatured in every sort of ways. That is why the reinterpretation of the characters are very appealing to me.

From the first chapter, I was surprised that I do feel similarities with myself and Alice in the book. She's curious, she actually contradicted herself like I do all the time. She sees the world as dull and she's attracted to intelligent things that when she's unable to rationalize the things that were happening, she came out with interesting solutions. For the story of a little girl, she's quite intelligent for her age. She is rational and intuitive and fearless. I guess it explained why the Disney interpretation of Alice gave me an unsubtle intense dislike because the animation seemed to fit in the perception of woman and superficial Disney princess in the 50s and not the book. I have taken a liking with the 2010's version but Alice is very similar to the ones in the animation that it came off as bland and dull despite interesting casts.

Had the book came without its attached illustrative etching from Sir John Tenniel, one would have some problem in the settings of the book. I do find Wonderland were up to the interpretation of people who want to view it. And in my mind eyes, unlike the characters residing in it, Wonderland is much less of a vibrant and bleak country like the differences with the romance of the south and the industrialize north of England like the setting of Victorian era's "North and South" novel. In a sense the realism Carroll tried to emulate by refusing to humanize the characters and giving them an anthropomorphic qualities and comical portrayals in the illustrations. However if you think of applied mathematical in a way, what seems illogical to a rational mind is in fact dependent on the perceptions that it would have been logical in irrational beings.

For all it tries to be, Alice in Wonderland may be short but its wealth of questions lingered in millions of readers that made the book in some ways; immortal.

[irunsjh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. It was different then what i had in my mind it would be. I think I have the Disney version stuck in my head. Which I know is a combination of both this book and Through the looking glass. Overall a good book, if not a little confusing at times. It seems to jump around more then I would like in places, but overall the story was an interesting one.