Audiobook · read by volunteers
Through the Looking-Glass (version 2)
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Read by Adrian Praetzellis · 10 chapters · 3 h 24
About the book
Alice has stepped through the mirror above her drawing-room fireplace, and the world on the other side runs backwards. Flowers talk, a queen runs faster and faster just to stay in place, and the whole countryside turns out to be a gigantic chess board on which a little girl is a pawn with a dream of becoming a queen. Along the way she meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, a sorrowful Walrus and a cunning Carpenter, a knight who is always falling off his horse, and Humpty Dumpty, who is very particular about the meaning of words. This sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland keeps all the nonsense, the wordplay and the strange logic, and adds poems that have become part of the English language. Adrian Praetzellis reads the ten chapters, verses and oddities included. A wonderful book to share with children, or to enjoy at any age.
Introduction
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was born in 1832 and died in 1898. He taught mathematics at Oxford, wrote on logic, and enjoyed puzzles and word games, all of which flow into his fantasy writing. He told stories to the daughters of a college colleague, and his tales of Alice grew from those afternoons.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There was published in 1871, as the follow-up to the immensely successful Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland of 1865. The second book is built around a game of chess, and its characters often behave like pieces on a board. It contains some of the best-known nonsense verse in English, including Jabberwocky, and the conversations with Humpty Dumpty and the White Queen have become part of popular culture. The original editions carried illustrations by John Tenniel, which are among the most famous in children’s literature.
Though written for children, the book rewards adult readers, who may notice the playfulness of its language and the logic of its absurdities. Its verses are also a delight to hear, since they depend on sound and rhythm as much as on sense.
This is the second LibriVox version of the book. It has ten chapters, which cover the story from the looking-glass house to the final moments, and it runs for roughly three and a half hours. It is read by Adrian Praetzellis. A fine choice for bedtime, a long journey or a quiet hour.
Public domain
Lewis Carroll died in 1898: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text