Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Book summary

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, published in 1865, is a classical work of nonsense literature. Carroll came up with the story of Wonderland during a boat ride in 1862 with the three daughters of his friend and dean of Christ Church, Henry Liddell. Carroll was inspired to create the character of Alice through one of Liddell’s daughters, who was also named Alice. However, the author denied this vehemently whenever he was asked. Alice's Adventure in Wonderland is a children's story, and yet has never gone out of print, due to the expert manipulation of language, logic, and wordplay that was featured in the book. Lewis Carroll was a skilled mathematician, and he included several mathematical and logical problems in his work. 

The fantastical imagery of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland has inspired several renowned authors and painters like James Joyce, Neil Gaiman, Salvador Dali, and Giles Deleuze. Lewis Carroll initially illustrated the book himself, but upon its publication, John Tenniel became the illustrator. The gothic aesthetic of his illustrations is indicative of the Victorian children’s books aesthetic that was popular during that time.

Alice's Adventure in Wonderland is about a young girl's extraordinary dream adventure, which begins when she falls asleep one afternoon set in the English countryside. The story is written in the third person past tense and storytelling is done through Alice's monologues. The fact that Alice was asleep when the whole series of adventures take place is revealed at the end of the book, which is when Alice tells her sister about her dream.

Alice is sitting with her older sister on a riverbank, and her sister is reading a book that has no illustrations. Bored, Alice feels sleepy but she becomes alert when she catches sight of a white rabbit hurrying past her wearing a waistcoat and a watch. Her curiosity makes her follow the Rabbit down a rabbit hole. Alice falls through a long and dark tunnel, lined with shelves and cupboards. She lands safely in a hall that is locked with doors of all sizes and finds a key on the table that doesn't fit in any of the doors. She finds a bottle on the table labeled 'DRINK ME', and she drinks it, but it causes her to shrink. She finds a small door that opens into a beautiful garden, but she is unable to open it because she forgets the key on the table.

Then she eats a cake which she finds under the table labeled, 'EAT ME' and she grows to an incredible size. Her head hits the ceiling and she begins to cry. A pool of tears forms around her and the animals start swimming in it. She sees a white rabbit hurrying past her, and he drops his fan and gloves as he is hurrying away. Alice collects the Rabbit's lost items and they cause her to shrink. Alice encounters a mouse in the pool of her tears, and he promises Alice to tell her the history of his family with cats. All the animals swim to the shore to dry themselves off. The mouse delivers a lecture on William the conqueror as it is a dry subject. When this doesn't work, the Dodo hosts a caucus race in which all of them have to play together and run in different directions which eventually dries them off.

The White Rabbit returns in a rage and taking Alice for his maidservant orders her to get the replacements for the fan and gloves from his house. Alice gets frightened and without a second thought runs towards the Rabbit's house. In the Rabbit's house, Alice begins to grow again after drinking from an unlabeled bottle. She grows so enormous this time that she fills up the entire room. The White Rabbit assembles a team of animals to remove Alice from the house. Their efforts prove to be useless until the animals start throwing stones at her. The stones turn into cakes and Alice eats some of them which shrinks her. After shrinking, Alice escapes into the forest.

In the forest, Alice comes across a huge caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. The Caterpillar is smoking hookah and meditating. Alice gets confused when she has to explain who she is to Caterpillar as she has been so many Alices lately. Caterpillar tests Alice by making her recite the school verse which Alice gets wrong. Further, Alice tells Caterpillar about her present state and that she wants to grow to her normal height. The Caterpillar tells Alice that the mushroom has two sides, one side will make her bigger and the other side will shrink her but he doesn't tell her which side performs which function. She experiments with pieces from each side, and bit by bit she gets back to her ideal height.

Alice notices that a fish footman delivers an invitation to a frog footman that the Queen has invited the Duchess to a croquet match. Alice gains entry into the house, where she comes across the Duchess nursing her baby and the cook preparing a cauldron of soup with painful amounts of pepper and throwing utensils at the Duchess for singing a harsh, unpleasant lullaby. She also sees a smiling Cheshire cat on the kitchen hearth. The Duchess hands Alice the baby and leaves to get ready for croquet. Alice takes the baby out to safety and realizes that the baby is a pig, so she lets it run away into the forest.

After leaving the Duchess's house, the Cheshire cat guides Alice to the March Hare's house. There, Alice finds the March Hare, the Hatter, and the Dormouse seated at one end of the table having a tea party. They exchange riddles and talk about nonsense. Alice leaves annoyed and angered by such stupidity. She enters a huge hole in a large tree and lands again in the giant hall. Alice eats the mushroom, maintains the appropriate height, gets the keys, opens the door, and enters the garden. She meets three large cards who are painting white roses with red color before the Queen arrives. Finally, the Queen arrives with a huge procession of cards along with the white Rabbit, Knave, and the King of hearts. Everyone bows to the Queen except Alice. The Queen gets offended at first but then invites Alice to play croquet which ends up in chaos due to the arrival of the disappearing Cheshire cat.

The Queen orders the Cheshire cat's beheading, but that isn't possible as the cat appears to have a head without a body. Alice is threatened by the Queen for rescuing the Duchess and is sent away with the Gryphon. The Gryphon and Alice visit the Mock Turtle where they dance and play a game until the Gryphon alerts Alice about the beginning of a trial. The trial is conducted for the Knave of hearts, who is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The Hatter and the cook are presented for evidence, but the king's interrogation is laughably pointless. Alice starts growing and decides to stay there till there's room for her. When she is called up to testify, she forgets how large she has grown and goes forward knocking the animals and the jury box. She tries to assemble everyone the way they were as quickly as she can. Alice stands up to the Queen of Hearts when she yells at her, and she refuses to leave. She tells them that they are just cards, which is when they attack her. Alice squats them aside with ease and awakens to her sister calling her name. She tells her sister the whole marvelous dream about Wonderland. Her sister listens fondly to the fanciful dream and hopes that Alice will forever remember Wonderland.