![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Still She Haunts Me, Phantomwise
It's my considered opinion that Alice in Wonderland is the greatest novel of the 19th century.
I've just read the Alice books back to back. I used to prefer Looking-Glass and now I prefer Wonderland. For all it's melacholy, Wonderland is a sunny book, free-flowing, the work of a creator who isn't having to think too hard about what's coming next, whereas Looking- Glass is choppier, more structured, more philosophical. Of course I still like both of them very much. I think the shift has come about because I'm a less serious person now than I used to be.
Wonderland is summer. Looking-glass is winter.
More precisely, Wonderland is July, Looking-Glass is November. We know it's November because Alice has looked out the window and seen the boys building a bonfire. Rather surprisingly there's snow on the ground. Snow in Oxford in early November- is that still something that could happen?
One thing I'd forgotten is how chatty and teasing the narrator's voice is in Wonderland- as if still interacting with those three children in that boat on the river. This is reined back in Looking-Glass, now that the children have grown up and are less vivdly present to the writer's imagination....
I've just read the Alice books back to back. I used to prefer Looking-Glass and now I prefer Wonderland. For all it's melacholy, Wonderland is a sunny book, free-flowing, the work of a creator who isn't having to think too hard about what's coming next, whereas Looking- Glass is choppier, more structured, more philosophical. Of course I still like both of them very much. I think the shift has come about because I'm a less serious person now than I used to be.
Wonderland is summer. Looking-glass is winter.
More precisely, Wonderland is July, Looking-Glass is November. We know it's November because Alice has looked out the window and seen the boys building a bonfire. Rather surprisingly there's snow on the ground. Snow in Oxford in early November- is that still something that could happen?
One thing I'd forgotten is how chatty and teasing the narrator's voice is in Wonderland- as if still interacting with those three children in that boat on the river. This is reined back in Looking-Glass, now that the children have grown up and are less vivdly present to the writer's imagination....
no subject
If you don't know Moser's illustrations, you should. Also, Gregory Maguire has written the most most most flawless piece of fanfiction in "After Alice" and I highly recommend it.
no subject