The Complete Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Leah Moore, John Reppion

Rating: WORTHY!

Originally published in 2005, this was adapted by Leah Moore and John Reppion, a writing team which has also adapted Dracula and at least one Sherlock Holmes story. I wondered what it means to title it "complete" if it's adapted in some way, but I don't know what adaptations were made. An interview in the back of the graphic novel suggests that there was some excision going on, but short of comparing this with the original novel, I can't say what or how much. The novel is complete in the sense that it incorporates Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (including the "lost" - at least until 1974 - chapter: "The Wasp in the Wig".

The original title for the first novel was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The novel is illustrated by Érica Awano, with colors by PC Siqueira, Ale Starling, and Jezreel Rojales. What a collection of fascinating names! The artwork here is very traditional, reminiscent of some of the original work, apart from a brief caesura between the two stories, which is illustrated in relatively drab colors and a different style. The colors are also appropriately muted in the main body of each story, each frame in a rigid box, old-style, and Alice is depicted in the now traditional blue frock with a white pinafore and Mary Janes on her feet. The dress seems to have originated in 1903 in Macmillan's "Little Folks" edition of the story.

The story follows the original faithfully, and appears to keep the important bits while dispensing with the chaff, but its been a while since I read the original (or rather, listened to). This compared favorably to Lewis Helfland's version, which I also read and liked back in September 2014. This version, however is much more traditional in style, so I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to read a graphic novel version, but also wants to feel like they're returning to the roots of the original.

Alice in Wonderland (Graphic Novel) by Lewis Helfland

Title: Alice in Wonderland
Author: Lewis Carroll, adapted by Lewis Helfland.
Publisher: Morphus VC
Rating: WORTHY!

Illustrated by Rajesh Nagulakonda.

I've posted a review of the audio book the same day I posted this review, so I'm not going to get into reviewing it again in detail here, except to talk about the graphic aspects of this version of the celebrated novel.

It's exactly the same as the audio book, but graphic! It was really fun to do this double-take because one version was purely auditory and the other was largely visual, so it was a charming and enjoyable way to experience a story as bizarre and oddball as this one.

Rajesh Nagulakonda's artwork is simplistic, really appealing and evocative, even as he has chosen to portray Alice traditionally, in her blue dress with white bib apron.

I have to say a few words about the caterpillar. I have no idea upon whom he was modeled, but he looks disturbingly familiar. Then there's the pig on page 32, although it is rather a handsome pig. And about that sheep on page 67? What the heck kind of an expression is that for a sheep to have on its face?!

So needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I recommend this graphic novel.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Title: Murderess
Author: Lewis Carroll
Publisher: Macmillan
Rating: WORTHY!

Read Perfectly by Jim Dale.

According to wikipedia. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a writer, a mathematician, an Anglican deacon and photographer. He married Frances Jane Lutwidge, who was his first cousin, and he became a parson. He learned math from his father and after completing his schooling, he taught at Christ Church College. He was talked into writing Alice's adventures by Alice Liddell, one of three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church. He had told the girls, Alice, Edith, and Lorina, a story which at Alice's bidding he wrote down by hand, illustrated, and gave it to her in 1864. Its title then was Alice's Adventures Under Ground.

The story became his most popular work and lent fame to his pseudonym around the world. It begins with Alice sitting with her sister, slightly bored, when she espies a white rabbit running by, talking to itself and carrying a fob watch. She follows it down the infamous rabbit hole and falls almost endlessly until she lands in a room.

From this point onwards, the bizarre fantasy unfolds, with Alice almost constantly changing size by various means. Usually this is achieved by drinking a potion or eating cake or a bit of a giant (to her) mushroom, but at the end of the story she begins to grow again without intake of any food or drink.

The story is fantastical and oddball, with curious and amusing talking creatures, and weird events,but I have to say that the lengths to which some so-called scholars people have gone to try to "analyze" his nonsense is as laughable as it is pathetic.

It's just a nonsensical children's story written for the sake of it. Dodgson wasn't sitting in a boat telling this tale to the three Liddell sisters as social commentary, or a mathematical treatise. He was just telling a story for goodness sakes! It has no deeper meaning.

Yes, Dodgson was a mathematician and a product of his era, but that doesn't mean he consciously sought to imbue a whimsical children's story with profound concepts or societal commentary - it merely means that he is like all writers: they write what they know and they invent concepts out of this knowledge, more than likely unconsciously. It's more absurd than what Dodgson wrote to philosophize about something which had no deeper meaning than Dodgson's desire to amuse and entertain the children.

That said, I recommend this book for a bit of fun and nonsense. It's inventive and entertaining and worth reading at least once. The audio book was only three CDs which went by effortlessly. Jim Dale, who I praised for his inventive reading of Around the World in Eighty Days does a masterful job here, too.