The entire story is a dream. Alice went to a magic world through the looking-glass. In that world, things are the opposite, people live backwards and characters are the chessmen (though I am not familiar with it). Alice reached the 8th square and became Queen.
The author-Lewis Carroll was quite of imagination. In that world, all creatures can speak; people have to go to the opposite direction to reach their destination.
有个疑问 这个书是2部分 分成 Adventures in Wonderland , Through the Looking-Glass还是……? 我看的版本讲的全是镜子探险
我惟独只知道有Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,却不知有这么一个叫做Through the Looking-Glass的续篇。好多版本都是把两个故事捆绑在一起的,虽然两者并无任何联系,不过有同样一个叫做Alice的小女孩作为主人公,而两个故事都是两场梦罢了。我记得是沈从文还是梁实秋(以前我毫无理由的把两人常常搞混,所以给以后记忆的梳理带来了不少麻烦)翻译过这部作品,很有影响,他是译作阿丽思的,杨绛在书中提到Alice的时候,便是用的“阿丽思”。我还是觉得爱丽斯这个名字更有味道。照说读这样的童话作品是很有趣的——而我确实体会到了不少的乐趣,包括对自己英文水平的信心的提高——列侬小时候最喜欢的两部书里面,就有我们可爱的爱丽斯。或许是在后魔戒时代,或曰后哈利波特时代,大家对此类作品的要求已经水涨船高,我体会到的是盎然兴致,却没有灵魂的震动。只有把她放回一个半世纪之前,也许才能体会到她的重要意义。我不知道乔治卢卡斯在《星球大战》力创造出那么多奇形怪状的外星生物是不是受了Alice在Wonderland里面见闻的影响;我也不知道C.S.Lewis在《纳尼亚传奇》里设计几个小朋友钻过衣橱就进入另一块新天地,与Alice穿过镜子就进入另一个世界又没有必然联系;但是,作为神话传统创造的所谓神话原型,他们终究是一脉相承的。其实我在图书馆借到的这本书算是一个善本,年代久远,是上世纪二十年代的,推测是外教漂洋过海带过来的,上面印了几处“华西协和大学”的蓝印,还有两处“1952年院系调整转入四川大学藏书”的蓝印,当经历了不少的历史,也见证了人世的沧桑吧!正如Through the Looking-Glass结尾的一行所写:"Life, what is it but a dream?"
吾荐
2008-1-15
Alice in wonderland was written several years earlier than Through looking glass. People put these two books together because the latter was a continuation of the former, not only in the story content itself, but also in contriving the dry but funny absurdity.