Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a children's novel by Lewis Carroll. John Tenniel drew the pictures. The book was published by Macmillan in 1871. It is a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The book is a series of dream-like fantasy episodes. The theme which ties them together is Alice's journey as a pawn from the start of a fantasy game of chess until she reaches the eighth rank and becomes a queen.

The story is about the strange world Alice discovers when she passes through a looking-glass (mirror) above a fireplace at home. The setting is a game of chess. Well known characters from the book include Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the White Knight, and the Garden of Live Flowers.

Alice meets the White Queen, who is very absent-minded but boasts of her ability to remember future events. Alice and the White Queen advance into the chessboard's fifth rank by crossing over a stream together. At the moment of the crossing, the Queen transforms into a talking Sheep in a small shop. Alice soon finds herself struggling to handle the oars of a small rowboat, where the Sheep annoys her with (seemingly) nonsensical shouting about "crabs" and "feathers". Unknown to Alice, these are standard terms in the jargon of rowing. Thus (for a change) the Queen/Sheep was speaking in a perfectly logical and meaningful way.

The book has several famous nonsense poems, such as Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter. and many examples of word play such as puns and made-up words, in addition to portmanteau words.

Category:Books by Lewis Carroll
Category:English children's books
Category:1871 books