The score(s) next to each publication’s review and the average rating is an interpretation of the reviews by Literature’s Pretty Long History.
Critics:
“Mr. Carroll, in whom there is so much to praise, is unequal, whereas his illustrator is uniformly excellent.”
“Was there ever such a charming bit of nonsense as this!…It rejoices our heart, therefore, to meet such a charmingly absurd little book as this, adorned with such admirably drawn and delightfully funny pictures.”
“It is one of the holiday extravaganzas which will delight the little folks, and fill their young minds with wonderment. It will make a merry, happy household where it goes. The illustrations are capital, and the volume full of diverting matter.”
“This is a story of fairy land, very beautifully printed, bound and illustrated, and the tale a very charming one.”
“An enchanting little story, full of laughable and wonderful adventures which little Alice met with in the strange land of dreams. It is a story meant for children, and it made a child of us again, and beguiled us into an uncanonical hour of the night reading it…Tenniel’s illustrations are exquisite, and enrich every other page. Altogether, the book is nicely fitted for a New York gift to the young.”
“If any of my readers want a Christmas book for small children let them buy one by a Cambridge Don, about which all Cambridge is mad…The book is beautifully illustrated by Terriel, and published by Macmillan for five or six shillings…Some of the parodies in it are very good, I cannot refrain from a verse or two.”
“Very handsomely gotten up.”
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, with illustrations by Tenniel, also published by the Appletons, is a child’s book which perhaps could hardly take its place among “illustrated books,” were it not for the charming humor of Tenniel’s drawings, which are admirably comic. This book will be a favorite with the younger fry, if not in the regions of high art.”
“The issue of a fifth thousand bears the best testimony to the welcome with which this pretty story has been received by Young England.”
“If little tongues do not wag, and little eyes grow larger and rounder, as they read of the funny doings and see the wonderful objects in this book, child nature has altered since we were a child. If there be such a thing as perfection in children’s tales, we should be tempted to say that Mr. Carroll had reached it.”
“Nor is the story unreadable, but it is dull. There is no flow of animal spirits in its fur, which is forced and over-ingenious…But Mr. Tenniel’s admirably clever and grotesque illustrations carry us well through “Wonderland.””
“Tales are, of course, in abundance; among them we find a new edition of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” a charming tale, by Mr. Lewis Carroll, with equally charming illustrations by Mr. Tenniel, overflowing with grace, fancy, and humour (Macmillan and Co.)…”
“ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, by Lewis Carroll, will be found very interesting by the little ones, while their mothers and older brothers and sisters will unite with them in enjoying the forty or more truly comical illustrations by John Tennfer.”
“An admirable book for children.”
“It is a child’s dream of wonders, and drifts like a dream through nearly two hundred pages of some of the best nonsense ever written or children by an Englishman. Mr Tenniel has furnished three or four dozen picture that are quite as clever and amusing as the text…The want of construction is a little felt towards the end, if one reads the book, as we could not help doing, straight through at a sitting.”
“The narrative is lively, and the illustrations remarkably clever.”
Supplemental Notice(s)
“As a fairy tale, this is one of the most cleverly got up that we have seen for many a day. While it is simple and childlike, a vein of humor runs through it from cover to cover.” — American And Commercial Advertiser (December 22, 1866)
“They also publish Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Cassall, with forty-two illustrations by John ; Tennell a story of the improbable and absurd, or harum-scarum adventures in the land of fable. It is beautifully printed, and put up in various fancy bindings.”
“This, also, is very neatly and well printed and bound. The story is exactly such an one as a smart story-teller reels off to children, their questions suggesting new adventures, and the tale running on with no reason for stopping in one place rather than in another, except weariness or “other engagements.” But, off-hand as it is, it is wonderfully clever, and quite bristles with points and runs over with fun.”
“It may please the fancy though it may not instruct in matters of fact.”
“A most amusing child’s book, charmingly illustrated, and sure to be in the hands of unnumerable happy little girls before Christmas.”
Average Rating
Latest
