Alice Through the Looking-Glass

About the Author Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is best known for the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the nonsense poem Jabberwocky. Product Description Ken Campbell, Windsor Davies, John Bird, and John Fortune star in this BBC Radio full-cast dramatization. When Alice's wish to visit the Looking Glass world comes true, she can't resist delving deeper and deeper into a land of caustic characters and twisted logic. So begins a game of chess on a grand scale, where the inhabitants of each square have their own set of rules. In her bid to become Queen of the Chess Board, Alice takes advice from such peculiar folk as Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Lion and the Unicorn, and a very helpful gnat. From AudioFile Excellent engineering and uneven writing make this full-cast production a mixed adventure. Lewis Carroll's second "Alice" novel is adapted without the advantage of narration, which gives the story immediacy and provides an excellent showcase for the performers but not without compromising Carroll's original story. There are some long stretches of story where there is no dialogue, and in order to describe Alice's experiences, the listener is forced to listen to long and awkward soliloquies by the main character. The scriptwriter made other choices that sometimes miss Carroll's whimsy while at other times taking the characters too far to the point of silliness. Children are likely to be entranced by ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, but adults will likely prefer literal readings of the book. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine