Through the Looking Glass

Alice's madcap romp through Wonderland - depicted in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - did not end after she returned home. The sequel to the inquisitive young lady's journey to the magical and off-beat world is continued in Through the Looking Glass, published in 1861, six years after the first novel. What is most significant about these two volumes is how much children's literature today owes to them. While the fashion for books - even children's books - was to sum up the story with one big Moral Lesson, Lewis Carroll chucked tradition and created stories that were silly, nonsensical and intended just to be fun.