Lewis Carroll
Alice in the Looking Glass
In this book, Lewis Carroll, a great fan of puzzles, paradoxes and “flip-flops”, the author of the already famous “Alice in Wonderland”, sends her favorite heroine girl Alice to another fairy country – Through the Looking Glass.
As well as last time, Alice embarks on adventures thanks to her curious and cute little creature – a black kitten, with whom she plays in half-sleep. And on the other side of the magical mirror face, various miracles and transformations begin.
Alice seemed to be in the same room with a flaming fireplace, but the portraits were whispering about something, the clock was smiling broadly, and near the fireplace Alice saw a lot of small, but alive chess pieces. There they walked and talked ceremoniously, clearly not noticing the appearance of Alice, the Black King and the Black Queen, the White King and the White Queen, the Rooks and Pawns.
And when the girl
picked up the king and cleaned the ashes, he was so frightened by this interference of an incomprehensible invisible force that, according to his own admission, it turned cold to the tips of the whiskers, which, the Black Queen did not fail to notice, did not exist at all. And even when clever Alice realized how in this country it is necessary to read poems written in a completely incomprehensible way, and brought the book to the mirror, the sense of the poem still somehow eluded, although it was felt that in the words a lot of acquaintances and events depicted amazing.
Alice really wanted to see an unusual country, but it was not easy to do it: no matter how she tried to climb the top of the hill, every time she was again at the entrance to the house from which she came. After chatting with the very lively colors on the language, which grew near the flowerbed, Alice heard an unusual advice: go in the opposite direction from the goal. Having seen the Black Queen, Alice did so and, to her own amazement, met her at the foot of the previously unattainable hill. Then Alice also noticed that the country was ripped to
neat cells by hedges and streams – neither to take a chessboard. And Alice really wanted to take part in this chess game, even as a pawn; although most of all, of course, she wanted to become a Queen. But in chess, if you try hard, a pawn can become a queen. The Black Queen even told her, how to get to the eighth line. Alice went on a journey full of surprises and adventures. In this extraordinary country, instead of bees, elephants flew around Alice, on the train in which Alice found herself, the passengers (including the Goat, the Beetle and the Horse) presented tickets as large as themselves, and the Controller longly considered Alice in a telescope, a microscope, a theater binocular and finally concluded: “You’re going in the wrong direction!” Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice. full of surprises and adventures. In this extraordinary country, instead of bees, elephants flew around Alice, on the train in which Alice found herself, the passengers (including the Goat, the Beetle and the Horse) presented tickets as large as themselves, and the Controller longly considered Alice in a telescope, a microscope, a theater binocular and finally concluded: “You’re going in the wrong direction!” Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice. full of surprises and adventures. In this extraordinary country, instead of bees, elephants flew around Alice, on the train in which Alice found herself, the passengers (including the Goat, the Beetle and the Horse) presented tickets as large as themselves, and the Controller longly considered Alice in a telescope, a microscope, a theater binocular and finally concluded: “You’re going in the wrong direction!” Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice. in which Alice found herself, the passengers (including the Kozel, the Beetle and the Horse) presented tickets as large as themselves, while the Controller examined Alice for a long time in a telescope, a microscope, a theatrical binoculars and finally concluded: “You’re going the wrong way!” Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice. in which Alice found herself, the passengers (including the Kozel, the Beetle and the Horse) presented tickets as large as themselves, while the Controller examined Alice for a long time in a telescope, a microscope, a theatrical binoculars and finally concluded: “You’re going the wrong way!” Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice. Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice. Arriving at the creek, the train jumped carelessly through it (as he and Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible judgments that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer minded when the Leo with the Unicorn, these fabulous monsters, began to call her Beast, Alice.
On the fourth line, as predicted by the Black Queen, Alice met two fatties, Trulyal and Trail, eternally arguing and even fighting over trifles. The draconians fairly frightened Alice: leading them to the Black King who slept nearby, they declared that she was only dreaming about him and that the King should wake up, like Alice, and they themselves, and everything would disappear. Although Alice did not believe them, but did not wake up the King and check the words of the twins.
Zazerkalnaya life affected everything. The White Queen, who met Alice, promised to treat the girl with jam tomorrow. Alice began to refuse, but the Queen reassured her: tomorrow, however, never really comes, it comes only today, and jam is promised for tomorrow. Moreover, it turned out that the Queen remembers both the past and the future, and when she screamed in pain over the bloodied finger a little later, she did not even stab him at all, it happened only after some time. And then, in the forest, Alice could not cut the pie in any way and treat the crowd: the cake was growing together all the time; then Leo explained to her that the Looking Glass Pie must first be handed out, and then cut. Here everything happened in spite of the usual logic, as if backwards.
Ordinary objects also behaved in a different way. Egg suddenly in front of Alice grew and turned into a round, lobster little man, in which Alice immediately recognized Humpty Dumpty from the famous children’s poem. However, the conversation with him put poor Alice in complete deadlock, because he even quite familiar words acquired unexpected meanings, what to say about strangers! ..
This property – to interpret unusual, turn inside out the usual words – was inherent in almost all residents of the Looking Glass. When in the forest Alice met with the White King and informed him that she did not see anyone on the road, the King envied her: no matter, she managed to see No one; the King himself did not see him.
In the end, Alice came, of course, to the eighth line, where she felt an unusually heavy object on her head – it was a crown. However, soon appeared Black and White Queens still behaved with her, like two angry governesses, puzzling the newly-made Queen with her strange logic. And the feast, arranged like in her honor, was also surprisingly strange. The angry Alice lashed out at the Black Queen, who turned up under her arm, began to shake her and suddenly found herself holding a black kitten in her hands. So it was a dream! But whose? The question still awaits an answer.
