Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Legend has it that the author first conceived the story while rowing on the River Thames. How a session at the oars could inspire such characters as the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat I have no idea.

Nevertheless, I have read this book aloud more times than I can count—from beginning to end, and also in odd increments, skipping about from chapter to chapter. And yet, the sentences always surprise me with their musicality and sense of fun.

Chapter 3, for example, contains this exchange: “Mine is a long and a sad tale!” said the Mouse, turning to Alice,… show more.

Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece is probably my favorite book in the whole world, and served as the model for my novel. The story takes you on an absurdist roller-coaster ride that is utterly unpredictable, a series of preposterous vignettes that are both silly and profound, meandering in a seemingly random fashion, yet managing to form a complete and satisfying whole. Alice forever changed the course of children’s literature. But the book is not just for kids. As The Annotated Alice makes clear, beneath all the nonsense and whimsy, we find mathematical concepts, clever wordplay, political satire, and a lesson on… show more.