A Review Of: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I think given the context of what we know about Lewis Carroll, this book reads a little different than how it once read. While we can’t be sure of intent when this book was written, what I can say is that the book is not especially entertaining to read as an adult. In order for someone to understand the satirical nature of the text, they need a strong understanding of what is reasonable. To a child, the text tells the story that the world of adults is scary and hard to make sense of, not that they should venture to challenge authority. In fact, Alice continually challenges authority throughout the book and does not achieve the results she intends to. To be honest the book sort of hits more like stories to tell a child to trick them into always listening to authority, given they may not have the abilitity to contextualize the satire. Modern interpretations of the book categorize it as almost Kafkaesque and poking fun at bureaucracy and the logical fallacies of appeals to tradition/authority, but I don’t think it would land that way for a child. I think that read is credible and valid, but I also don’t think it does so in an especially profound way. Obviously this book is a classic and to give it a poor rating does not align with the public’s general understanding and regard of the work. It just doesn’t sit right with me and I didn’t personally enjoy it.

When Carroll paints the picture that the world of adults is confusing and that you should challenge authority (the theme of the end of book), is he included as an authority figure as he tells these stories to the Liddell children, or is he on the inside and should be trusted over their parents? We just don’t know.

While there is no concrete established evidence and proof of ill-intent, that bar to hit is not exactly clear given how long ago these events took place. It is unclear what amount of devastating evidence would need to exist for critics to unanimously agree of Carroll’s ill intent. So we simply should not depend on unanimous agreement to form an opinion. My opinion is that with the given evidence, the relationship he had with children was not healthy by today’s standards, and therefore it makes enjoying the book challenging.