Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #563189 in Books
• Published on: 1982-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 864 pages

Customer Reviews

Children's book - huh?
This is a superb book with all the original illustrations. It may be sold as achildren's book but only adults can appreciate all the nuances of Alice etc.

So many of the well known sayings (and misquotes) of today come from these pages, that if you haven't read it before you'll find yourself thinking - so that's where it comes from.

So many of us know the 11th verse of the Walrus and the Carpenter that there was even a programme (by the BBC I think) using the 4th line - Of Cabbages & Kings.

Who can forget Tweedledum & Tweedledee or Humpty Dumpty from 'Looking Glass'.

The intermittent verses of 'He Thought He Saw' from 'Sylvie and Bruno'are often quoted; usually just one rather than the set. I cannot understand why the latter book is less well known. It's full of fairies, mad professors and a sprinkling of animals making it just as enchanting.

The final section of the book is pure poetry - literally. It has illustrations of fairies, though the subject matter of the poems is anything but. Some are far too long to appeal to children and I feel this is a section only an adult would wish to read. It is interspersed with shorter poems which are charming but deal with such subjests as lost love and a lesson in Latin. Even 'Puck Lost and Found' is more the reflection of an adult.

That being said I feel life would be poorer if I did not own this volume and would recommend it to anyone. Pure escapism is so necessary to wind down from today's rat-race and this book certainly provides it.