Through the Looking Glass

Story

Alice climbs through a mirror into a fantastical world where flowers talk, everything is back-to-front and you have to run fast to stand still. She discovers that she is part of a giant Royal game of chess.

Why we chose it

Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, to give it its full title, is Lewis Carroll’s sequel to the much loved Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Although slightly darker than its predecessor it has the same dreamlike quality and zany characters, such as the White Knight, Red Queen, Humpty Dumpty, and identical twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Packed with riddles, puzzles, jokes and inventive language – ‘frabjous’, ‘unbirthday’, ‘jam tomorrow’ – it also contains Jabberwocky, described as possibly the finest nonsense poem ever written.

Where it came from

Charles Dodgson was a mathematician, inventor, photographer and Anglican deacon, who spent most of his life studying and teaching at Christ Church, Oxford. There he met Alice Liddell, daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, for whom he created the first Alice story, writing under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

Carroll’s children’s stories were enjoyed and admired for their word play, logic, and fantasy, and have influenced writers ever since. Through the Looking Glass was an instant success, and helped to make the first Alice story better known, and attract such famous fans as Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde.

Where it went next

Through the Looking Glass has been adapted many times for stage and screen alone separately and with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Since 2007 Oxford has celebrated the Alice stories each July with a city-wide programme of events called Alice’s Day, co-ordinated by The Story Museum.

Associated stories

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

In the museum

Find many different editions of the Alice stories next to the Alice room in our Enchanted Library and various Alice resources on our website.