Lewis Carroll sends Alice on a second set of adventures in some territory that is beyond our world. This time she crosses a mirror and enters a game of chess. She will eventually become a queen but she will in all possible ways express her deep desire to rebel against a world that is seen as having too many limitations and frustrating rules. She will in a way rebel against the game of chess itself when she comes to the end of it and pulls the tablecloth from under all the pawns and pieces to have peace and quiet, to free herself of absolute slavery. But what is she the slave of ? Of rules, the rules of the game, the rules of society, the rules of education. Of words and their silly ambiguities that enable them to mean both one sense and its reverse, that enable them to lead to absurd statements and declarations that completely block her in blind alleys and impasses. But at the same time, her return to the normal world that transforms those adventures into a dream, is a rejection of such adventures and of such rebellion as being absurd and purely fantasmatic, dreamlike. There is in this book a rather sad lesson that comes out of this ending : children can dream adventures, can dream perfect freedom, but reason brings them back to the comfortable world of everyday life and submission. And there is no other way possible. This book is pessimistic about a possible evolution from one generation to the next thanks to the retension of childish, childlike dreams, forgetting that the world can only change and progress thanks to the fuel those dreams represent in our social engine.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

"Through The Looking Glass" is, perhaps, not QUITE as good as "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", but it's close enough to still rate five stars. Not, properly, a sequel to the first book, there is no indication at any point in it that the Alice (clearly the same individual, slightly older) from this book ever had the adventures in the first one; there is no reference to her previous adventures, even when she once again meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Obviously, the two books are intended as parallel adventures, not subsequent ones.

The most memorable bits from this book are doubtlessly the poem, "Jabberwocky", as well as chapter six, "Humpty Dumpty". But all of the book is marvellous, and not to be missed by anyone who enjoys a magical romp through silliness and playful use of the English language.

(This review refers to the unabridged "Dover Thrift Edition".)

Carrol was a profound and wonderful writer, and Through the Looking Glass... is definate proof of this. Though there isn't much evidence that he was a pedophile, you shouldn't grade his works simply on who he might or might not have been. Through the Looking Glass... is one of the greatest works of literature in the english language, and will continue to be despite the author's supposed problems.

Freudians may explain Baker's attraction to controlling men by the absence of fatherly affection in her life, since he is noticeably missing from her autobiography. However no matter how difficult her relationships with these men were, she admits to having a sensitive disposition which eventually crumbles into 2 breakdowns and 3 year depression, which kept her unemployed. Baker presents her major breakdown in the late 1960's with inner dialogue which is painful to read, although this style is used amusingly in her coverage of the making of the film Harlow. Perhaps Baker's reasoning can be faulted since her inner logic reveals the way up and out of her depression, whereas other sufferers of depression are often trapped within their repetitive circlic thoughts. From a showbiz autobiography view, Baker's book is entertainly written, with anecdotes from her days in vaudeville, the Actors Studio, Hollywood, and her 8 year stay in Europe, where she would meet her current (at the time of writing) husband, and finally choose a non-dominating partner. She has tales of Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Shelley Winters, Elia Kazan, Ben Gazarra, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Mitchum and Jerry Lewis. She considers Dean to be asexual rather than homosexual, based on the non-threatening nature of his friendships with women, and says he spent time with the cowboys only for "research" for his role in Giant. Baker vividly describes the riot at the premiere of Giant, the factions on the set, Dean's cruelty to Natalie Wood and his dislike of Dennis Hopper, which is ironic since Hopper has always claimed to have been close to Dean. Apparently Tennessee Williams first choice for Baby Doll was Monroe but we aren't told why the casting never eventuated, but Baker's description of Monroe at the Actors Studio - "She let her body language do most of the talking" - is funny and accurate. Baker mentions that in But Not For Me Clark Gable had shared secrets about being in front of the movie camera that no amount at the Actor's Studio could have provided, but doesn't disclose those secrets. She also lists titles that her contracts with first Warner Bros and later Paramount made her was unable to play - The 3 Faces of Eve, The Brothers Karamazov, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and a TV special dancing with Gene Kelly. When Monroe is fired from Fox, Baker says that she saw her sitting every night at La Scala's looking unkempt and despondent, highlighting the falseness of Monroe's claim that Fox wasn't "where she lived". Baker had suggested Monroe go to Europe but Marilyn said she couldn't because she was alone. Baker too would be fired from her studio, be despondent, but eventually go to Europe, alone, but perhaps because Baker had children to send over to be with her, she survived.