Publishers Weekly - Audio
02/29/2016
Reader Reynolds buoyantly leads listeners down the rabbit hole and into the topsy-turvy world of Carroll’s Wonderland. When the young Alice follows a waistcoat-wearing rabbit holding a pocket watch, she finds herself in a fantastical world of talking mice, disappearing cats, hookah-smoking caterpillars, fish-headed footmen, and babies who turn into pigs. She shrinks smaller than a mouse and grows tall as a tree, participates in a mad tea party, plays croquet using flamingos for mallets, and runs afoul of the ill-tempered Queen of Hearts, whose cry of “Off with their heads!” seems to be the answer to most anything. It is a madcap, nonsensical entertainment, and Reynolds leaps into this tale’s telling with enthusiastic aplomb. Fully embracing the material, Reynolds delivers the author’s whimsical prose, poetry, and quirky characters with just the right touch of theatricality: bigger than life, but not completely over-the-top. It is a fine-tuned, enjoyable performance that allows the wonder of Wonderland to shine. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
"We immediately fell in love with these awesome vintage-style redesigns of classic novels." —Flavorwire
Sue Monk Kidd
Alice in Wonderland was probably my favorite character. She’s a girl on a quest, meeting dangerous and wondrous creatures, alternately shrinking and growing. I reveled in her braveries.”
AudioFile
What a delight to hear Michael York’s rendition of this classic…[He] humanizes a character who has become a near stereotype over the decades…York’s elegant accents highlight Carroll’s wordplay and the tangles it makes of Alice’s distorted reality…As Alice explores Wonderland, York is a superb guide.”
Booklist
York’s portrayal of Alice and the many strange characters she meets is a real treat. Reading in his native British accent and in sonorous tones, he is a terrific storyteller. York gives all characters, from the Queen of Hearts to the Cheshire Cat, distinctive voices and personalities, never resorting to cartoonlike portrayals. He personifies Mice in bright tones, calling to mind her enthusiasm and inquisitiveness. The audio is a great way for youngsters to experience and appreciate Carroll’s fantasy, even if some of the phrasing is a bit antiquated for modern listeners. Adults might also enjoy revisiting this multi-layered children’s classic. An entertaining and lively performance.”
Virginia Woolf
Only Lewis Carroll has shown us the world upside down as a child sees it, and has made us laugh as children laugh.”
Masterpieces of World Literature
At once a biting social and political satire sufficiently complex to satisfy the most sophisticated adult and a delightfully whimsical fairy tale to capture the fancy of the imaginative child.”
Art Quarterly
An elegant edition.
ForeWord Magazine - Patty Comeau
For A Is for Alice:
'Each image offered here provides evidence of its creation; there is a reminder, with each turn of the page, of the hand and thought that guided each groove. Walker's ability to impress such great detail (as in the grain of both the fur of the Cheshire Cat, and the branch upon which he is perched) in a print made with woodblocks is remarkable.... At the heart of this book is the art of the book, pages kissed by poetic samples of Carroll's writing and bound using artisan techniques onsite at The Porcupine's Quill headquarters. It is a high-quality, collectible edition in which fans of the Alice stories, bibliophiles, and young readers will delight.
White Rabbit Tales [Newsletter of the Lewis Carrol
[Steadman's drawings] are still remarkably fresh and unique.
Toronto Star
Ferocious Steadman spin.
Victoria Times-Colonist - Liz Pogue
Sophisticated humor
Waterbury Republican-American - Betsy Daley
Alice as you've rarely seen her... fun for all ages... full of the wit and wisdom Carroll originally gave us.
dingbatmag.com
Don't count on a bookful of sweet, charming etchings of the shrinking golden girl; this is a somewhat less flattering Alice than the one we've come to know and expect. In over 40 pen and ink illustrations, this Wonderland is more tempestuous; of greater, grittier (and funnier) distortion... when dangerous satirists like Steadman exercise their imaginations and lyric, delirious pens in the slivers and shards of a distorted world look out.
San Diego Union-Tribune - David Elliott
Explosive ink drawings... acidic whimsies splash across pages, bringing dear Alice a newly stimulating cup of tea.
Seattle Times - Mary Ann Gwinn
Carroll's hall-of-mirrors children's tale and Steadman's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" style make for an eerily perfect fit.
Denver Post - Clair Martin
Pair[s] a perpetually suspicious Alice with peculiar creatures that well warrant her chariness.
ForeWord Magazine
For A Is for Alice:
'Each image offered here provides evidence of its creation; there is a reminder, with each turn of the page, of the hand and thought that guided each groove. Walker's ability to impress such great detail (as in the grain of both the fur of the Cheshire Cat, and the branch upon which he is perched) in a print made with woodblocks is remarkable.... At the heart of this book is the art of the book, pages kissed by poetic samples of Carroll's writing and bound using artisan techniques onsite at The Porcupine's Quill headquarters. It is a high-quality, collectible edition in which fans of the Alice stories, bibliophiles, and young readers will delight.
Patty Comeau
Library Journal
10/15/2015
Academic audiences will need little persuasion to see this volume as a relevant addition to any collection not already holding a copy of the 1969 Maecenas Press edition of the same work. However, general readers will find much to contemplate here, as some may still see Dalí as the "melting clock guy" and will be surprised to find that these gestural, high-energy gouaches were painted by the same artist who produced all of those finely wrought oil paintings with their asymmetrical use of volumes of sky and sand. Unlike more straightforward pairings of literature with surrealism, such as Max Ernst's illustrations for René Crevel's Babylon, the images accompanying Carroll's text do not so much explicate the story as extend it, providing both a narrative-inspired and narrative-independent dream sequence that simultaneously meanders among and augments the text's many symbols. The introduction by Burstein (president emeritus, Lewis Carroll Soc. of North America) and Thomas Banchoff (emeritus, Brown Univ.) provides a valuable grounding in the artist's interests and obsessions at the time the gouaches were created. VERDICT A worthy purchase for public and academic libraries.—Jenny Brewer, Helen Hall Lib., League City, TX
AUG/SEP 03 - AudioFile
When reading Alice on one’s own, it’s easy to have one’s attention seized by Carroll’s many fanciful characters--the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and so on. Listening to Shelly Frasier read it reminds one of a crucial aspect to this story: It’s a little girl who’s experiencing these adventures, and, as Frasier’s subtly inflected voice reminds us, Alice can go from excited to terrified in an instant. In addition to getting her voice just right, Frasier masters all of Carroll’s other verbal gymnastics, from the Dormouse’s snores to the dreamy illogic of the Caterpillar, and, of course, the nonsensical verse. This is a great pleasure. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine