View source for Through the Looking-Glass

{{Short description|1871 children's novel by Lewis Carroll}}
{{other uses|Through the Looking Glass (disambiguation)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox book
| name              = Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = Alice-entering-looking-glass-house-vertical-alignment.png
| image_size        = 150 px
| alt               = Young girl in Victorian dress going through a large mirror and out the other side
| caption           = Alice passes through the looking-glass and out the other side
| author            = [[Lewis Carroll]]
| illustrator       = [[John Tenniel]]
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = London
| language          = English
| series            = 
| genre             = [[Children's fiction]]<br />[[Portal fantasy]]<br />[[Literary nonsense]]
| publisher         = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan & Co]]
| release_date      = December 1871
| pages             = 
| isbn              = <!-- NA -->
| wikisource        = Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
| media_type        = Print (hardcover)
| preceded_by       = [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]
| followed_by       = 
}}
'''''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There''''' is a novel published in December 1871 by [[Lewis Carroll]], the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at [[Christ Church, Oxford]]. It is the sequel to his ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1865), in which many of the characters were [[anthropomorphic]] [[playing card]]s. In this second novel the theme is [[chess]]. As in the earlier book, the central figure, [[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]], enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a large looking-glass (a mirror){{refn|group=n|name=mirror}} into a world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just as in a reflection, things are reversed, including logic (for example, running helps one remain stationary, walking away from something brings one towards it, chessmen are alive and nursery-rhyme characters are real). 

Among the characters Alice meets are the severe [[Red Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|Red Queen]],{{refn|Regardless of the colour of the physical pieces, the two sides in chess are traditionally called Black and White, but ivory or bone [[chess set]]s of the Victorian era frequently had red and white chessmen.<ref>[https://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk/lewis-carroll-and-chess/ "Lewis Carroll and Chess"], The Lewis Carroll Society. Retrieved 28 May 2025</ref>|group=n|name=red}} the gentle and flustered [[White Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Queen]], the quarrelsome twins [[Tweedledum and Tweedledee]], the rude and opinionated [[Humpty Dumpty]], and the kindly but impractical [[White Knight (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Knight]]. Eventually, as in the earlier book, after a succession of strange adventures, Alice wakes and realises she has been dreaming. As in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', the original illustrations are by [[John Tenniel]].

The book contains several verse passages, including "[[Jabberwocky]]", "[[The Walrus and the Carpenter]]" and the White Knight's ballad, "[[Haddock's Eyes|A-sitting On a Gate]]". Like ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', the book introduces phrases that have become common currency, including "jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day", "sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast", "un-birthday presents", "[[portmanteau]] words" and "as large as life and twice as natural".

''Through the Looking Glass'' has been adapted for the stage and the screen and [[Translations of Through the Looking-Glass|translated into many languages]]. Critical opinion of the book has generally been favourable and either ranked it on a par with its predecessor or else only just short of it.

{{TOC limit|2}}

==Background and first publication==
[[File:Lewis-Carroll-1863.jpg|thumb|upright|Carroll, 1863 photograph|alt=Clean-shaven white man with medium-length dark hair, seated]]
Although by 1871 [[Lewis Carroll]] had published several books and papers under his real name – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – they had all been scholarly works about mathematics, on which he lectured at the [[University of Oxford]].{{refn|Examples include ''A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry'' (1860) and ''The Formulæ of Plane Trigonometry'' (1861).<ref name=ww>[https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U184499 "Carroll, Lewis, Pseudonym of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson"], ''Who's Who'', Oxford University Press, 2007 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} Under his pseudonym he had published ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1865), the work for which he was known to the wider public.<ref name=odnb>Cohen, Morton N. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7749 "Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge (pseud. Lewis Carroll)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2013 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> That book was greatly different from much [[Victorian literature]] for children, which was frequently [[didactic]] and moralistic, sometimes displaying religious fervour and emphasising human sinfulness.<ref>Hahn, pp. 21, 181, 197–198, 363, 368 and 534</ref> ''[[The Oxford Companion to English Literature]]'' describes Carroll's book as "a landmark 'nonsense' text, liberating children from didactic fiction".<ref name=birch>Birch, Dinah, ed. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001/acref-9780192806871-e-146 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"], ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', Oxford University Press 2009 {{subscription required}}</ref> A reviewer at the time of publication commented that the book "has no moral, and does not teach anything. It is without any of that bitter foundation which some people imagine ought to be at the bottom of all children's books".<ref name=unnamed>Unnamed press reviewer, ''quoted'' in Hahn, p. 18</ref> Another wrote, "If there be such a thing as perfection in children's tales, we should be tempted to say that Mr Carroll had reached it".<ref name=unnamed/> The book sold in large numbers,<ref name=birch/> and within a year of its publication Carroll was contemplating a sequel.<ref>Muir,  pp. 140–141</ref>

''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' had grown from stories Carroll improvised for [[Alice Liddell]] and her sisters, the daughters of his Oxford neighbours [[Henry Liddell|Henry]] and Lorina Liddell.<ref>Birch, Dinah, and Katy Hooper. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199608218.001.0001/acref-9780199608218-e-2228 "Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge"], ''The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2013 {{subscription required}}</ref> The proposed sequel had fewer such sources to draw on and was planned from the outset for publication.<ref>Batey (1980), p. 22</ref> When Lorina Liddell became pregnant again the three children were sent to stay with their maternal grandmother at her house, Hetton Lawn, in [[Charlton Kings]], near [[Cheltenham]], where Carroll visited them. Above the drawing-room fireplace there was an enormous looking-glass (in more modern terms, a mirror).{{refn|In Carroll's day and well into the twentieth century "looking-glass" was the normal form; "mirror" was regarded as a genteelism, according to ''[[Modern English Usage]]''.<ref>Fowler, p. 213</ref> In upper-class usage this distinction continued into the 1950s,<ref>Mitford, p. 31</ref> and the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' records "looking-glass" in use as recently as 2011.<ref>{{cite OED|looking-glass|}}</ref>|group=n|name=mirror}} Carroll's biographer [[Morton N. Cohen]] suggests that it may have inspired the idea of climbing up to the [[chimney-piece]] and going through to the other side of the looking-glass.<ref>Cohen, pp. 95–96</ref> This was not confirmed by Carroll and nor was an alternative account stating that the looking-glass theme was suggested by another Alice – Carroll's cousin Alice Raikes – who recalled being in his company as a child and standing in front of a long mirror, holding an orange in her right hand. Carroll asked her in which hand the little girl in the mirror held it, and she replied, "The left hand&nbsp;... but if I was on the other side of the glass, wouldn't the orange still be in my right?"<ref>Batey (1991), p. 92</ref>{{refn|Some biographers accept Raikes's suggestion that the exchange was seminal to the plot of ''Through the Looking-Glass'', but Anne Clark Amor in her 1979 life of Carroll comments that the account dates from sixty years after the book was published, and Raikes's first encounter with Carroll took place when the text was well under way.<ref>Amor, p. 174</ref>|group=n}}

In August 1866 Carroll wrote to his publisher, [[Alexander MacMillan (publisher)|Alexander MacMillan]], "It will probably be some time before I again indulge in paper and print. I have, however, a floating idea of writing a sort of sequel to Alice".<ref>Batey (1991), p. 57</ref> He developed the idea, working slowly and intermittently; in February 1867 he told Macmillan, "I am hoping before long to complete another book about Alice.&nbsp;... You would not, I presume, object to publish the book, if it should ever reach completion".<ref>Cohen and Gandolfo, p. 48</ref> In January 1869 he sent Macmillan the first completed chapter of the new book, tentatively titled ''Behind the Looking-Glass'', and then spent a further year finishing the rest. The title of the book caused him some difficulty. He considered calling it ''Looking-Glass World'', but Macmillan was unenthusiastic. At the suggestion of an Oxford colleague, [[Henry Liddon]], Carroll adopted the title ''Through the Looking-Glass''.<ref>Bakewell, pp. 190–191</ref>

===Illustrations===
[[File:John Tenniel.png|thumb|upright=0.5|[[John Tenniel]]: self-portrait|alt=Middle-aged white man with full head of grey hair and large grey walrus moustache]]
Carroll had great difficulty in finding an illustrator for the book. He first approached [[John Tenniel]], whose drawings for ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' had been well received: ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'' said, "The illustrations by Mr Tenniel are beyond praise. His rabbit, his puppy, his mad hatter are things not to be forgotten".<ref>"The Gift-Books of the Season", ''Pall Mall Gazette'', 23 December 1865</ref> The collaboration had not been smooth: Carroll was a perfectionist and insisted on minutely controlling all aspects of the production of his books. His publishers, [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan & Co]], arranged for printing and distribution (for a ten per cent commission), but Carroll paid all the costs – printing, illustration and advertising – and made all the decisions. Tenniel was not enthusiastic about working with Carroll again; he said he was too busy as chief cartoonist for ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' and declined the commission.<ref>Bakewell, pp. 158–159</ref>{{refn|From its early days in the 1840s, ''Punch'' had been an important and influential weekly magazine.<ref>Price, p. 81</ref> By Tenniel's time its influence had declined, but only slightly.<ref>Price, p. 159</ref> As chief cartoonist of ''Punch'', Tenniel was responsible for the "Big Cuts", the whole-page cartoons that were, according to a 1998 study, "the most important critique of national events in the national press".<ref>Elwyn Jones and Gladstone, p. 251</ref>|group=n}} He suggested one of his predecessors at ''Punch'', [[Richard Doyle (illustrator)|Richard Doyle]], but Carroll thought him "no longer good enough".<ref name=b171>Bakewell, p. 171</ref> Other artists considered but rejected were [[Arthur Hughes (artist)|Arthur Hughes]]<ref name=b171/> and [[W. S. Gilbert]].<ref name=s28>Stedman, p. 28</ref>{{refn|As well as being an author, Gilbert illustrated his own verses in the magazine ''[[Fun (magazine)|Fun]]''.<ref>Stedman, pp. 12–13</ref> Carroll's biographer [[Michael Bakewell]] comments that it was fortunate that Carroll did not pursue that option: "the prospect of a collaboration between the irascible Gilbert and the inflexible Dodgson is too horrific to contemplate".<ref name=b171/>|group=n}} Macmillan suggested [[Joseph Noel Paton|Noel Paton]], who had drawn the frontispiece for ''[[The Water-Babies]]'', but he declined because of pressure of other work.<ref>Muir, p. 140</ref> Eventually Carroll made a second approach to Tenniel, who reluctantly agreed to provide the illustrations for the new book, but only at his own pace. Carroll noted in his diary, "He thinks it possible (but not likely) that we might get it out by Christmas 1869".<ref name=b171/>

=== The Wasp in a Wig ===
While the book was at [[Galley proof|proof]] stage Carroll made a substantial cut of about 1,400 words. The omitted section introduced a wasp wearing a yellow wig and includes a complete five-stanza poem that Carroll did not reuse elsewhere. If included in the book it would have followed, or been included at the end of, Chapter Eight – the chapter featuring the encounter with the White Knight.<ref name=st/> Tenniel wrote to Carroll:
{{blockindent|Don't think me brutal, but I am bound to say that the 'wasp' chapter doesn't interest me in the least, & I can't see my way to a picture. If you wish to shorten the book, I can't help thinking – with all submission – that ''there'' is your opportunity.<ref name=s17>Sarzano, p. 17</ref>|}}
The author cut the section. The manuscript has never been found and scholars searched unsuccessfully for years for traces of the missing material. Doubts arose whether it had ever existed, but in 1974 the London auction house [[Sotheby's]] offered for sale a batch of [[galley proofs]] with handwritten revisions and a note directing the printer to take the section out of the book.<ref name=st>Cohen, Morton N. "Alice: The Lost Chapter Revealed", ''Sunday Telegraph Magazine'', 4 September 1977, pp. 17–18</ref>{{refn|The proofs were bought by a [[Manhattan]] book dealer, for a bid of £1,700 (about £22,300 in 2024 terms), on behalf of a client, who gave the Carroll scholar [[Martin Gardner]] a copy with permission to publish it. Gardner included the text in his 1990 ''[[The Annotated Alice|More Annotated Alice]]'', and Macmillan & Co appended it in the centenary one-volume edition of the ''Alice'' books in 1998.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 227–236</ref><ref name=st/>|group=n}} The chapter was first published in 1977 in a 37-page book by the Carroll scholar [[Martin Gardner]], issued in New York by the [[Lewis Carroll Society of North America]] and in London by Macmillan & Co. It was reproduced in full by the British newspaper ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' that September, with notes by Cohen.<ref name=st/> Although Tenniel had told Carroll that "a wasp in a wig is altogether beyond the appliances of art",<ref name=s17/> the text printed by ''The Sunday Telegraph'' was accompanied by illustrations specially drawn or painted by [[Ralph Steadman]], [[Sir Hugh Casson]], [[Peter Blake (artist)|Peter Blake]] and [[Patrick Procktor]].<ref>"Alice: The Lost Chapter Revealed", ''Sunday Telegraph Magazine'', 4 September 1977, pp. 20–21</ref>

===Publication===
On 4 January 1871 Carroll finished the text, and later that month wrote that the second ''Alice'' book "has cost me, I think, more trouble than the first, and ought to be equal to it in every way". Tenniel had yet to produce nearly half the pictures. By the end of the year the book was ready for press. The title page carries the publication date 1872, but ''Through the Looking-Glass'' was on sale in time for Christmas 1871.<ref>Cohen, p. 133</ref> Within weeks 15,000 copies had been sold.<ref>Amor, p. 170</ref>  The first American edition was issued by Lee and Sheppard of Boston and New York in 1872.<ref name=h579/>

==Characters==
At the start of the book, Carroll includes a list of "''[[Dramatis Personae]]'' as arranged before commencement of game".<ref name=intro/> He then gives notes to the [[chess]] game the characters play out in the story.{{refn|See {{section link||Chess}} below.|group=n}}
[[File:Countryside-chessboard-Alice.png|Looking-glass countryside laid out like a chessboard{{refn|This and all the other line drawings from the book in this article are by Tenniel.|group=n}}|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=Drawing of rural vista with neatly regular fields separated by small brooks]]
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align: left; margin-right: 0;"
! scope="col" ! scope="col"<th width="25%">|White Pieces{{refn|According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' all the figures used in a game of chess may be called "pieces" but the term is particularly used for "any of the more valuable figures, such as the king, queen, etc., as distinct from the pawns".<ref>{{cite OED|piece II.17}}</ref>|group=n}}
! scope="col"! scope="col"<th width="25%">|White Pawns
! scope="col" ! scope="col"<th width="25%">|Red Pawns{{refn|group=n|name=red}}
! scope="col" ! scope="col"<th width="25%">|Red Pieces
|-
|[[Tweedledum and Tweedledee|Tweedledee]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Talking Flowers|Daisy]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Talking Flowers|Daisy]]
| [[Humpty Dumpty]]
|-
| [[The Lion and the Unicorn|Unicorn]]
| [[March Hare|Haigha]]
| Messenger
| [[The Walrus and the Carpenter|Carpenter]]
|-
| [[The Sheep|Sheep]]
| [[The Walrus and the Carpenter|Oyster]]
| [[The Walrus and the Carpenter|Oyster]]
| [[The Walrus and the Carpenter|Walrus]]
|-
| [[White Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Queen]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Lily|Lily]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Talking Flowers|Tiger-lily]]
| [[Red Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|Red Queen]]
|-
| [[White King (Through the Looking-Glass)|White King]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#The Fawn|Fawn]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Talking Flowers|Rose]]
| [[Red King (Through the Looking-Glass)|Red King]]
|-
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Aged Man|Aged man]]
| [[The Walrus and the Carpenter|Oyster]]
| [[The Walrus and the Carpenter|Oyster]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#The Monstrous Crow|Crow]]
|-
| [[White Knight (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Knight]]
| [[Hatter (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Hatta]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Frog Footman|Frog]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Red_Knight|Red Knight]]
|-
| [[Tweedledum and Tweedledee|Tweedledum]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Talking Flowers|Daisy]]
| [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Talking Flowers|Daisy]]
| [[The Lion and the Unicorn|Lion]]
|}

For other characters, see [[List of minor characters in the Alice series#Appearing in Alice Through the Looking-Glass|List of minor characters in ''Through the Looking-Glass'']].

==Plot==
Alice progresses across a chessboard-like landscape in which the squares are separated by small brooks. Each time she steps across a brook to a new square in Chapters Three to Nine she finds herself meeting new characters in a self-contained story.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 38, 53, 101, 112, 157 and 185</ref>

[[File:Alice-picks-up-the White-King.png|thumb|Alice lifts the White King from the floor to the table|alt=Girl's hand holding a chess piece, which is pulling horrified faces at being pulled through the air by an invisible hand]]
=== Chapter One. Looking-Glass House ===
On a snowy November night [[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]] is sitting in an armchair before the fireplace, playing with a white kitten ("Snowdrop") and a black kitten ("Kitty"). She talks to Kitty about the game of chess and then speculates what the world is like on the other side of a mirror. Climbing up to the [[fireplace mantel|chimney piece]], she touches the looking-glass above the fireplace and discovers, to her surprise, that she can step through it: "In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room". She finds herself in a reflected version of her own home and notices a book with looking-glass poetry, "[[Jabberwocky]]", whose [[Mirror writing|reversed printing]] she can read only by holding it up to the mirror. In this room her [[chess piece]]s have come to life, although they remain small enough for her to pick up.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 1–25</ref>

=== Chapter Two. The Garden of Live Flowers ===
On leaving the house Alice enters a sunny spring garden where the flowers can speak. Some of them are quite rude to her. Elsewhere in the garden, she meets the [[Red Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|Red Queen]], who is now human-sized, and who impresses Alice with her ability to [[Red Queen's race|run at breathtaking speeds]].<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 26–42</ref>

The Red Queen explains that the entire countryside is laid out in squares, like a gigantic chessboard, and says that Alice will be a queen if she can advance all the way to the eighth rank on the board.{{refn|group=n|name=queen}} Because the [[White Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Queen's]] [[Pawn (chess)|pawn]], Lily, is too young to play, Alice is placed in the second rank in her stead. The Red Queen leaves her with the advice, "Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing – turn out your toes when you walk – and remember who you are!"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 39 and 43–45</ref>

=== Chapter Three. Looking-Glass Insects ===
Alice finds herself as a passenger on a train that jumps over the third row directly into the fourth.{{refn|Pawns can advance two spaces on their first move.<ref name=laws>[https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf FIDE Laws of Chess, 3.7]. Retrieved 31 May 2025</ref>|group=n}} She arrives in a forest where a gnat teaches her about looking glass insects such as the "[[List of minor characters in the Alice series#Bread-and-Butterfly|Bread-and-butterfly]]" and "[[List of minor characters in the Alice series#Rocking-Horsefly|Rocking-horsefly]]". It then vanishes.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 48–60</ref>

Alice crosses the "wood where things have no names". There she cannot follow the Red Queen's advice – "remember who you are" – and forgets her own name. Together with a [[List of minor characters in the Alice series#The_Fawn|fawn]], who has also forgotten who or what he is, she makes her way to the other side, where they both remember everything. The fawn bounds away.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 61–64</ref>

=== Chapter Four. Tweedledum and Tweedledee ===
{{Multiple image|
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| image1            = Tennieldumdee.jpg|
| width1            =250
| alt1              = Illustration of Alice meeting the rotund twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee
| caption1          = Alice meeting [[Tweedledum and Tweedledee|Tweedledum]] (centre) and [[Tweedledum and Tweedledee|Tweedledee]] (right)
| image2            = Red King sleeping.jpg
|width2=250
| caption2=[[Red King (Through the Looking-Glass)|The Red King]] dreaming
| alt2              = Illustration of the recumbent Red King sleeping against a tree
}}
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| width1            = 175
| alt1              = Dishevelled elderly white woman, in crown, being tidied up by young girl
| caption1          = Alice with the [[White Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Queen]]
| image2            = Humpty Dumpty Tenniel.svg
| width2            = 175
| caption2          = Alice meets [[Humpty Dumpty]]
| alt2              = Gigantic egg, with human facial features perched on a wall, talking to a young girl, below
}}

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| alt1              = Elderly knight in armour, on horseback, accompanied by a little girl
| caption1          = The [[White Knight (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Knight]] accompanied by Alice
| image2            = Queen-Alice-by-Tenniel.png
| width2            = 175
| caption2          = Alice arrives for her banquet|
| alt2              = Young girl wearing golden crown standing in front of a doorway that has "Queen Alice" in large letters above it. A frog the same size as the girl stands next to her, pointing
}}

Alice follows a signpost pointing to the house of the twin brothers [[Tweedledum and Tweedledee]], names familiar from the [[nursery rhyme]], which she recites:
<poem>
  Tweedledum and Tweedledee
    Agreed to have a battle;
  For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
    Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
  Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
    As black as a tar-barrel;
  Which frightened both the heroes so,
    They quite forgot their quarrel.<ref name=c68>Carroll (1998), p. 68</ref></poem>
The brothers insist that Tweedledee should now recite to her – and they choose the longest poem they know: "[[The Walrus and the Carpenter]]".<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 71</ref> Its eighteen stanzas include:
<poem>
  "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".<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 72–78</ref> </poem>
A noise that Alice mistakes for the roaring of a wild beast is heard. It is the snoring of the [[Red King (Through the Looking-Glass)|Red King]] – sleeping under a nearby tree. The brothers upset her by saying that she is merely [[Dream hypothesis|an imaginary figure]] in the Red King's dreams and will vanish when he wakes.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 79–82</ref> The brothers begin equipping themselves for their battle, but are frightened away by the monstrous crow.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 84–90</ref>

=== Chapter Five. Wool and Water ===
Alice next meets the White Queen, who is absent-minded but can [[precognition|remember future events]] before they have happened: "That's the effect of living backwards&nbsp;... it always makes one a little giddy at first". She advises Alice to practise believing impossibilities: "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast".<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 91–101</ref>

Alice and the White Queen advance into the chessboard's fifth rank by crossing over a brook together, but at the moment of the crossing, the Queen suddenly becomes a [[The Sheep|talking Sheep]] in a [[Alice's Shop|small shop]]. Alice soon finds herself on water, struggling to handle the oars of a small rowing boat; the Sheep annoys her by shouting about "[[Glossary of rowing terms#Crab|crabs]]" and "[[Glossary of rowing terms#Feather|feathers]]". After rowing back to the shop Alice finds trees growing in it, alongside a little brook – "Well, this is the very queerest shop I ever saw!"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 101–112</ref>

=== Chapter Six. Humpty Dumpty ===
After crossing the brook into the sixth rank, Alice encounters the giant egg-shaped [[Humpty Dumpty]], sitting on a wall. He is celebrating his [[unbirthday|un-birthday]], which he explains is one of the 364 days of the year when one might get un-birthday presents. He is quite rude to Alice but provides her with translations of the strange terms in "Jabberwocky". In the process, he introduces her to the concept of [[portmanteau]] words: "Well, then, 'mimsy' is 'flimsy and miserable' (there’s another portmanteau for you)". Just after she has parted company with him he has a great fall: "a heavy crash shook the forest from end to end".<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 113–138</ref>

=== Chapter Seven. The Lion and the Unicorn ===
All the king's horses and all the king's men come to Humpty Dumpty's assistance, and are accompanied by the [[White King (Through the Looking-Glass)|White King]], along with [[the Lion and the Unicorn]]. The [[March Hare]] and the [[The Hatter|Hatter]]{{refn|First introduced in Chapter Seven of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''.<ref>Carroll (2003), p. 60</ref>|group=n}} appear in the guise of messengers called "Haigha" and "Hatta", whom the White King employs "to come and go. One to come, and one to go".<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 139–149</ref>

The nursery rhyme about the Lion and the Unicorn ends: "Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town". They are starting on the plum-cake when a deafening noise of drumming is heard.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 150–157</ref>

=== Chapter Eight. "It's My Own Invention" ===
Alarmed by the noise, Alice crosses another brook, reaching the seventh rank and the forested territory of the [[List_of_minor_characters_in_the_Alice_series#Red_Knight|Red Knight]], who seeks to capture her, but the [[White Knight (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Knight]] comes to her rescue, though repeatedly falling off his horse. He is an inveterate inventor of useless things. Escorting Alice through the forest towards the final brook-crossing, he recites "[[Haddocks' Eyes|A-sitting on a Gate]]", a poem of his own composition.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 159–185</ref> Carroll writes in this chapter:
{{blockindent|Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her journey Through The Looking-Glass, this was the one that she always remembered most clearly. Years afterwards she could bring the whole scene back again, as if it had been only yesterday – the mild blue eyes and kindly smile of the Knight – the setting sun gleaming through his hair, and shining on his armour in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her – the horse quietly moving about, with the reins hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass at her feet.<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 178</ref>|}}

=== Chapter Nine. Queen Alice ===
Bidding farewell to the White Knight, Alice steps across the last brook, and is automatically a queen;{{refn|Pawns that reach the last row are promoted to Queen (or other piece of the player's choice).<ref name=laws/>|group=n|name=queen}} a golden crown materialises on her head. She is joined by the White and Red Queens, who invite each other to a party that will be hosted by Alice. The two fall asleep.<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 187–201</ref>

Alice arrives at a doorway over which are the words "Queen Alice" in large letters. She goes in and finds her banquet already in progress. There are three chairs at the head of the table; the Red and White Queens are seated in two of them; the middle one is empty and Alice sits in it. She attempts a speech of thanks to her guests but the banquet becomes chaotic. Crying "I can't stand this any longer!" Alice jumps up and seizes the table-cloth, pulls it and plates, dishes, guests, and candles come crashing down in a heap. She blames the Red Queen for everything:
{{blockindent|"And as for you," she went on, turning fiercely upon the Red Queen, whom she considered as the cause of all the mischief – but the Queen was no longer at her side – she had suddenly dwindled down to the size of a little doll, and was now on the table, merrily running round and round after her own shawl, which was trailing behind her. At any other time, Alice would have felt surprised at this, but she was far too much excited to be surprised at anything now. "As for you," she repeated, catching hold of the little creature in the very act of jumping over a bottle which had just lighted upon the table, "I'll shake you into a kitten, that I will!"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 201–216</ref>|}}

=== Chapter Ten. Shaking ===
Alice seizes the Red Queen and begins shaking her&nbsp;...<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 217</ref>

=== Chapters Eleven. Waking; and Twelve. Which Dreamed It? ===
...&nbsp;and awakes in her armchair to find herself holding Kitty, who, she concludes, has been the Red Queen all along, Snowdrop having been the White Queen. Alice then recalls the&nbsp;speculation of Tweedledum and Tweedledee that everything may have been a dream of the Red King. "He was part of my dream, of course – but then I was part of his dream, too!" Carroll leaves the reader with the question, "Which do'' you'' think it was?"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 218–224</ref>

==Themes==
''Through the Looking-Glass'' builds on the first book's themes of language, linguistic puzzles and wordplay.<ref>Bolch pp. 126–129</ref> The poet [[W. H. Auden]] commented that words in the ''Alice'' books "have a life and a will of their own".<ref>Elwyn Jones and Gladstone, pp. 16–17</ref> Carroll's linguistic games parody the incoherence of real-world institutions and social structures.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Logic and Language in 'Through the Looking Glass' |last=Spacks |first=Patricia Meyer |journal=Etc: A Review of General Semantics |date=April 1961 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=91–100 |jstor=42573885}}</ref> Like its predecessor, the book has legalistic elements that convey how systems of order can appear structured but remain completely arbitrary.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Rule of Law Through the Looking Glass |first=Mary |last=Liston |journal=Law and Literature |volume=21 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2009 |pages=42–77 |doi=10.1525/lal.2009.21.1.42}}</ref> As in a symmetrical chess game, many aspects of the story are mirrored or inverted.<ref>Bolch, pp. 5762–5766</ref> Cause and effect are often reversed: for example, Alice can only reach the Red Queen by walking in reverse. ''Through the Looking Glass'' juxtaposes sense with nonsense and sanity with insanity.<ref>Gardner and Burstein, p. 167</ref> The more consistent rules of ''Through the Looking Glass'' cast Alice more clearly as a child intruding into an adult world, and capable of seeing through the arbitrary nature of the social structures.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morton |first1=Richard |title="Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" |journal=Elementary English |date=1960 |volume=37 |issue=8 |pages=509–513 |jstor=41385073 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41385073 |issn=0013-5968}}</ref> The book pays more attention to the passage of time and has moments of playful rebellion against the adult world along with melancholy for the coming end of Alice's childhood:<ref>{{cite journal |title=Memory in the Alice Books |journal=Nineteenth-Century Fiction |last=Morton |first=Lionel |volume=33 |issue=3 |date=December 1978 |pages=285–308 |doi=10.2307/2933016|jstor=2933016 }}</ref> the beginning and end both have themes of winter and death, linked with the end of childhood.<ref>Gardner and Burstein, p. 319</ref>

===Chess===
{{multiple image
| caption_align     = 
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| header_align      = center
| footer_align      = left
| image1            = Alice-chess-problem.png
| width1            = 340
| alt1              = Chess problem detailing sequential moves. The text of Carroll's chess problem is in two parallel columns. In the first (White) column it reads: 1. Alice meets R. Q.; 2. Alice through Q.'s 3d (by railway) to 4th (Tweedledum and Tweedledee); 3. Alice meets W. Q. (with shawl); 4. Alice to Q.'s 5th (shop, river, shop); 5. Alice to Q.'s 6th (Humpty Dumpty); 6. Alice to Q.'s 7th (forest); 7. W. Kt. takes R. Kt.; 8. Alice to Q.'s 8th (coronation); 9. Alice becomes Queen; 10. Alice castles (feast); 11. Alice takes R.Q. & wins. The second (Red) column reads: 1. R. Q. to K. R's 4th; 2. W. Q. to Q. B.'s 4th (after shawl); 3. W. Q. to Q.B.'s 5th (becomes sheep); 4. W. Q. to K. B.'s 8th (leaves egg on shelf); 5. W. Q. to Q. B.'s 8th (flying from R. Kt.); 6. R. Kt. to K.'s 2nd (check); 7. W. Kt. to K. B's 5th; 8. R. Q. to K.'s sq. (examination); 9. Queens castle; 10. W. Q. to Q. R.'s 6th (soup).
| caption1          = The chess game according to Carroll
| image2            = Through the Looking-Glass chess game.gif
| width2            = 180
| alt2              = Animated image showing the moves of the chessmen
| caption2          = Moves of White and Red
}}

Whereas the first ''Alice'' novel has [[playing cards]] as a theme, ''Through the Looking-Glass'' uses chess; many of the main characters are represented by chess pieces, Alice being a pawn. The looking-glass world consists of square fields divided by brooks or streams, and the crossing of each brook signifies a change in scene, Alice advancing one square. 

At the beginning of the book Carroll provides and explains a [[chess composition]], corresponding to the events of the story. Although the moves follow the [[rules of chess]], other basic rules are ignored: one player (White) makes several consecutive moves, and a late [[Check (chess)|check]] is left undealt with. Carroll also explains that certain items listed in the composition do not have corresponding piece moves but simply refer to the story, e.g. the "castling of the three Queens, which is merely a way of saying that they entered the palace".<ref name=intro>Carroll (1998), unnumbered introductory page</ref>

===Poems and songs===
[[File:Briny Beach.jpg|thumb|[[The Walrus and the Carpenter]]|alt=Drawing of a walrus and a carpenter on a beach]]
* "Introduction" (prelude; "Child of the pure unclouded brow...")<ref name=intro/>
* "[[Jabberwocky]]"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 21–24</ref>
* "[[Tweedledum and Tweedledee]]"<ref name=c68/>
* "[[The Walrus and the Carpenter]]"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 72–79</ref>
* "[[Humpty Dumpty]]"<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 115</ref>
* "[[The Lion and the Unicorn]]"<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 147</ref>
* [[Haddocks' Eyes|The White Knight's ballad, "A-sitting on a Gate"]]<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 179–183</ref>
* The Red Queen's lullaby, "Hush-a-by lady, in Alice's lap..."<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 199</ref>
* "[[Bonnie Dundee#Lewis Carroll|To the Looking-Glass World it was Alice that Said...]]"<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 204–205</ref>
* The White Queen's riddle, "First, the fish must be caught..."<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 210</ref>
* "[[Alice Liddell#Comparison with fictional Alice|A boat beneath a sunny sky]]" (postlude; [[acrostic]] poem in which the beginning letters of each line spell Alice Pleasance Liddell, after whom the book's Alice is named.)<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 225–226</ref>

===Parody, caricature and coinages===
[[File:Knight2.jpg|thumb|The White Knight's ballad|alt=Drawing of old man sitting on a gate with an old man in medieval armour facing him]]
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' contains several parodies of Victorian poetry,<ref name=c130>Clark, p. 130</ref> but in ''Through the Looking-Glass'' there is only one: the White Knight’s ballad, described by the literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] as "a superb and loving parody of [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth's]] great crisis-poem '[[Resolution and Independence]]'". Beverly Lyon Clark, in a study of Carroll's verse, writes that the ballad also contains echoes of Wordsworth's "The Thorn" and [[Thomas Moore]]'s "My Heart and Lute".<ref name=c130/>

[[Walter Scott]]'s "Bonny Dundee" is clearly the basis for "To the Looking-Glass World it was Alice that Said", but Carroll simply uses its form and metre rather than parodying it.<ref name=c131>Clark, p. 131</ref> Although the rhyme scheme and metre of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" mirror those of [[Thomas Hood]]'s ballad "The Dream of Eugene Aram", Carroll is not parodying the latter; he commented, "The metre is a common one", and said he had no particular poem in mind.<ref name=c131/>

As in the earlier book, some of the characters incorporate elements of real people whom the Liddell sisters would have known. The Red Queen (described by the Rose as "one of the kind that has nine spikes")<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 33</ref> is based on their [[governess]], Miss Prickett, known to them as "Pricks".<ref>Lancelyn Green, p. 270</ref> The White Knight contains elements of Carroll himself and of a college friend, the chemist and inventor [[Augustus George Vernon Harcourt|Augustus Vernon Harcourt]],<ref>Batey (1991), pp. 87–89</ref> although Bloom also finds echoes of "the kindly, heroic, and benignly mad [[Don Quixote]]".<ref>Bloom, p. 8</ref> In a 1933 essay [[Shane Leslie]] suggests that in ''Through the Looking Glass'' Carroll was satirising the controversial [[Oxford Movement]], which sought to align the Church of England more closely with the Catholic Church, Tweedledum representing "[[high church]]" reformers and Tweedledee representing "[[low church]]" opponents of the movement. In Leslie's hypothesis there are other Oxonian and church references, the Sheep, the White Queen and the White King drawing, respectively, on [[Edward Bouverie Pusey|Edward Pusey]], [[John Henry Newman|J. H. Newman]] and [[Benjamin Jowett]], the White and Red Knights representing [[Thomas Huxley]] and [[Samuel Wilberforce]], and the Jabberwock the Papacy.<ref>Leslie, p. 216</ref> The theologian and novelist [[Ronald Knox]] agreed that the Papacy was a target, maintaining that "impenetrability" – one of Humpty Dumpty's words – was a joke against the doctrine of [[papal infallibility]].<ref>Elwyn Jones and Gladstone, p. 130</ref>

Like ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', the book contains many phrases that became common currency.<ref>Knowles, p. 195</ref> Here they include "cabbages and kings", "jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day", "sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast", "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean", "un-birthday presents", "portmanteau words", "Anglo-Saxon attitudes" and "as large as life and twice as natural".<ref>Carroll (1998), pp. 75, 94, 100, 124, 128–129, 142 and 152</ref>

==Adaptations==
===Stage and cinema===
[[File:Maidie-Andrews-Looking-Glass-Tatler-1904.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Maidie Andrews]] as Alice in ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'', [[West End theatre|West End]], Christmas season 1903–04|alt=Young girl in stage costume as a queen]] 
Most stage and screen adaptations of the Lewis Carroll novels concentrate on the more familiar ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', although many of them import characters from ''Through the Looking-Glass''.<ref name=hischak/>{{refn|Such adaptations are typically titled ''Alice in Wonderland'' but include characters interpolated from ''Through the Looking-Glass''. H. Savile Clark's 1886 ''Alice in Wonderland'' devoted nearly as much prominence to ''Looking-Glass'' episodes as to those from the earlier book,<ref>"Alice in Wonderland", ''The Era'', 25 December 1886, p. 9</ref> but later dramatisations typically concentrated on the first book with fewer characters and incidents from the sequel. Examples include an 1897 American version by Holder Abbott, in which, as well as the principal characters from the first book, five ''Looking-Glass'' characters such as Humpty Dumpty and the White Knight appear.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/aliceinwonderla00carrgoog/page/n6/mode/2up "Alice in Wonderland"]. Retrieved 9 June 2025</ref> [[Eva La Gallienne]] and Florida Friebus's 1932 New York version featured seven ''Looking-Glass'' characters with twenty-two from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''.<ref>"Alice in Wonderland", ''Brooklyn Times Union'', 13 December 1932, p. 7</ref> [[Walt Disney Pictures|Walt Disney's]] 1951 [[Alice_in_Wonderland_(1951_film)|animated adaptation]] interpolated Tweedledee and Tweedledum into the episodes from the first book,<ref>Notes to Disney DVD {{oclc|949571195}} (2010)</ref> as did a 1972 film, ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 film)|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''.<ref>Notes to Screen Media Films DVD {{oclc| 646691185}} (2005)</ref>|group=n}} 

''Through the Looking Glass'' has been adapted at least three times for the theatre. [[George Grossmith Jr]] presented a version at the [[Noël Coward Theatre|New Theatre]] in 1903.<ref>"New Theatre", ''St James's Gazette'', 1 January 1904, p. 1</ref> [[Nancy Price]] adapted and presented the piece at the [[Little Theatre in the Adelphi|Little Theatre]] in 1935, and revived it for the Christmas seasons of the next three years.<ref>Gaye, p. 1530</ref> The cast included [[Frith Banbury]] (Unicorn), [[Ernest Butcher]] (Tweedledee), [[Michael Martin Harvey]] (White Knight), [[Esmé Percy]] (Humpty Dumpty) and [[Joyce Redman]] (Tiger Lily).<ref>Parker, pp. 171–172</ref> In 1954 a stage adaptation by Felicity Douglas, ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'', was presented at the [[Shaftesbury Theatre|Prince's Theatre]] with a cast including [[Michael Denison]] (Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty), [[Binnie Hale]] (Red Queen), [[Griffith Jones (actor)|Griffith Jones]] (Tweedledum and Red Knight), [[Carol Marsh]] (Alice) and [[Margaret Rutherford]] (White Queen).<ref>"The Princes", ''The Stage'', 11 February 1954, p. 9</ref> 

A 2016 film titled ''[[Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016 film)|Alice Through the Looking Glass]]'' uses some of the novel's characters, but the plot is unrelated to it.<ref>Smith, Nigel M. [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/10/alice-through-the-looking-glass-review-johnny-depp-mia-wasikowska "Alice Through the Looking Glass review – second trip to Underland is far from wondrous"], ''The Guardian'' 10 May 2016</ref>

===Radio===
The first full-cast sound radio version of the book was transmitted on [[BBC Radio]]  in 1944, with a cast including Esmé Percy, [[Leslie French]] and [[Eric Maturin]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250915210504/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/6442c10914484819b9823b405308018f "Alice Through the Looking-Glass"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 1 June 2025</ref> A further radio version was broadcast as a five-part serial in 1948, with [[Angela Glynne]] as Alice, [[Derek McCulloch]] as narrator and a cast including [[Vivienne Chatterton]] (White Queen), [[Mary O'Farrell]] (Red Queen), [[Carleton Hobbs]] (Tweedledum and Lion), [[Norman Shelley]] (Gnat), [[Marjorie Westbury]] (Fawn) and [[Richard Goolden]] (White Knight).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250905171909/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/7c6a758f72c74057bd7c321b9e788fe1 "Through the Looking-Glass"], [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/0d19710643564d7f809bf869a132e110, "Through the Looking-Glass"]{{dead link|date=September 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, and [https://web.archive.org/web/20250915210621/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/a4d27dab2a5b4a14a6c08993b1853a7e "Through the Looking-Glass"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 1 June 2025</ref> 

A 1963 adaptation for [[BBC Radio 3|BBC Network Three]] had a cast including [[Peter Sallis]] (Tweedledee), [[Peter Pratt]] (White King) and [[Geoffrey Bayldon]] (White Knight).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250909215255/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/48287a460c364240b380f6cf682c2018 "Stereophony"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 1 June 2025</ref> A further five-part adaptation was broadcast on the [[BBC Home Service|Home Service]] in 1964 with [[Prunella Scales]] as Alice.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250906025139/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/7e693958ef1442739d4c1a8700cd5979 "Through the Looking-Glass"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 1 June 2025</ref> [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast a new adaptation in December 2012, featuring [[Julian Rhind-Tutt]] as Carroll and [[Lauren Mote]] (Alice), [[Carole Boyd]] (Red Queen), [[Sally Phillips]] (White Queen), [[Nicholas Parsons]] (Humpty Dumpty), [[Alistair McGowan]] (Tweedledum and Tweedledee) and [[John Rowe (actor)|John Rowe]] (White Knight).<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b01pf5d7 "Alice Through the Looking-Glass"]{{dead link|date=September 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, BBC Genome. Retrieved 1 June 2025</ref>

===Television===
A [[Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966 film)|musical adaptation for American television in 1966]] had a book by Albert Simmons, music by [[Mark Charlap]] and lyrics by Elsie Simmons. The cast included [[Nanette Fabray]] (White Queen), [[Agnes Moorehead]] (Red Queen), [[Ricardo Montalbán]] (White King), [[Robert Coote]] (Red King), [[Jimmy Durante]] (Humpty Dumpty), [[Jack Palance]] (the Jabberwock) and the [[Smothers Brothers]] (Tweedledum and Tweedledee).<ref name=hischak>Hischak, Thomas S. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195335330.001.0001/acref-9780195335330-e-33 "Alice Through the Looking Glass"], ''The Oxford Companion to the American Musical'', Oxford University Press, 2009 {{subscription required}}</ref> 

Some characters from ''Through the Looking Glass'' featured in a conflation of both books on [[BBC Television]] in 1960,{{refn|''The Adventures of Alice'' had, along with characters from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', almost half the characters from ''Through the Looking Glass''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141025010808/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e4959b07cda44f748a53e64aaeaefd82 "The Adventures of Alice"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 11 August 2025</ref>|group=n}} but the first British television adaptation of ''Through the Looking Glass'' was in 1973, featuring [[Sarah Sutton]] (Alice), [[Brenda Bruce]] (White Queen), [[Richard Pearson (actor)|Richard Pearson]] (White King), [[Judy Parfitt]] (Red Queen), Geoffrey Bayldon (White Knight) and [[Freddie Jones]] (Humpty Dumpty).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210619064531/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/ff2623e5f50d4bd3b8253b7206a61c32 "Alice Through the Looking Glass"]. BBC Genome. Retrieved 31 May 2025</ref> 

A [[Alice through the Looking Glass (1998 film)|1998 television version]] featured [[Kate Beckinsale]] (Alice), [[Penelope Wilton]] (White Queen), [[Geoffrey Palmer (actor)|Geoffrey Palmer]] (White King), [[Siân Phillips]] (Red Queen) and [[Desmond Barrit]] (Humpty Dumpty).<ref>"Alice Through the Looking Glass", {{oclc|1158377346}}</ref>

===Other===
A dramatised audio version, directed by [[Douglas Cleverdon]], was released in 1959 by [[Argo Records (UK)|Argo Records]]. The book is narrated by [[Margaretta Scott]], starring [[Jane Asher]] as Alice, along with Frank Duncan, [[Tony Church]], Norman Shelley and Carleton Hobbs.<ref>"Argo", ''Plays and Players'', May 1963, p. 2</ref> The book has been the basis of musical compositions. [[Deems Taylor]] wrote an orchestral suite in 1919 with one of the novel's episodes represented in each of its five movements.<ref>Schiavo, Paul (2012). Notes to Naxos CD 8.559724. {{oclc|885062291}}</ref> [[Alfred Reynolds (composer)|Alfred Reynolds]] composed another orchestral suite based on the book in 1947.<ref>Scowcroft, Philip L. (2001). Notes to Marco Polo CD 8.225184. {{oclc|811253897}}</ref>

==Translations==
{{main|Translations of Through the Looking-Glass}}

''Through the Looking Glass'' has been published in many languages, including Afrikaans, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese and Russian.<ref>Weaver, p. 68</ref> In French, Tweedledee and Tweedledum have been rendered as "{{lang|fr|Bonnet-Blanc}}" and "{{lang|fr|Blanc-Bonnet}}" and Humpty Dumpty as "{{lang|fr|Gros-Coco}}".<ref name=rickard>Rickard, Peter. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40246194 "Alice in France or Can Lewis Carroll Be Translated?"], ''Comparative Literature Studies'', Vol. 12, No. 1 (March 1975), pp. 45–66 {{subscription required}}</ref> The Rocking-horse-fly becomes {{lang|fr|La Mouche-à-chevaux-de-bois}}.<ref>Carroll (2004), p. 39</ref> The opening lines of "Jabberwocky":
[[File:TheJabberwocky.png|thumb|upright=0.85|"Jabberwocky"|alt=Huge monster towering over small human figure who is brandishing a sword at the monster]]
<poem>
     'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
     Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
     All mimsy were the borogoves
     And the mome raths outgrabe.</poem>
become in French (present tense):<ref>Norwich, pp. 213</ref>
<poem>
     {{lang|fr|Il brilgue: les tôves lubricilleux}}
     {{lang|fr|Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave,}}
     {{lang|fr|Enmîmés sont les gougebosqueux,}}
     {{lang|fr|Et le mômerade horsgrave.}}</poem>
and in German, in the earliest of several translations:<ref name=imholtz>Imholtz, August Jr. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1347290 "Latin and Greek Versions of 'Jabberwocky': Exercises in Laughing and Grief"], ''Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature'' , Vol. 41, No. 4 (1987), p. 214 {{subscription required}}</ref>{{refn|This German translation, published in February 1872, is by the Very Rev [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Robert Scott]], co-compiler – with Alice Liddell's father, [[Henry Liddell]] – of the [[Oxford University Press]]'s ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'' (1843). Carroll then invited him to provide an Ancient Greek translation, but Scott declined.<ref name=imholtz/> [[Ronald Knox]] devised one many years later. His version begins: {{lang|grc|καυσπροῦντος ἤδη, γλοῖσχρα διὰ περισκιᾶς στρυβλοῦντα καὶ στρομφοῦντ’ ἂν εὑρίσκοις τόφα, δεινὴ δ’ ἐπέσχε σωθρία βορυγρόφας}} (kausprountos ede gloischra dia periskias stryblounta kai stromphount an euriskois topha, deine d'epesche sothria borugrophas).<ref>Knox, p. 25</ref>|group=n}}<poem>
     {{lang|de|Es brillig war. Die schlichte Toven}}
     {{lang|de|Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;}}
     {{lang|de|Und aller-mümsige Burggoven}}
     {{lang|de|Die mohmen Rath' ausgraben}}</poem>

==Reception and legacy==
===Reception===
Critical response was highly favourable. ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'' singled out "Jabberwocky": "what pleases us most is the stanza with which the ballad begins and ends. Anything more affecting than those lines we rarely meet in the poetry of our day. Once admitted to memory, they will for ever maintain a place there". As to the book as a whole the paper judged it almost up to the standard of its predecessor – "there is not much to choose between them". Tenniel too was praised: "Those who remember his picture of the grin of the Cheshire Cat (not the cat, but the grin) will find a similar exercise of his skill in the woodcut representing Alice as she fades through the looking-glass".<ref>"Looking-Glass Land", ''Pall Mall Gazette'', 14 December 1871, p. 11</ref>

''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' found the book "quite as rich in humorous whims of fantasy, quite as laughable in its queer incidents, as lovable for its pleasant spirit and graceful manner" as its predecessor:

{{blockindent|Humpty Dumpty and that inseparable pair of twins named Tweedledum and Tweedledee, are irresistibly comical, and so are the Lion and the Unicorn fighting for the Crown. Mr. Tenniel's designs, it need scarcely be said, are so good that the little volume would be worth buying for their sake alone.<ref>"Illustrated Gift-Books", ''Illustrated London News'', 16 December 1871, p. 34</ref>|}}

''[[The Examiner (1808–1886)|The Examiner]]'' found the sequel not quite as good as the original but "quite good enough to delight every sensible reader of any age", It praised the "wit and humour that all children can appreciate, and grown folks ought as thoroughly to enjoy".<ref>''Quoted'' in Cohen, p. 133</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' said:
{{blockindent|The nonsense almost equals that of its predecessor, and is far more charming than half the literature bought and sold as solid sense. The charm of it is that it answers to its name; there is literally no sense in it, no lurking moral, no covert satire, no meaning, so far as we read it, of any sort whatever; it is at once the lightest and the brightest, and the most utter nonsense."<ref>"Christmas Books", ''The Times'', 25 December 1871, p. 4</ref>|}} 
The reviewer in a New York newspaper, ''[[The Independent (New York City)|The Independent]]'', wrote, "we know no higher praise than to say it is the equal of that charming juvenile ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''&nbsp;... Lewis Carroll has succeeded in giving to his books a purity, a daintiness, and an absolute adaptation to child-wants which are remarkable. Tenniel's illustrations, too, are exquisitely drawn".<ref>"Literary Department", ''The Independent'', 23 May 1872, p. 6</ref>

Among more recent comments on the book, Daniel Hahn in ''[[The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature]]'' (2015) writes that sentimentality plays a larger part in ''Through the Looking Glass'' than in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He instances Alice's encounter with the Fawn in the wood and the description of her picking scented rushes while in the Sheep's boat. In Hahn's view, Alice's farewell to the White Knight has emotional overtones often thought to represent Carroll's sundering from Alice Liddell as she grows up.<ref name=h579>Hahn, p. 579</ref>

Hahn also comments on the levels of threatened violence in the book. "Jabberwocky" introduces a note of real horror; and there is a frequent threat of death or dissolution. The oysters in "The Walrus and The Carpenter" are all eaten "despite (or perhaps because of) their childlike innocence"; and Alice is made to fear that she will disappear if she is in the Red King's dream and he wakes up.<ref name=h579/>

===Legacy===
Although many later writers, including [[Jean Ingelow]], [[Christina Rossetti]], [[Charles E. Carryl]] and [[E. F. Benson]], attempted to follow Carroll's lead, ''Through the Looking Glass'', as opposed to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', is rarely the identifiable influence.<ref name=h19/> [[Lawrence Durrell]] draws on "Jabberwocky" in his collection of comic short stories {{lang|fr|Sauve qui peut}} (1966): "You can damn well take a hundred lines, Dovebasket&nbsp;... 'In future I must not be such a blasted Borogrove'".<ref>Durrell, p. 61</ref> [[Douglas Adams]], in his ''[[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' series, borrows from the White Queen: "If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?"<ref>Stanfield, p. 43</ref> Adams's character Mr Prosser shares Alice's concern about being a mere figment of someone else's dream: "He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it".<ref>Adams, p. 19; and Stanfield, p. 39</ref> A disembodied quiet voice talks to Adams's [[Zaphod Beeblebrox]] in much the same way as the gnat in ''Through the Looking Glass'' talks quietly in Alice's ear.<ref>Stanfield, p. 40</ref> 

[[Angus Wilson]] drew on ''Through the Looking Glass'' for the title of his 1956 novel ''[[Anglo-Saxon Attitudes]]'' but otherwise his book has nothing to do with Carroll's story.<ref>Sutherland, John. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192122711.001.0001/acref-9780192122711-e-88"Anglo-Saxon Attitudes"], ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English'', Oxford University Press, 2005 {{subscription required}}</ref> Another title drawn from Carroll's book is the [[Red Queen hypothesis]] – derived from her words to Alice "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!"<ref>Carroll (1998), p. 42</ref> – that to survive, a species must evolve rapidly enough to counter evolutionary changes in ecologically competing species.<ref>{{cite OED|Red Queen}}</ref> ''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature'' cites the ''Alice'' books – not specifically the second – as important influences on [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' (1900), and comments, "''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' (1961) by [[Norton Juster]] recaptures the ''Alice'' style more naturally than do most other imitations (though according to Juster, he had never read ''Alice'' at the time he wrote it)".<ref name=h19>Hahn, p. 19</ref>

==Notes, references and sources==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}
===References===
{{Reflist}}
===Sources===
* {{cite book | last=Adams | first= Douglas|authorlink=Douglas Adams| title=The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy | year=1979 | location=London | publisher=Pan Books | isbn=0-330-25864-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Amor | first= Anne Clark| title= Lewis Carroll, A Biography| year=1979 | location= London| publisher= Dent|url=https://archive.org/details/lewiscarrollbiog0000amor/mode/2up |url-access = registration| isbn= 0-46-004302-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Bakewell | first= Michael |authorlink=Michael Bakewell| title= Lewis Carroll: A Biography| year= 1996| location= London | publisher= Heinemann | isbn= 0-43-404579-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Batey | first= Mavis |authorlink=Mavis Batey| title= Alice's Adventures in Oxford| year= 1980| location= London| publisher= Pitkin | isbn= 978-0-85372-295-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/alicesadventures0000bate/page/26/mode/2up |url-access = registration| oclc= 1193354915 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Batey | first= Mavis | title= The Adventures of Alice: The Story Behind the Stories Lewis Carroll Told| year= 1991| location= London| publisher= Macmillan|url= https://archive.org/details/adventuresofalic0000bate/page/64/mode/2up|url-access = registration| isbn= 0-33-356408-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Bloom| first= Harold|authorlink=Harold Bloom|chapter= Introduction|editor=Harold Bloom| title= Lewis Carroll| year= 1987| location= New York | publisher= Chelsea House |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/lewiscarroll00bloo/page/130/mode/2up|chapter-url-access = registration| isbn=0-87-754689-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Bolch |first=Judith |title=Masterplots |volume=1 |chapter=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland |edition=fourth |date= 2010 |publisher=Salem Press|location=Pasadena |isbn=978-0-89356-085-0 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/masterplots1801p0001unse/page/126/mode/1up |chapter-url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book | last = Carroll| first = Lewis|authorlink=Lewis Carroll| chapter=Through the Looking-Glass| title =Alice: A Special Centenary Edition | date =1998|orig-date=1871 | location =London | publisher = Macmillan| isbn =0-333-72272-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Carroll| first =Lewis | title = Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | date = 2003 |orig-date=1865| location =London | publisher = Penguin| isbn =978-0-14-143976-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Clark | first= Beverly Lyon|chapter= Carroll's Well-Versed Narrative|editor=Harold Bloom| title= Lewis Carroll| year= 1987| location= New York | publisher= Chelsea House |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/lewiscarroll00bloo/page/130/mode/2up|chapter-url-access = registration| isbn=0-87-754689-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Cohen | first= Morton N. | authorlink=Morton N. Cohen| title= Lewis Carroll: A Biography| year= 2015|orig-date=1995| location= London| publisher= Macmillan|url=https://archive.org/details/lewiscarrollbiog0000cohe_f9y0/page/96/mode/2up?q=%22Hetton&view=theater |url-access = registration| isbn= 978-1-44-728613-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Cohen | first = Morton N.|author2= Anita Gandolfo| title = Lewis Carroll and the House of Macmillan| date = 1987| location = Cambridge| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 0-52-125602-X |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Durrell | first=Lawrence|authorlink=Lawrence Durrell | chapter= Taking the Consequences| title=Sauve qui peut | year=1966 | location=London | publisher=Faber |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sauvequipeut0000lawr/page/64/mode/2up |chapter-url-access = registration| isbn= 0-57-109224-1 |ref=none }}
* {{cite book | last= Elwyn Jones| first= Jo|author2= J. Francis Gladstone| title= The Alice Companion: A Guide to Lewis Carroll's Alice Books| year= 1998| location= New York| publisher= New York University Press|url= https://archive.org/details/alicecompaniongu0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up|url-access = registration| isbn= 0-81-474245-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Fowler| first=H. W. |authorlink=H. W. Fowler| title= A Dictionary of Modern English Usage| year= 1926|url=https://archive.org/details/bwb_P9-APU-850/page/n3/mode/2up |location=Oxford | publisher= Oxford University Press| oclc= 1414849200 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Gardner |editor1-first=Martin|editor2=Mark Burstein |title=The Annotated Alice |edition=150th Anniversary |date=2015|location=New York|publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-24543-1}}
* {{cite book | editor-last = Gaye | editor-first = Freda  | year = 1967 | title = Who's Who in the Theatre | edition = fourteenth | location = London | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | oclc = 5997224 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last =Hahn | editor-first = Daniel|editor-link=Daniel Hahn| title = The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature| date =2015|orig-date=1984|edition=second | location =Oxford and New York | publisher =Oxford University Press | isbn =978-0-19-969514-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last =Knowles | editor-first =Elizabeth | title = The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations|edition=fourth| date = 2004| location =Oxford and New York | publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn =0-19-860720-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Knox | first= Ronald|authorlink=Ronald Knox| title=In Three Tongues | year=1959 | location=London | publisher=Chapman and Hall |url=https://archive.org/details/inthreetonguesed0000knox/page/n5/mode/2up?q=jabberwocky |url-access = registration| oclc=1150037202 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Lancelyn Green | first=Roger | authorlink=Roger Lancelyn Green|title=Notes to 'Through the Looking-Glass' | year=1998 | location=Oxford | publisher= Oxford University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/alicesadventures0000carr_z7s0/page/n7/mode/2up |url-access = registration| isbn=0-19-283374-X |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Leslie | first=Shane|authorlink=Shane Leslie|chapter= Lewis Carroll and the Oxford Movement | title=Aspects of Alice|editor=Robert S. Phillips | year=1971|orig-date=1933| location=New York | publisher=Vanguard Press | isbn=978-0-8149-0700-9|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/aspectsofalicele0000phil/page/426/mode/2up |chapter-url-access = registration| oclc=1319183432 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last= Mitford | editor-first= Nancy |editor-link=Nancy Mitford| title= Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy| year= 1957| location= London| publisher= Hamish Hamilton |url=https://archive.org/details/noblesseobligean0000nanc |url-access = registration| oclc= 1828447 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Muir | first= Percy |authorlink=Percy Muir| title= English Children's Books: 1600–1900| year= 1954| location= London| publisher= Batsford|url= https://archive.org/details/englishchildrens0000unse/page/140/mode/2up?q=sequel&view=theater|url-access = registration| oclc= 1244716233 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Norwich | first= John Julius|authorlink=John Julius Norwich| title=Christmas Crackers | year=1982|orig-date=1980 | location=London | publisher=Penguin |url=https://archive.org/details/christmascracker0000unse_z2b9/page/212/mode/2up |url-access = registration| isbn=0-14-00-6052-9 }}
* {{cite book | editor-last = Parker | editor-first = John  | year = 1936 | title = Who's Who in the Theatre | location = London | edition = eighth | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | oclc = 655107788 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Price| first= R. G. G.| title= A History of Punch| year= 1957| location= London| publisher= Collins|url= https://archive.org/details/historyofpunch0000rggp/page/158/mode/2up|url-access = registration| oclc= 1444144 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last = Sarzano | first = Frances | title = Sir John Tenniel| date = 1948| location = London| publisher = Art and Technics| oclc = 945160 |ref=none}}
*{{cite journal |last= Stanfield|first= Sarah| title = The Hitch Hiker's Guide to Wonderland: Douglas Adams and Lewis Carroll | journal = The Carrollian| date = March 2020|issn=1462-6519|url = https://archive.org/details/carrollian-033/page/28/mode/2up |ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Stedman|first=Jane W.|year=1996|title=W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre|location=Oxford and New York| publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-816174-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last= Weaver | first= Warren |authorlink=Warren Weaver| title= Alice in Many Tongues| year= 1964| location= Madison | publisher= University of Wisconsin Press |oclc=1145784122 |ref=none}}

==External links==
*{{wikiquote-inline|Through the Looking-Glass|''Through the Looking-Glass''}}
*{{Commons category-inline|Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There|''Through the Looking-Glass''}}
*[https://sites.google.com/site/lewiscarrollillustratedalice/ A catalogue of illustrated editions of the Alice books from 1899 to 2009]
*[https://sites.google.com/view/through-the-looking-glass--150/home?fbclid=IwAR2Xiw-gh672HxWJWb5Ihu2g-DM0nkOa32jKWrDg5_ZOwjd9hG3wE3nFkGA 150 anniversary website]

;Online texts
*{{wikisource-inline|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There|single=true|''Through the Looking-Glass''}}
*{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/lewis-carroll/through-the-looking-glass/john-tenniel}}
*{{Gutenberg|no=12|name=Through the Looking-Glass}}
*{{librivox book | title=Through the Looking-Glass | author=Lewis Carroll}}

{{Alice|state=collapse}}
{{Lewis Carroll}}
{{Authority control}}

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