Revisiting Wonderland

Lewis Carroll's Alice made a lasting impression on me. As a child, I was first fascinated by the Disney movie and later mesmerized by Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. The books were full of whimsy, nonsense, fantastical creatures, and an inquisitive and precocious girl protagonist, which were all very appealing.

Luckily, there are a number of good books for adults heavily influenced by Carroll's classics.

Melanie Benjamin's Alice I Have Been is a historical novel on the life of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who as a girl was the inspiration for Carroll's fictional Alice. Benjamin blends historical fiction with a good deal of suspense. And, according to Kirkus, "offers a finely wrought portrait of Alice that seamlessly blends fact with fiction."

Gregory Maguire is adept at revisiting and reworking beloved fairy tales, and he manages to do it again in After Alice. In Maguire's narrative, Alice's friend Ada follows her down the rabbit hole. Readers are also given the above-ground perspective of Alice's family and friends. Kirkus, in a starred review, stated, "A brilliant and nicely off-kilter reading of the children’s classic, retrofitted for grown-ups—and a lot of fun."

For readers who prefer a darker narrative, try Christina Henry's Alice, a twisted tale tinged with a bit of horror. Mad Alice is caught, not in Wonderland but a mental asylum, and when she finally escapes, she begins to put together the pieces of what happened to her. Kirkus included the title on a "must-read speculative fiction" list this year.

Do you have a favorite Alice rewrite?