Through the Looking-Glass

Lewis Carroll, 1871

Lewis Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Alice climbs through the mirror over the mantelpiece into a looking-glass world laid out like a chessboard, where she sets out to become a queen.

Start reading13 chapters, about 30,000 words

Famous quotes

“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never, never forget!”
“You will, though,” the Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it.”
Chapter IIn context
- Comedy
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Chapter IIn context
- Comedy
- Poetry
Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas⁠—only I don’t exactly know what they are!
Chapter IIn context
- Ideas
- Poetry
“O Tiger-lily,” said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, “I wish you could talk!”
“We can talk,” said the Tiger-lily: “when there’s anybody worth talking to.”
Chapter IIIn context
- Clever Jabs
- Talking
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Chapter IIIn context
- Motivation & Goals
“Speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing⁠—turn out your toes as you walk⁠—and remember who you are!”
Chapter IIIn context
- Advice
“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”
Chapter IVIn context
- Comedy
- Thinking
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes⁠—and ships⁠—and sealing-wax⁠—
Of cabbages⁠—and kings⁠—
And why the sea is boiling hot⁠—
And whether pigs have wings.’
Chapter IVIn context
- Poetry
- Talking
The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday⁠—but never jam to-day.
Chapter VIn context
- Comedy
- Time
It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards
Chapter VIn context
- Thinking
- Time
Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Chapter VIn context
- Faith
- Thinking
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean⁠—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master⁠—that’s all.”
Chapter VIIn context
- Power
- Talking
Ever drifting down the stream⁠—
Lingering in the golden gleam⁠—
Life, what is it but a dream?
Chapter XIIIn context
- Life & Death
- Poetry

Prefatory Poem
Chapter ILooking-Glass House
Chapter IIThe Garden of Live Flowers
Chapter IIILooking-Glass Insects
Chapter IVTweedledum and Tweedledee
Chapter VWool and Water
Chapter VIHumpty Dumpty
Chapter VIIThe Lion and the Unicorn
Chapter VIII“It’s My Own Invention”
Chapter IXQueen Alice
Chapter XShaking
Chapter XIWaking
Chapter XIIWhich Dreamed It?

Famous quotes

Contents