Rating: 
Summary: Whilms the Gullibrin
Review: Alice in WonderlandThis birket whilms the gullibrin with frumiousness and bloy. Martin Gardner never ceases to astound me, even when he takes the passenger seat next to that speed demon of literature, Lewis Carroll. Gardner's notes are perfect. They cause wonder, joy, satisfaction, curiousity. They cause all the things that Gardner always causes, and he never overtakes Carroll. He lets Carroll be Carroll. (This edition is also beautifully bound.) curiouser and curiouser...
Rating: 
Summary: ...Helpful or Harmful?
Review: annotated alice was a very informative version of Alice in Wonderland, it had so many interesting inserts throughout the story. it gave many explinations and idea concepts on why the original author wrote what he did(not to mention his chemical influences). some of the things and characters used in the original story are very unlike the more well known disney version which i find much more boring than the book, this guy was really out there with his ideas, and some of the explinations for why he wrote what he did were as intereting or maybe more than just reading the story for what it is.
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Summary: Everything You Wanted To Know About Alice...
Review: Anyone who enjoys Alice's adventures will appreciate the care and detail that was taken in preparing this version of Carroll's tales. Gardner's annotations are superb and you realize they are just the tip of the iceberg when delving into the complexities of Carroll's Alice stories. Easy to follow annotations accompany excellent Tenniel reproductions. With the addition of the excised "Wasp in the Wig" episode this is a must for anyone who enjoyed these tales and would like to get more information about their creation.
Rating:
Summary: A Mastermind and a Masterpiece
Review: As a fan of Martin Gardner's 'Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions', etc., and Carroll's classic 'Alice in Wonderland', I was excited to find them combined in this excellent book. The large text makes it easy to read the book without even delving into the notes. All of us know what a wonderful story 'Alice' is. But if you want to get insight into an author's mind, there is a lot Gardner has done to raise our awareness of the meaning of this "children's" classic. Add to this the illustrations and sketches and you have a book worth reading and re-reading.
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Summary: The Looking Glass Shows Hidden Humor
Review: I always enjoyed the twisted logic and unique sence of humor that I found in Lewis Carroll's Alice tales, the only problem I encountered was that some of the jokes required information that was no longer common knoledge. For example: when Alice continually misquoted the old English nursery rhymes I found myself wondering what the actual versions were, information that every child in Victorian England could have easily told me but that has since been lost to obscurity. After reading through this book I found the answers to all my original questions as well as many that I never considered asking. At first I thought that the commentary would strip the original work of its character and reduce it to a lifeless shadow. I found that the commentary did exactly the opposite, in a surreal way it made the book even more entertaining to read. The incredible detail of the commentary and the wide range of topics covered made the comments themselves seem part of the insane illogic that pervades the realms of wonderland and looking glass house. This does not mean that the coments themselves are insane or illogical, on the contrary they are all intresting and many offer new insights into the books, what makes the commentary so entertaining is how the story of "exactly 7 and one half" Alice is juxtaposed with comments on how the structure of the plot relates to physic and Robert Oppenheimer. Altogether I found the Annotated Alice to be a wonderful read and a gorgeous book which I recomend to anyone who enjoyed the original tales.
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Summary: The name of this review is called "Haddocks' Eyes"
Review: I finally, and seemingly permanently, misplaced the 40 year old copy of 'The Annotated Alice' (which I had pilfered from my mother's bookshelf) for the last time. I can't go more than a month or two without it so I rushed to buy a new copy...just weeks before the more beautifully bound 'Definitive Edition' was published. No matter, now I have two (perhaps even three if the original turns up). My point is that this book contributed more to my understanding of logic and wordplay than several semesters of college philosophy classes. If you've read this far then I am probably preaching to the choir but 'Alice in Wonderland' can hardly be classified as a childrens' book, dispite Disney's attempts to do so. The concepts Lewis Carroll and Martin Gardner bring to this tale cover such areas as set theory, meta-language, Aristotelian logic, topography, game theory, several pre-Socratic logic paradoxes, and even quantum physics. Yet John Tenniel's original illustrations remain as an welcome tether to the original publication. Gardner does a wonderful job of bringing all the various aspects of these two stories together as he illuminates layer upon layer of meaning that might not be evident to an American audience or, for that matter, a 21st century one. My favorite gems are the French and German translations of The Jabberwocky. This book ranks in my top five favorite books of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a "translation" of Alice for the masses
Review: I remember my frustrations with reading "Alice" when I was young. Apparently it was an interesting story about animals and weird things and so on, but very quickly my reading stumbled onto nonsense verses and things so strange I don't know what to make of them. As a child I quickly lost interest and put down my book, that is until I encountered this wonderful annotated version by Martin Gardiner. Having enjoyed Gardiner's countless mathematical books and Scientific American columns, I was intrigued by this book. This is a book that actually delivers what it promises. The large format of the book makes it easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The original drawings for the book by Tenniel are included, making it quite interesting. In the wide margins, Gardiner makes clear the countless curiosities, verses, puns, and mathematical oddities. Some of those things were meant to be understood only by a select group of people living in Oxford at the time Lewis Carroll wrote his work. Gardiner therefore draws upon a wealth of research by Alice fans all over the world to come to an understanding of all these oddities. The result is a much more enriching experience and much more pleasurable reading of the story. At any rate, I don't take the Alice story as seriously as some of the fans do, but I was pleased I read this annotated edition once. I plan to find again my old childhood copy and re-read the story without annotation for enjoyment. Note that the annotated Alice went through various editions, this ("Definitive annotated Alice" being the third, most up-to-date and most complete, including the original illustrations by Tenniel and both sets of annotations in the original "Annotated Alice" and in the "More Annotated Alice". This is the edition to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a "translation" of Alice for the masses
Review: I remember my frustrations with reading "Alice" when I was young. Apparently it was an interesting story about animals and weird things and so on, but very quickly my reading stumbled onto nonsense verses and things so strange I don't know what to make of them. As a child I quickly lost interest and put down my book, that is until I encountered this wonderful annotated version by Martin Gardiner. Having enjoyed Gardiner's countless mathematical books and Scientific American columns, I was intrigued by this book. This is a book that actually delivers what it promises. The large format of the book makes it easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The original drawings for the book by Tenniel are included, making it quite interesting. In the wide margins, Gardiner makes clear the countless curiosities, verses, puns, and mathematical oddities. Some of those things were meant to be understood only by a select group of people living in Oxford at the time Lewis Carroll wrote his work. Gardiner therefore draws upon a wealth of research by Alice fans all over the world to come to an understanding of all these oddities. The result is a much more enriching experience and much more pleasurable reading of the story. At any rate, I don't take the Alice story as seriously as some of the fans do, but I was pleased I read this annotated edition once. I plan to find again my old childhood copy and re-read the story without annotation for enjoyment. Note that the annotated Alice went through various editions, this ("Definitive annotated Alice" being the third, most up-to-date and most complete, including the original illustrations by Tenniel and both sets of annotations in the original "Annotated Alice" and in the "More Annotated Alice". This is the edition to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a "translation" of Alice for the masses
Review: I remember my frustrations with reading "Alice" when I was young. Apparently it was an interesting story about animals and weird things and so on, but very quickly my reading stumbled onto nonsense verses and things so strange I don't know what to make of them. As a child I quickly lost interest and put down my book, that is until I encountered this wonderful annotated version by Martin Gardiner. Having enjoyed Gardiner's countless mathematical books and Scientific American columns, I was intrigued by this book. This is a book that actually delivers what it promises. The large format of the book makes it easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The original drawings for the book by Tenniel are included, making it quite interesting. In the wide margins, Gardiner makes clear the countless curiosities, verses, puns, and mathematical oddities. Some of those things were meant to be understood only by a select group of people living in Oxford at the time Lewis Carroll wrote his work. Gardiner therefore draws upon a wealth of research by Alice fans all over the world to come to an understanding of all these oddities. The result is a much more enriching experience and much more pleasurable reading of the story. At any rate, I don't take the Alice story as seriously as some of the fans do, but I was pleased I read this annotated edition once. I plan to find again my old childhood copy and re-read the story without annotation for enjoyment. Note that the annotated Alice went through various editions, this ("Definitive annotated Alice" being the third, most up-to-date and most complete, including the original illustrations by Tenniel and both sets of annotations in the original "Annotated Alice" and in the "More Annotated Alice". This is the edition to buy.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not getting stuck on a desert island without it!
Review: I was one of the fortunate ones, growing up with The AnnotatedAlice as my introduction to Lewis Carroll, and therefore privy fromthe start to the genius nonsense as revealed by Martin Gardiner. Any Alice fan, or literature fan, for that matter, will treasure this offering of subtle wit, intellectual insight, and historical perspective that is essential to a thorough enjoyment of Alice. John Tenniel's original artwork is faithfully included to provide the ultimate definitive look at Alice as she was presented by Carroll himself, and Gardiner's study of Carroll and his most popular work is both deep and entertaining.
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