Songs From Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9
Word count
21K words
Chapters
3

Tags

English Originals Modern PoetryChildren's Literature ImaginationHumor ReliefFairy PoemsWonderlandMusical RhythmParent-Child Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Songs From Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis CarrollAuthor: Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898,Language: English, Class: ML: Music: Literature of music, Release Date: Jun 2, 2011

Editor's review

Songs From Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass is a selection of the poems and songs from Lewis Carroll's two Alice books, released as an ebook by Project Gutenberg in 2019 and classified as music literature. Its value lies not in retelling the fairy-tale plot but in presenting separately the verse that readers of the originals often skim past, allowing concentrated appreciation of Carroll's verbal play, rhythm, and absurd humor. For readers who love the Alice stories, it is like a bonus lyric booklet that lets them rediscover the sonic pleasures easily overlooked in the originals; for scholars of English poetry or children's literature, it offers a convenient text for examining the function of verse in Victorian children's literature. It need not be read for narrative continuity; it suits casual dipping and reading aloud, and also reading alongside the originals to see how these songs work within the story.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First recall or skim the corresponding passages in the original Alice books, then read these songs alongside them.
  2. Read aloud to feel the sound effects of Carroll's rhythm, rhyme, and nonsense words.
  3. No need to read in order; pick pieces by interest and read a few at a time.
  4. Take notes on difficult invented words and allusions, then consult annotations or research materials for help.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3

FAQ

Is this a complete storybook? No. According to the information, this book is a selection of songs and verse from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, not a complete fairy-tale narrative. It is better suited as a companion to the originals for concentrated appreciation of Carroll's verse writing, rather than as a substitute for reading the originals.
Can I read this book without having read the original Alice books? You can, but the experience will be diminished. These songs were originally embedded in the story, and some content may seem disjointed out of context. It is advisable to first learn the basic characters and scenes of the originals, then read the verse, which makes it easier to understand the parody and humor.
Does the book include musical scores? According to the information, the book is classified as music literature, but the information does not state whether it includes musical scores. It mainly presents the text of the songs from Carroll's originals. If you need settings or scores, it is advisable to look for relevant musical editions separately and not assume this book contains complete scores.
Is this book suitable for teaching English? It can be used as supplementary material, but not as a main textbook. These verses are strongly rhythmic and imaginatively strange, suitable for reading aloud and language-sense practice, but they contain invented words and Victorian allusions, requiring teachers to select pieces and provide explanations to prevent students from losing interest due to difficulty.

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About the author

Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898 Author

Lewis Carroll (Carroll, Lewis, 1832–1898) is an English writer known for children's literature and nonsense narrative. The collection holds 26 of his works, with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as representative titles, alongside derived texts such as The Nursery Alice and translations into Finnish, French, Esperanto, and other languages, showing their wide circulation. His writing is distinguished by logical games, verbal puns, and bizarre imagination; through dreams and transformations it disrupts everyday order, and beneath the seemingly light fairy tale lie reflections on rules, growing up, and identity. These works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age literature, yet are better regarded as classic fantasy that transcends age. Public information on the details of his life is limited, so this note focuses on the themes, style, and lasting influence of his works.