Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

For my next foray into the fantasy genre, I decided to add in a classic. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel that has had a tremendous impact on our culture. This book, and it's companion, Through the Looking Glass, are still referenced constantly in movies, books, and television shows (the most recent that I came across being HBO's new show, Westworld). With Gregory Maguire's After Alice coming up next on my reading list, I decided to pick up the original first, so that I could better catch the references in Maguire's re-imagining later.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland follows the titular Alice as she tumbles down a rabbit hole into a curious world of fantasy. Nothing makes sense in Wonderland - the absurd becomes the standard as Alice wanders from one place to another, changing sizes, attending a mad tea party, talking to a disappearing cat and playing croquet with the Queen of Hearts. There isn't really a plot to speak of throughout the text, rather, this is an observation of a crazy adventure that all turns out to be a very elaborate dream in the end.

On the surface, a novel without a plot where nothing makes sense sounds like it would be a disaster. On the contrary, however, Alice is a masterpiece. The humor and imagination are outstanding, and the illustrations accompanying the text are delightful. You honestly feel like you are somewhere else when you are reading about Wonderland. I found myself laughing out loud in several sections, which isn't something I normally do while reading.

The amount of characters that have stuck around in our culture from this novel is nuts. Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Queen of Hearts were all created here. Just saying these names conjures up images and personalities in everyone's minds, whether they have actually read the novel or not. That's quite an impressive feat for a children's book written in 1866.

This is a short little novel, and it can be read straight through in about an hour and a half. The language is simple and sweet. Children today could read this one with no problem, which is not something I can say of all young adult classics. Adults will find subtle humor throughout that younger readers won't catch. There's really something for everyone here. If you've never gone down the rabbit hole yourself, I highly recommend the trip.