Audiobook1 hour
Through the Looking-Glass
Written by Lewis Carroll and Jennifer Bassett
Narrated by Multiple Narrators
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
'I wish I could get through into looking-glass house,' Alice said. 'Let's pretend that the glass has gone soft and ...Why, I do believe it has! It's turning into a kind of cloud!' A moment later Alice is inside the looking-glass world. There she finds herself part of a great game of chess, travelling through forests and jumping across brooks. The chess pieces talk and argue with her, give orders and repeat poems ...It is the strangest dream that anyone ever had ...
Author
Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has delighted and entranced children for over a hundred years. Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Born in 1832, he studied at Christ Church College, Oxford where he became a mathematics lecturer. The Alice stories were originally written for Alice Liddell, the daughter of the dean of his college
More audiobooks from Lewis Carroll
The Enchanted Collection: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, The Wind in the Willows, Little Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wonderland Collection (Seasons Edition -- Summer) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Through the Looking-Glass
Titles in the series (58)
Pocahontas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Card Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death in the Freezer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tess of the d'Urbervilles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kiss: Love Stories from North America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBronte Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skyjack! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5William Shakespeare Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Goodbye, Mr. Hollywood Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coldest Place on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chemical Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dinosaurs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChocolate Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Far from the Madding Crowd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Man's Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gandhi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales from Longpuddle Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Elephant Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5World Wonders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl with Green Eyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Formula One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Henry VIII and His Six Wives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/547 Ronin A Samurai Story from Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Withered Arm Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Three Strangers and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhite Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
Lewis Carroll Collection: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and Sylvie and Bruno Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stories from the Five Towns Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Silas Marner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the World in Eighty Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Christmas Carol Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bronte Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Machines Then and Now Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kidnapped Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skyjack! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Railway Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Mary Jones Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Children of the New Forest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Little Princess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dracula Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Call of the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oliver Twist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robinson Crusoe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Under the Moon Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Vanity Fair Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in White Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Helping Around the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shirley Homes and the Lithuanian Case Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5William and Kate Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Five Children and it Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Sharing Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
ESL For You
Henry VIII and His Six Wives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sherlock Holmes Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: Level 5, B2+ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journey to the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fifty Daily English and Spanish Conversations: 50 Real conversations that will save your day! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Travels of Ibn Battuta Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sherlock Holmes: The Blue Diamond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memory Techniques for Language Learning: Accelerate the Language Learning Process Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body in the Library: B1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5English Pronunciation Secrets: The Game-Changing Guide to Mastering the General American Accent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sherlock Holmes: The Emerald Crown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And then there were none: Level 4 – upper- intermediate (B2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man in the Brown Suit: Level 5, B2+ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sparkling Cyanide: B2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/547 Ronin A Samurai Story from Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5English Vocabulary Master for Advanced Learners - Listen & Learn (Proficiency Level B2-C1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Murder at the Vicarage: B2+ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Queen of Scots Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Learn English: 3000 essential words and phrases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath on the Nile: B1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Yorkers: Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5N or M?: Level 5, B2+ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sherlock Holmes: The Top-secret Plans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5English Vocabulary Exercises Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Speak Like An English Professor: A Foolproof Approach to Standard English Speech Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Do It With Mirrors: B2+ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hickory Dickory Dock: Level 5, B2+ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Through the Looking-Glass
Rating: 3.968004753112275 out of 5 stars
4/5
1,719 ratings57 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I first read 'Through the Looking Glass' I really didn't like it as much as I had liked 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', but I find that it has grown on me with a number of re-readings. I think 'Through the Looking Glass' is perhaps a bit more difficult, or more 'mature' than Alice. Or perhaps I'm just more familiar with Alice and therefore liked it better to begin with... Either way, I think reading it several times has opened my eyes to more of the symbolism in the novel, and has very much increased my enjoyment of it, and I think it's definitely worth the effort of getting more closely aquainted with it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I’ve heard that a lot of people liked this book more than the first, Alice in Wonderland. I found I did myself as well. Perhaps because you get use to the way Carroll writes. Or perhaps because there is more of a goal to the plot here. Alice is working her way to become a queen and the nonsense comes about as she journeys. I’m not entirely sure why this second book caught me more than the first one did, but it did. I liked most everything Alice came across, especially the knights that continued to fall over. It looks as if the Disney movie took from both books to make their classic movie. I also loved the narrator for this book. She did a fantastic job at putting just a touch of incredulity in her voice at the right moments. It was a lovely book to listen to.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To celebrate the release of Alice Through the Looking Glass, I've challenged myself by rereading Through the Looking-Glass in Finnish : Alice peilintakamaassa. ~ June 2016
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Nope, nope, nope, don't like it, can't like it, don't want to like it.Well, actually, probably if I had a really good annotated edition and an in-depth class on it, I could learn to appreciate it. But Lewis Carroll's nonsense just drives me bonkers, and how I'm going to write my essay on this, I don't know. The books are very well done, considering the idea is that they're Alice's dreams (spoiler!) and they definitely manage dream logic very well, but that's not something I'm interested in reading.I mean, my own dreams are annoying enough. I woke up from light sleep last night with these words in my head: 'Are you going to take this seriously, or are you a doughnut?' WHAT. Brain, you make no sense.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I honestly didn't care much for this book. I enjoyed the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum but the queens just annoyed me half the time and I thought that it could have been better developed overall.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not nearly as good as Alice in Wonderland, this one's rather confusing and gloomy. Maybe at least this is in part due to the marginal commentary in this particular edition. The woodcuts are wonderful, though!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Another tale of Alice, this time going through the looking glass. Did not find this interesting or entertaining just a bunch of words that meant nothing. Maybe if I was 10 and reading this it might be more interesting or funny.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So sadly i did an audio book and it was very poorly narrated by different people each chapter. Kinda bad.... Ruined it for me but i know its a good story so i leave 4 stars
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I knew the Alice books were charmingly weird and random, but I wasn't prepared for such a high level of anarchy. This time around the characters are stranger and even more chaotic than the original. But there's a certain level of fun in them, although it does get rather played out by the end of the story.
I enjoyed the story, but the original was better when it came to memorable characters. Despite being a short read, it'll leave you wondering philosophically about dreams and existence. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love all things Alice. This edition has beautiful illustrations by Bessie Pease Gutmann.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice and her cat Dinah step through the looking glass and enter a kingdom of strange creatures and have many adventures. Every once in a while you must re-read these classics.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/54.5 stars. Going into it, I expected that I was only going to enjoy select parts of this book. I'm pleased to say that I was wrong! Though the majority of this book is nonsensical, the word play throughout is so fun and endearing. I really loved the whimsy.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My favorite. I love this book. The Jaberwarky, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and every thing else. I prefer this book to Alice in Wonderland.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book is even worse than Alice in Wonderland due to the lack of sense. Although the story is supposed to be a dream, one would hope for some value from the story. There are some bright spots in that some humor can be found. I do not see the value in reading this story.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Far more intriguing than the original. I enjoyed the chessboard theme.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've been staying away from this book, I think it was because there was a made for TV movie based on this book that I saw as a kid, and it was rather scary....However, this book is not scary at all, I was expecting more Jabberwocky, and outside of a poem, there was no mention of it all. Generally, this book is nonsensical, with flashes of logic. There is no rhyme or reason to what Alice does, its just nonsensical encounter after nonsensical encounter. This book doesn't have much of relation to the Alice in Wonderland, being set in a different game entirely.I think I preffered the first book better than the second. In this book, Alice has no real reason for doing what she does, just that it happens.Overall, its a fast read and rather enjoyable.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I liked this edition so much. I enjoyed re-reading the book since my childhood. However, being able to see how Lewis Carroll's own illustrations influenced Sir John Tenniel's was inspiring! Their collaboration really worked!I've always felt this book was a second home for me. I had a chance to read about the world as its crazy self. It is a coming of age story about a girl who is curious, outspoken, and opinionated. A great fantasy novel reflects who we are-sometimes hugely important, sometimes small and inconsequential. One of my favorite poems,"Jabberwocky", is in this book.-Breton W Kaiser Taylor
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through the Looking Glass is the sequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Set about 6 months, Alice again enters a fantastical world, but this time climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. The looking-glass world she enters takes the form of a giant chessboard, the squares divided by hedges and brooks. Nothing is quite what it seems. Carroll explores concepts of mirror imagery, time running backward, and strategies of chess, through stories and characters of the Red and White Queens, the White Knight (who is my favorite character), Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty and more. The book is full of full of humor, word play, puzzles and rhymes and well as two poems that have taken on a life of their own "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter." Though I enjoyed Alice’s Adventure—this sequel was a nice treat—perfect for the whole family. 4 out of 5 stars.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through The Looking Glass’ was first published over one hundred years ago and is a classic in children’s literature. In essence, it is about the struggle of childhood.
In Alice’s dream there are symbolisms of the constraints on childhood and what one must go through in order to become an adult. Along the way there is practically nothing that she herself does in order to move the story along – everything is presented to her without much option, just like in childhood. She touches a goat’s beard and finds herself sitting under a tree. A fawn will only tell her something if she walks farther into the woods with it. Alice wonders which fingerpost to follow, yet there is only one road.
Near the beginning of the story, she is trying to leave her ‘house’ and get to the top of a ‘hill’, representing the initial struggle.
“So young a child,’ said the gentleman… (he was dressed in white paper), ‘ought to know which way she’s going…” is an example that signifies that the innocence of childhood precedes the decision of goals one must choose for their adult livelihood.
When Alice decides she wants to be Queen, the White Knight, representing purity and goodness, says “I’ll see you safe to the end of the wood…” meaning that if she is pure and good, she will make it through childhood. He also gives her the wise counsel, “The great art of riding…is to keep your balance properly,” meaning that if she continues with moderation in life she will be successful.
At the end, she stands before an arched doorway over which the words ‘Queen Alice’ are written, the arch representing the graduation from child to adult. As an adult she finds her voice and challenges the Red Queen (authority) by demanding that pudding be brought back to the table. Then she “conquered her shyness by a great effort and cut a slice…” and hands it to the Queen. By doing this, Alice is showing that she has become her own person.
This is one of the few older children's classics that I would actually read to a child because it does have good moral lessons in an entertaining environment. The original illustrations are really great. Highly recommended! - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First, I never realized that there were separate adventures for Alice and I was startled to find that one of them included Humpty Dumpty. This was a fun few hours reliving a story from childhood.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alice is (exactly) six months older then when she fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. This perhaps is the reason for what I found to be the greatest difference in Alice's adventures in Wonderland and those she had in the Looking-Glass world. Wonderland borders on the nightmarish. Alice is often quite frightened and totally flummoxed by her situations. So distraught is she at one point she ends up swimming in a pool of her own tears. Of course, those tears had been shed when she was much bigger, and, woe, she has shrunk again. In Looking Glass, Alice sometimes becomes irritated with the seeming lack of rationality possessed by the citizens of this backwards world, but rarely to the point of tears or anger. Through her greater maturity at times she is able to remember she is in a mirror land, and her knowledge of the game of chess allows some glimmer of understanding as well. Still some of the word play is a source of perplexity, especially in the case of the words "jam" (iam),the Latin word for a now meaning at that previous time, not meaning at this time, and the rowing terms "feather" and "crab." Besides in Looking-Glass world Alice as a more definite and positive goal - becoming Queen. The "adults" while sometimes vexing or demanding are never as threatening as those of Wonderland. No one is threatening "off with her head." Poor little hedgehogs are not being knocked about by poor flamingos at the Queen's Croquet game. In fact of the inhabitants such as the White Queen and White Knight are endearing in their eccentricity drawing from Alice a bemused sympathy and affection. Yes, Alice faces frustration but as a now older child she takes it in stride. Frequently she thinks about how it would be best not to get into an argument. She has become more disciplined, diplomatic and acquiescent since Wonderland.
There are the obvious differences, one story features characters which are cards, the other chess pieces which explains the oddness of their movements, or in the case of the sleeping king, non-movement. Through the Looking Glass begins the night before Guy Fawkes with Alice indoors watching snow fall on the fields of Oxford. The summer garden where Alice followed the rabbit is covered with snow. Not surprisingly in her new dream she goes into a lush, garden world.
While there are more songs and poems, though Alice rather wishes there weren't, there is less political satire. There have been attempts to interpret the Walrus and the Carpenter as combination portrayal as Buddha/Ganesha and the Carpenter as Christ, the interpretation falls apart when one finds it was John Tenniel who chose the Carpenter from three choices offered by author.
Through the Looking Glass is an amusing book though for me, it lacked Wonderland's psychological and satirical punch. I also miss the fiery, contentious Alice of Wonderland. Alice has grown up quite nicely-perhaps too nicely to be as much fun. However, it is easy to get caught up in Looking-Glass's whimsy. One can't help loving the White Knight who for all of his inventiveness never manages to stay on his horse. What's to be done; that is just the nature of a knight in chess, always confined to their hurky-gurky movement. Never a straight path for them. So it seems with most of us.
My cat, Lucia, would like to point out that Kitty is an offensive name for a cat. She says one should no more name a cat Kitty, than name a baby Baby. Though pleasant enough has a term of endearment, it is no name at all for a cat. She would happily lend her own name in any future revisions of the book. She also says the name Snowdrop is beneath comment. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5High school. There was a time when I tried to read everything I could find by Carroll
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Less of a commentary than the first book, more of a child-sized acid trip (if that's a thing). Also, Humpty Dumpty is an ass, but you knew that.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. Through the Looking Glass is Louis Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It introduces us to characters such as Tweedledum and Twedledee, Humpty Dumpty and the Red and White Queens as Alice makes her way across a virtual chess board in an effort to be crowned Queen. The story is too irredeemably silly to appeal to most adults and at the same time too witty and complex for children, raising the question of target audience. Certainly, there are several very amusing and intelligent interactions, with excellent dialogue, but these are few and far between, buried in pages of absurdity. This is a very short work, hard to recommend.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I didn't love this one as much as I loved the first one, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which immediately became one of my favourite books. The translation of the poems left a lot to be desired, though that is always a difficult thing to make sound right in a translation. On the other hand, all the word plays one could probably find in english were much harder to come across in portuguese. Also, I dare say the world on the other side of the mirror came across as perhaps a bit too scattered. I plan on giving the english version a go as soon as I get my hands into a copy though.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Much better than Alice in Wonderland.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"The shop seemed to be full of all manner of curious things-- but the oddest part of it all was, that whenever she looked hard at any shelf, to make out exactly what it had on it, that particular shelf was always quite empty: though the others round it were crowded as full as they could hold."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not nearly so good as "Wonderland." Wonderland used more of a central theme. The theme of this one, crossing a very wacky chessboard on the way to becoming a queen, is easily forgotten and the adventures seem choppier. But all in all, some wonderful writing for children. Carroll was extremely creative!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Much better than Alice in Wonderland.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Instead of a rabbit-hole, this time Alice falls through a mirror in her parlor into the fantastical realm of Wonderland. She encounters Humpty Dumpty, a variety of monarchs, and has the chance to become a queen if she can venture through a countryside arranged as a chessboard. Similar to the previous novel in its nonsensical happenings, Through the Looking-Glass nevertheless dives further into questions about life, knowledge, and perception than Alice in Wonderland.