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Alice in Wonderland book cover

Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll · 1865 · 12 essays

Twelve essays on Carroll's book and the playable version of it: whether it is worth reading as an adult and why the first edition was recalled, what the hookah scene actually says, six screen tea parties ranked against the text, the case for the stranger sequel, the whole cast with the chapter each one appears in, Jabberwocky word by word, and the four essays that pick up where the Saylia Alice in Wonderland podcast leaves off.

Role-play Alice's Adventures in WonderlandListen to the podcast
A circa-1858 photograph by Lewis Carroll of young Alice Liddell, the real girl behind the book, standing in a garden in an oval vignette
Twenty-Two Copies

Is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Worth Reading as an Adult? Yes, and Here Is Why the First Edition Was Pulled

It takes about two hours, it is ruder than you remember, and the printing you would most like to own was withdrawn by its own author. Twenty-two copies of it are left.

September 4, 2026 · 8 min read

John Tenniel's illustration of the blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of a mushroom, with Alice looking over the edge
Smoke and Mushrooms

Is Alice in Wonderland About Drugs? What Lewis Carroll Actually Wrote, and Where the Reading Came From

A caterpillar on a mushroom with a hookah, a girl who keeps changing size, and a rumour with no source. The date the psychedelic reading took hold is easier to pin down than the rumour.

September 4, 2026 · 9 min read

Peter Newell's 1901 illustration of the Hatter dipping his watch in his cup of tea, with Alice, the March Hare and the Dormouse at the table
Tea Party, Six Ways

Alice in Wonderland, Book vs Film: From 1933 to Tim Burton, Ranked for Faithfulness

Six stagings of the same tea party, counting the one on the page. The most faithful is a television film, and the one that made a billion dollars is not an adaptation at all.

September 4, 2026 · 10 min read

Peter Newell's 1902 illustration of Alice kneeling to help the fallen White Knight up after he tumbles from his horse
Six Impossible Things

Is Through the Looking-Glass Worth Reading After Alice? Yes, and It Is the Stranger Book

Humpty Dumpty, the White Knight, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the Jabberwock are all in the second book, not the first. It also has a plot, and the plot is a chess game.

September 4, 2026 · 9 min read

Blanche McManus's 1899 colour plate of Alice standing before the winged Gryphon
Two Queens

Who's Who in Alice in Wonderland: a Character Guide, With the Chapter Each One Appears In

About twenty named characters, each one a single joke held without blinking. Also: the two queens people keep confusing, and the courtroom rule the King invents on the spot.

September 4, 2026 · 10 min read

John Tenniel's illustration of the Jabberwock, a winged beast with a long neck and clawed hands, in the tulgey wood
Twas Brillig

What Does "Jabberwocky" Actually Mean? Lewis Carroll's Nonsense Poem, Word by Word

A poem of invented words that everyone understands anyway, with an explanation Carroll wrote into his own sequel and delivered through an egg.

September 4, 2026 · 8 min read

A tiny Alice amid an impossible Escher-like maze of staircases, doors, clocks and bottles — Alice in Wonderland cover art for the Saylia podcast
Math Teacher's Revenge

Alice in Wonderland isn't nonsense — it's a math teacher's logic puzzle (2026)

Lewis Carroll taught mathematics at Oxford for 26 years. Read Alice in Wonderland knowing that and the nonsense reorganizes itself: every weird image has a rule under it. Here's the engineered logic hiding in a children's book.

June 7, 2026 · 6 min read

Alice facing the Queen of Hearts and her army of cards — Alice in Wonderland cover art for the Saylia podcast
What 9-Year-Old You Missed

What you missed in Alice in Wonderland as a kid — and can't unsee as an adult (2026)

At nine, Alice in Wonderland is a girl having a weird day. At thirty, it's a precise account of losing control of your body, your identity, and the rules — disguised as a children's book. Here's what you missed the first time.

June 7, 2026 · 6 min read

Alice facing the glowing grin of the Cheshire Cat in a moonlit forest — Alice in Wonderland cover art for the Saylia podcast
Cheshire Cat Therapy

The Cheshire Cat gave you better life advice than your therapist (2026)

He's in the book for barely ten pages, but the Cheshire Cat owns the lines people put on their forearms. Carroll wrote four pieces of usable life advice into one minor character — the fork in the road, “we're all mad here,” the grin without a cat, and refusing the shape.

June 7, 2026 · 6 min read

Alice falling in silhouette amid a teapot, playing cards, a key, a top hat and a pocket watch — Alice in Wonderland cover art for the Saylia podcast
It's Always Alice

Every place Alice in Wonderland is hiding in pop culture — and you quote it weekly (2026)

You quote Alice in Wonderland constantly without noticing — every time you say “down the rabbit hole” or “red pilled.” Here's the trail from an 1865 children's book to the Matrix, a 1967 rock anthem, every portal story since, and the names in your cryptography textbook.

June 7, 2026 · 6 min read

Lewis Carroll's 1858 photograph of the three Liddell sisters, Ina, Alice and Edith, lying together on a patterned sofa in pale summer dresses, Alice resting her head on her arm at the right
Which Dreamed ItSpoilers

Through the Looking-Glass Ending Explained: Alice or the Red King?

The last chapter of the sequel is a question put to a cat. Two fat brothers in a wood set it up eight chapters earlier, and nobody in the book ever answers it.

October 3, 2026 · 6 min read

Arthur Rackham's colour illustration of Alice in a pink-flowered dress throwing her arms up as a whirl of playing cards flies down at her, with small animals at her feet
The Second DreamSpoilers

Alice in Wonderland Ending Explained: The Dream Has a Second Dreamer

Everyone remembers that it was all a dream. Almost nobody remembers that once Alice wakes, Carroll hands the dream to someone else and lets her keep the last page.

October 3, 2026 · 6 min read