Today I was just resting on my couch watching Lie to Me and the main guy said, “Are you sure you want to go down this rabbit hole”. This sparked some interest in me because the show had nothing to do with cards, talking cats, or a foolish little girl, but yet it’s making a reference to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. There are many references such as this to the rabbit hole and wonderland in TV, movies, books, and many other things.
So naturally the question that comes up is “why is Alice so popular?”
Honestly I don’t know, but I can try my best to explain it.
First of all the book was immensely popular when it was first published 144 years ago, even Queen Victoria read it. However many books were popular in that time period, so how did Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a children’s book, manage to stay popular for 144 years?
I guess children and adults are enchanted by Alice’s adventures, the idea of a wonderland where the laws or our world don’t exist intrigues them, which causes them to tell their children and friends about the book who tell their children and friends and so on, which causes the book to still maintain popularity after 144 years.
Many people have blogged about being unattached to Alice as a main character, because we don’t know about her background and her having little personality. This seems to be a bit strange, because even though the book has a main character that is hard to relate with, the book has achieved a great amount of success and popularity. It is very strange how Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a children’s book, has achieved a lot of success due to its story of how a innocent and foolish little girl falls down a rabbit hole into a land with no rules and wonder.
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The Alice Project #12 
I knew Alice in Wonderland was old, but I didn’t know it was that old. That is pretty interesting to know how long this book has been around. But to answer your question, I think this story is so popular because it is so unique. It still has the “little kid vibe” but it is not about a prince or a happily ever after or anything we are familiar with. We are with Alice through her whole adventure in Wonderland. So many interesting things happen, that we never want to stop reading or stop watching. Throughout the story it continues to surprise you and you are just as entertained as Alice. I know I will keep the story going by sharing this story with my children some day.
The history that you have provided has really interested me. Just as Susie said, I had no idea that Queen Victoria read this same book that I am reading in my 10t grade English class. But one thought that I have behind Alice’s popularity, is that it has unique situations and characters unlike any other story. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have stood out to children for years because of the mysterious thrill it provides. It also gets the children’s imaginations going causing them to create their own wonderland. As children were inspired by the story when they were young, as they grew up they probably used references in everyday life and that’s how it got going in today’s entertainment industry.
If you would give me the pleasure of helping you explain, I would attribute the books success mainly to the fact that it was published by a successful person during the Victorian Era, and if you know anything about the Victorian Era you’ll realize that this was the period of time the middle class got an education in England. The mass populace started reading books you could say. Not to mention at the time the book was written the concept of a dream world was somewhat of a breakthrough, and the idea that wonderland could actually exist (which the book does nothing to discredit) made people fall in love with the book.
Alice is somewhat of a hollow shell when it comes to being a book character. Of course then you can say that she must be doing something right, because the book is a wild success. Well that would be true if Alice was the focus of the book. Contrary to what many people believe Alice isn’t what the book is telling you about, the book is telling you about wonderland. The book is successful because it gets its point, wonderland, across very well, it doesn’t need Alice to be an emotional wreck or anything else brimming with personality to be successful.
“Alice” is a classic. Just as “Cinderella”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Lion King”, and “Snow White” are classics, “Alice” just is. Honestly, I’m really not sure why, either. Why are any of the stories I previously mentioned classics? The interesting thing about “Alice”, though, is the fact that it can be read by people of any age and serve a different purpose. For children it’s an exciting story. For teens or adults it makes us almost want to go back to our childhood innocence, so that such places as Wonderland are possible. For scholars, it’s interesting to analyze. “Alice”, when analyzed, can mean a multitude of different things, as we have proven in our blogs. So, maybe it is just timeless because everyone can relate to it in some way, be it a child dreaming of Wonderland or an adult laughing at the digs on society hidden deep within the rabbit hole.
Wow! I had no idea that Queen Victoria read this book!
I agree with you that the reason this book has remained so popular is because of Wonderland. This amazing land has enchanted many of its readers who then recommend the book to family and friends. Also, I believe many parents who read the book as children, remember how much they loved the story of Alice and recommend it to their own children. Lewis Carroll wrote the story for children, so it makes sense that children love the story so much, carrying their love for it forwards to their own children. I believe this childish love of a nonsense story has brought this book through its 144 years of popularity.