Revisiting Alice

lice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and where is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations?

I re-read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll last week. My goodness, I certainly did not remember how hilarious this book is! I hadn't laughed that hard in a book since earlier this year, when I read Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse. The puns, nonsense verses and witty phrases are so ingenious.

It put me in mind of my family's trip to England a couple of years ago. We went to the British library and saw the original Alice In Wonderland manuscript. Here is the portion that was on display when we went:

I remember being amazed by the illustrations the author drew, and how perfect his handwriting was. Oh how I longed to take it in my hands and page through it!

This has officially become one of my "comfort books". I'm so thankful for the classics that you can return to again and again, finding something new to delight in or catching something you didn't the first time.