Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Carroll blew up the assumption that children's literature had to teach lessons.
“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”
Why It Matters
Carroll blew up the assumption that children's literature had to teach lessons. The Alice books are pure nonsense elevated to art — logic puzzles, wordplay, and dream logic that influenced surrealism, philosophy of language, and every weird children's book since. They are also a mathematician's sly demolition of Victorian certainty.
The 
Take
Personal reviewJust a wonderful playful spirit. The story is lacking. The wordplay and poems were fun, but not quite spectacular, but the spirit carried it
Notable Quotes
“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”