I have been reading tarot cards (without the books) for about a year now, and I must say this is the best deck! It's pictures are all closely related to the Rider-Waite deck so it's easy to read. My favorite card has to be THE MOON with the walrus and the carpenter "deceiving" the oysters, very cute!

This deck is a Rider-Waite-Smith variant, with the cards redrawn with art from the Alice books.

The art is as beutiful as that of the book, and as the deck is based on RWS, anyone familiar with the former can read with this deck with no effort at all.

The suits of the minor arcana were changed, as noted in a previous review, which personally I find a little confusing.

The deck is made in high quality, with the regular exception of the cardbox, which is a pitty - it's worth keeping for the art's sake.

As an Alice fan and being familiar with the RWS deck, I really like this deck.

I dont read for kids (and I think I would prefer to read with the Inner Child Cards for kids), this deck is reserved for readings in parties and other merry situations.

This is my first deck and I highly recommend it for beginners or those with children. The pictures are based, of course, on the illustrations by Sir J Tenniel from the original Alice books. If you've read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (and you really should), you'll gain a far better insight into the cards as well. A lovely deck that may be too precious to use for public readings. Excellent for personal use!

I gave this book to my niece for Christmas and it was a huge hit, both with her and with my sister. This was no surprise to me as I had to really guilt myself into giving it away instead of keeping it here in our house.... good thing it's readily available, at least for the time being. Next purchase I make from Amazon I'm throwing this in my basket too. :)

The selections of prose complement the puzzle scenes beautifully and give kids a nice overview of both the Alice and Through the Looking Glass books. The puzzles themselves did not succumb to either "Eat Me" or "Drink Me" (i.e. they're not too big, and not too small, but just right). Each piece is color-coded on the back so you don't mix up the different scenes - a very nice touch. Also included are mylar protector sleeves so the puzzles will presumably stay put after being worked and reworked - another nice touch. Overall, the book is extremely well made and something that deserves to be handed down through generations.

This is the only book of its kind I've found, besides the Escher puzzle book which I haven't yet seen except on Amazon. Bravo to the publishers! Please make more!

A perennial favorite from generation to generation returns in a delightful set of 7 jigsaw puzzles housed in attractive and practical book form. Youngsters and adults will derive additional hours of pleasure from Lewis Carroll's enchanting stories as they piece together episodes from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."

Each puzzle is paired with corresponding texts from these beloved tales. Thus, we rediscover Alice looking longingly down the rabbit hole, participating in the Dodo's race, chatting with the Cheshire-Cat, listening to the Mock Turtle's tale of woe, watching the trial of the Knave of Hearts, even meeting the hilarious White Knight.

Forty-eight piece puzzles seems an appropriate choice as they challenge younger solvers and entertain older children. Perhaps best of all is the discovery that we can put Humpty Dumpty together again!

When it comes to childrens' books, sometimes the illustration is as important as the text. The illustrations in this book are derived from hand-stitched textile pieces - colorful and imaginitive. Sketches for the textile works are printed on the endpapers. Each page has one of Aesop's fables told briefly enough for a small child to digest, and in simple language that is easy to read out loud. There are many versions of Aesop, of course. I was looking for one that would make these old moral tales palatable for kindergarten and first graders, and this is the one.

A joke is always funnier if you understand it, and the Alice tales are so full of inside jokes that you need someone to explain them. The Annotated Alice does just that. Carroll's tales are here, complete and unabridged, and the editors have painstakingly provided every piece of explanation and commentary you could ever wish for. Complete with Tenniell's original illustrations (although, alas, not colorized), this is a book any girl, little or big, can cherish.

Alice in Wonderland is an extraordinarily fascinating and delightful story, replete with jokes, puzzles, and nonsense of the highest order. But in order to appreciate it fully, the modern, non-Victorian reader requires some guidance, as well as an adequate background on the man and the times that produced Alice. Martin Gardner, the greatest figure ever in recreational mathematics, provides readers with all the information they need to appreciate this story at its various levels. This book occupies a place of privilege in the library of every serious Alice fan.

Victorian-era readers of Lewis Carroll's delightful fantasies knew the poetry and song and public figures referred to; we moderns need to have the jokes explained to us, and Martin Gardner does a masterful job of it. We're fortunately past the more bizarre Freudian and Marxist interpretations of Alice that Gardner takes to task in his preface, but Gardner's annotations survive, as they should. The White Knight's encounter with Alice is heartbreaking when you know the background information, the lyric the White Knight's doggerel alludes to. By all means, give this to children at risk of being pithed by exposure to a certain indigo reptile; as children, they'll appreciate the story, and as they mature, they'll appreciate the commentary, and you'll have saved a budding intellect.

When I drecided to buy a copy of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, I did not expect this. When I saw this book on the middle shelf of the local cain-bookstore, I had to buy it. When I started to read it, I found myself bypassing the notes just to read the book. But, then again, shouldn't that be the way it's done? Anyway, when I went to the bookstore again I bought a copy of the complete works of Lewis Carrol so that I could read his poetry. When I read it I was shocked. There is a whole other alice book not included in the annotated alice. 'Alice's Adventures Underground' is nowhere to be found. This was strange considering the detail and colletiveness given by Mr. Gardener. You would think this would be included. But it is forgiveable. This is something noone should be without.

I finally, and seemingly permanently, misplaced the 40 year old copy of 'The Annotated Alice' (which I had pilfered from my mother's bookshelf) for the last time. I can't go more than a month or two without it so I rushed to buy a new copy...just weeks before the more beautifully bound 'Definitive Edition' was published. No matter, now I have two (perhaps even three if the original turns up).

My point is that this book contributed more to my understanding of logic and wordplay than several semesters of college philosophy classes. If you've read this far then I am probably preaching to the choir but 'Alice in Wonderland' can hardly be classified as a childrens' book, dispite Disney's attempts to do so. The concepts Lewis Carroll and Martin Gardner bring to this tale cover such areas as set theory, meta-language, Aristotelian logic, topography, game theory, several pre-Socratic logic paradoxes, and even quantum physics. Yet John Tenniel's original illustrations remain as an welcome tether to the original publication.

Gardner does a wonderful job of bringing all the various aspects of these two stories together as he illuminates layer upon layer of meaning that might not be evident to an American audience or, for that matter, a 21st century one. My favorite gems are the French and German translations of The Jabberwocky.

This book ranks in my top five favorite books of all time.

I always enjoyed the twisted logic and unique sence of humor that I found in Lewis Carroll's Alice tales, the only problem I encountered was that some of the jokes required information that was no longer common knoledge. For example: when Alice continually misquoted the old English nursery rhymes I found myself wondering what the actual versions were, information that every child in Victorian England could have easily told me but that has since been lost to obscurity. After reading through this book I found the answers to all my original questions as well as many that I never considered asking. At first I thought that the commentary would strip the original work of its character and reduce it to a lifeless shadow. I found that the commentary did exactly the opposite, in a surreal way it made the book even more entertaining to read. The incredible detail of the commentary and the wide range of topics covered made the comments themselves seem part of the insane illogic that pervades the realms of wonderland and looking glass house. This does not mean that the coments themselves are insane or illogical, on the contrary they are all intresting and many offer new insights into the books, what makes the commentary so entertaining is how the story of "exactly 7 and one half" Alice is juxtaposed with comments on how the structure of the plot relates to physic and Robert Oppenheimer. Altogether I found the Annotated Alice to be a wonderful read and a gorgeous book which I recomend to anyone who enjoyed the original tales.

I very much enjoyed this book because it was full of pure fun reading. Some books drag from the very beginning, but this children's story didn't. There were surprises from the start. This book is an all original example of using your imagination. Lewis Carrol was gifted enough to let his imagination go wild, and to write it down on paper. This book inspires me to write any sort of crazy thing that is worth writing. This book is about Alices adventures from the time she saw the peculiar White Rabbit with a waistcoat and watch. She meets thrilling but very arguementive creatures and charectors such as the caterpiller who smokes, the Duchess and her baby which turns into a pig, a Mock Turtle, a gryphon, and the most famous the Chesire cat and the Queen of Hearts. This book is a bit different than the Disney movie. There are other charecters in the book that are not mentioned in the animated movie. and I think the book is more bizarre.

I first read this book when I was eleven because I thought that I might be missing out on something if I didn't. I found Alice's Adventures in Wonderland kind of boring but still good. Then I read Through the Looking Glass, and I loved it! I memorized all of the poems (jabberwocky being my favorite poem in the world), read it about a million times, and recomended it to people. Between Tweedledum and Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty and all the reat of them, I had a lot of pleasant laughs and thoughts and dreams. Unfortunately, I read that Alice is losing popularity because people aren't at the reading level to read it before they outgrow fairy tales. This is a shame. people should preserve their imaginations just to read an excellent book like this and dream about it for a while. Now I am 13, and I stll treaasure this book. The poem at the very end of the book was so sad in way. it really summed up about how I feel about the magic of childhood.

Let me put it this way: I have yet to meet someone who does NOT like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Some people have less affection for it than others, but it engages everyone, kids and adults alike.

While Carroll's work appears at first to be an eccentric and unfocused work of children's literature, closer study reveals a much more elaborate text, which is variously a satire on language, a political allegory, an attack on the flawed English educational standards of the time, a parody of children's literature, and much, much more. As Alice ventures into the world behind her mirror -- Wonderland -- she encounters some of the most remarkable figures in literary history: the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and the Queen of Hearts, to name a few. (I have no proof of this, but I would bet that these characters continue to rank among the most popular and memorable of all time.)

But while the story is thoroughly enjoyable, I find the writing style even more significant. Alice is delivered in such a simple, honest, stream-of-consciousness manner that it does indeed work as children's literature. The absolute freedom with which Carroll lets his events twist and turn has been beneficial to me, particularly in my creative and personal writing, teaching me how to loosen up when attempting stream-of-consciousness, and how to let my writing go where it will. In terms of pure writing style, I think Carroll ranks among the most influential and invigorating of the authors I've read.

And, as a postscript, the original illustrations by John Tenniell are fantastic, and rank among my favorite illustrations ever. I cannot recommend this one too highly.

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking glass are two interesting stories. When I was a child, I watched the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland and enjoyed it. I've watched it again recently and find it very strange. I came across the book, "Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass" in an old library at my Grandparent's house. This was an old English version, which may have made it more difficult to read and comprehend then if it was in common dialect. The first story, Alice in Wonderland, is the better of the two. It tells of a dreamland that a seven-year old Alice is visiting. This book jumps around a lot, and it is difficult to keep track of who's who by the end. The second story, "Through the Looking Glass", was worse then the first one. It is once again in a dreamland of a world seen backwards from Alice's own world in the reflection of a mirror. When Alice enters this world, there are about two chapters before they enter the difficult analagy of telling the story through a game of chess. This is extremely hard to follow, seeing as you have to visualize the chessboard in your mind. Each seperate story takes place on a different tile while Alice is a pawn waiting to be Queened. In the end of the story, she is Queened and has tea with the other two queens, that is, the white and red queens. The dissapointing conclusion was that Alice was really in her world the whole time and her kittens were the queens in the story. I found both stories a challenging read, and was relieved when the book was finally over!

My mom first read this book to me when I was seven years old. Because I was only in first or second grade, Alice in Wonderland scared the heck out of me. I remember parts were pretty horrific and confusing. I kind of hated it. It was like Stephen King for a first grader- which, if you ever go to a website on Lewis Carroll, shouldn't surprise anyone because Carroll had loads of problems and was pretty much tripped out while writing this (I think).
Now that I'm older, I decided to re-read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. While reading it, it's hard to decide whether this is just a load of imaginative creativity, or a metaphor of something deeper that is true in society today, or true in the 1800's. Well, I guess you can read it either way- but there is definitely some deep stuff in here. Many poems will stop and make you think, and as the story progresses you can't help but feel like you are Alice (which is pretty amazing, because this isn't like Lord of the Rings or anything, it's basically a fairy tale on drugs).
Definitely, definitely, definitely do not hesitate to pick this book up and read. Another review said it was disturbing- well, in some ways it really is. But the characters and the plot line (or lack of!) keep you interested and keeps you reading. AIW and TTLG are must-haves in anyone interested in fantasy/sci-fi, along with Chronicles of Narnia and other great classics.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an imaginative masterpiece. It has meaning beyond telling you about wonderland, because it gives you riddles and poems that make you think. This book also contains through the looking glass,the second and last Alice book. This is one of the best and imaginative books in my opinion ever wrote. Bravo!

It would not have been so difficult had it been in an old English typeface. Unfortunately, it was in an old German typeface: something similar to Schwaben Alt perhaps. If you can find a sample typeface on the www, good, otherwise you will have to reverse-engineer it from familiar words and pencil in your notes. It was an unexpected additional challenge, but a welcome one.

I purchased this book for a friend who reads German. It looks great with nice illustrations. I was a little worried about the Dover edition since they are normally thin floppy paperbacks, but this book exceeded my expectations. The font is not bad like someone else mentioned. It looks like old English, but I don't find it hard to distinguish the letters.
I just wish there were more classics in German on Amazon.

Personally I think the typeface, like the illustrations add ambiance to the book.

A paragraph from the back cover:

The Translation of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has always presented a special problem. The humor, popular children's verses, songs and especially the puns were thought at first to make it untranslatable. The problem was solved by Antonie Zimmermann with the-hearty approval of Carroll-by substituting popular German children's verses and puns for the English originals. "How Doth the Little Crocodile?" for instance, is turned into a parody of a German Romantic ballad. All in all, this is still the best of the 15 or more German Translations.

The Dover edition has held up well. Mine was printed in 1974 and has not started to yellow.

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.