"Through the
Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There" is a fantasy by Lewis Carroll. This book is a sequel to the famous "Alice's
Adventure in Wonderland."
Talking to her kitten, through the back-to-front land behind the mirror, Alice wonders about the world back of the looking glass. Climbing the mantel, she enters the
looking-glass house, where everything is turned backward.
In a nutshell, Alice meets characters caught up like herself in a cosmic chess game. They include the White Queen, the Red Queen, the White Knight,
Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Walrus and the Carpenter. Humpty Dumpty also makes an appearance with his oft-quoted remark "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."
The story: A game of chess ensues with Alice as the White Pawn. She meets the Red and White Queens. The country is laid out as in a chessboard, with the ground divided into squares by brooks and hedges. She meets and talks to the flowers. On a train she meets the looking-glass insects and a man in a white paper suit. Tweedledum and Tweedledee sing "The Walrus and the Carpenter". A sheep, proprietor of a shop, takes her for a boat ride. Humpty Dumpty tells his story. The Lion and the Unicorn fight for the crown. Alice then meets the Knight Inventor. Finally, on the eighth square, Alice is made a Queen. At a dinner party strange things happen. When Alice shakes the Red Queen, she turns into Alice's kitten. Alice awakens.
Poems include the memorable "Jabberwocky." The book was illustrated by Sir John Tenniel.