THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS

 

AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE

 

This 1871 novel is a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which was published six years previously.  In Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll depicts themes and settings that simulate a mirror image of Wonderland.  Other common devices in the novel include frequent changes in size, the imagery of playing cards and chess, and frequent changes in time and spatial directions.

 The novel begins with Alice playing with a white kitten and a black kitten—posing the first opposites—who are the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in the first novel.  When Alice ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror's reflection, she pokes at a wall-hung mirror behind the fireplace and discovers she is able to step through it to an alternative world.

The novel is also notable for containing the two famous poems Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter, which can both be accessed easily via the following contents page.