'The Dark Side of Alice in Wonderland' delves into the intriguing mysteries surrounding Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and his famous work, presenting a thought-provoking analysis. Readers should approach it with an open mind and a critical eye, as it delves into some controversial and speculative territory.

A very well thought out and researched novel for anyone wanting to know more of the beloved Alice in Wonderland story. That story holds a special place in my heart. So learning more of it and how much it has been altered to each take opens the story further. This book however did feel a bit repetitive but brought new information overall to me.

I am a fan of fairytales or children stories that are written from a whole different perspective - adult-oriented and darker or even dystopian. This did not disappoint that side of my reading choices! Granted this is not for everyone because it is "dark". However, fthose who like stories written as I described will thoroughly enjoy where the author has taken us while visiting Alice in Woderland! Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #NetGalley #TheDarkSideofAliceinWonderland

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this book incredibly interesting the author really kept me hooked until the end. very well written I highly recommend.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. A fascinating book. Highly recommend if you love Alice in Wonderland.

An interesting and all-encompassing think piece on all of the dark edges of Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland.

Youngman does an excellent job of presenting information but allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions about it, which feels particularly important when discussing the controversial figure that is Charles Dodgson.

A lot of the content at the beginning of the book regarding Dodgson’s “child friends” is pretty creepy. Certainly most of us were aware of the basics of it, but it’s fairly unsettling to read about in detail. Even acknowledging different cultural values than we have today, it’s hard to say Dodgson was completely innocent of any bad behavior.

One of the most interesting sections of the book is the Jack the Ripper chapter, though the evidence is pretty clear that Dodgson cannot be the mysterious killer. Also interesting are the many odd and sometimes very dark directions in which modern interpretations of Carroll’s work have gone. From the completely harmless (Wonderland murder mystery weekends and escape rooms! American McGee’s video games!) to the more morally nebulous (Lolita Alice, Alice in porn), it’s fascinating to see all the different ways that the story has been adapted to suit an update, a retelling, or a reworking.

a quirky narrative nonfiction book about Lewis Carroll and ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. essentially a transnational reception history. doesn’t shy away from topics including rumors of pedophilia, horror, & whether Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper(?) — most enjoyable chapters were on dreams, drugs, & surrealism. a really thorough account!

I was very interested in this book because it was a backstory of Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite childhood novels of all time. This book was really disturbing and made me uncomfortable. I would not recommend this for fans of the novel.

This review might be counter productive... but I wasn't keen on hearing all the sordid details. Perhaps I should have known what I was getting myself into, and for that I can't fault the book.

I appreciated all the research that was done for this book, however I had to put it down as I love Alice in Wonderland and it was kind of ruining the love of it for me.

Get ready for the good and the bad.

The Good:
1. The author did great research for this book
2. The cover is fabulous
3. This book will introduce you to other spin off work that is interesting and cool and will have you probably adding a few books to your TBR pile

The Bad:
1. Some people are really dark and have spun off stories that are really inappropriate for a child themed story
2. Lewis Caroll apparently was either a hopeful or practicing pedophile based on the research. (I just want to cry!!!!!)
3. The things I learned in this book could easily put me off this beautiful Alice in Wonderland tale. But I'm not going to let it because I've got great childhood memories of this one.

If you like seeing what's really behind the curtain, you should check out this book. There is some shocking stuff in it!!

As The Dark Side of Alice in Wonderland by Angela Youngman states, Alice in Wonderland is perhaps one of the world’s most widely read books of all times, being in constant reprint since its first edition in the late Nineteenth Century. It should be no surprise then, that the story has become a point of inspiration for many people, being adapted into cartoons, films, comics, and many less than savory things. This new book by Pen & Sword History tackles that very topic, as the author analyzes Alice’s use in things like drug culture, pornography, and subversive film and music. If that wasn’t shocking enough, the book compiles a lot of details that shed some questions about the life and habits of Lewis Carroll himself.

“Although the children’s story Alice in Wonderland has been in print for over 150 years, the mysteries and rumours surrounding the story and its creator Lewis Carroll have continued to grow. The Dark Side of Alice in Wonderland is the first time anyone has investigated the vast range of darker, more threatening aspects of this famous story and the way Alice has been transformed over the years. […] Was Carroll all that he seemed? The stories of his child friends, nude photographs and sketches affect the way modern audiences look at the writer. Was he just a lonely academic, closet paedophile, brilliant puzzle maker or even Jack the Ripper? For a book that began life as a simple children’s story, it has resulted in a vast array of dark concepts, ideas and mysteries. So step inside the world of Alice in Wonderland and discover a dark side you never knew existed!”

While this doesn’t go out of its way to be an expose on Lewis Carroll, I was somewhat unaware of his less than stellar reputation in our modern era. Perhaps a victim of cultural relativism, Carroll had some questionable habits such as hosting a large cadre of kids he called his “child friends” for sleepovers and outdoor activities. His closeness to these children was largely not in question at the time, but some tried to steer clear of being associated with him nonetheless.

Something happened between him and the family of “the real Alice”, a girl named Alice Liddell, that has haunted scholars to this day. Was he having an affair with her older sister, her mother, her Nanny, or he he propose to one of the children? We will likely have no idea, but this “missing” bit of history combined with nude photographs that were unearthed, mostly of younger women, call his motivations into question. That said, the most talked about photo that you see Carroll detractors roll out was basically proven to be a fraud, so you can’t really trust all of what you see.

The rest of the book goes through chapters like a sexualized Alice, drug Alice etc. and is largely stuff I was already aware of. This portion of the book was a bit weaker than the beginning and felt more like a series of essays than a cohesive thought about Alice in Wonderland. You could argue that just about any story has it’s share of pornographic content and other derivatives that corrupt and eschew the message of the original work, Alice is Wonderland isn’t that special, it’s just older. Some of this content gets a bit repetitive, as sections begin to repeat themselves, but overall the content was fine.

I liked this book, but I felt that it sort of lost it’s way as it went. The best section was the biographical information on Carroll, and I was somewhat unnerved that I had never heard much about it. I was pretty shocked by the “child friends” stuff, but largely find that there is an entire wing of historians that seem to want to paint every notable children’s author as some sort of sexual deviant so I’m not willing to entirely write him off. I mean some clowns were trying to find dirt of Fred Rogers because “they just knew he was up to something!” Carroll did seem like he was trying to overcome his inability to have any sort of meaningful relationships with adult women, and for that I feel bad for him. If you are a fan of Alice and Wonderland and are prepared to have your innocent outlook on the book potentially shattered, look no further than The Dark Side of Alice in Wonderland by Angela Youngman.

Love love loved this book. I love Alice in wonderland find out the backstory and how it has evolved through the years was fascinating.

As much as I love the concept of Alice in Wonderland retellings they always end up either being a hit or miss.... mostly, in my case, I find them to be a miss.

This one... was no exception to that. While I like dark and gothic themes in titles -- especially retellings and fantasy titles -- I just was not really vibing with this one. There was a lot in here that just left me feeling... unsettled.

That's it. That's the whole review. I'm going to go chase this experience with the animated movie.

So, I'm going to wipe my mind clean of everything I just read here. La la la la laaaa....I didn't read that!

Seriously, this book wrecks your innocent enjoyment of Alice.

I mean, truth - Alice was always dark and surreal, but holy crap, people are weird. Lewis Carroll had...issues. And what was with the Jack the Ripper thing??? And the...um...adult Alice stuff with a turn toward Lolita and now I need to go pet a puppy.

The book was good. Some of the stuff on Carroll necessarily had gaps that moved into speculation. But the book was well written and may have just destroyed my innocence.

This is a DNF for me at 30ish%.

The first two chapters I found interesting. The rest was just a repeat of the same information over and over with a different source. I did not see the benefit in continuing to read.

I read this book because I loved the stories about Alice when I was growing up. The magical world that she was transported to with its fantastic creatures always thrilled me.

I thought that I would enjoy a story about the writer of those magical tales. What an interesting mind an story one must have to be able to imagine ‘wonderland’.

While there were many interesting facts about Charles Dodgson in the book, I did find it to be a bit repetitive and slow-paced.

An interesting, if slow, read for people interested in the background of Alice in Wonderland.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I have read Alice in Wonderland as a child. I have even read a few of the retellings of it over the years and seen the movies. There was a lot about the man who wrote it and the world he came from while creating this story. I know it is a children's story, but this shows so much I had not thought of or considered in all my years of loving this story. The Cheshire Cat was always my favorite character. This does makes me look at the book and/or books very differently.

Now most people will know of Alice in Wonderland from their childhood, either through the books or the Disney or Tim Burton films, what they may not know, however is the story of the book’s creation or its very wide and varied influence on many other genres and wide use throughout society over the years.
Angela Youngman’s book delves deeper into the books and its writer Charles Dodgeson, or Lewis Carroll as he is better known. Particularly his friendships with young girls and their connection to his passion for the new-fangled hobby of photography. These friendships had been a cause for much speculation and scandal in his lifetime and couple this with his photographs of these girls naked defiantly added to the belief of possible paedophilia. However, it is also pointed out that at the time these types of photographs were very fashionable and not thought of in the same way that we see them today. Another rumour that Dodgson was in fact ‘Jack the Ripper’ is touched on but quickly dismissed, but it is an entertaining theory none the less.
The book then goes onto examine Alice in Wonderlands wider influence. The illustrator John Tenniel was also the main cartoonist for the satirical publication ‘Punch’ and after the success of Alice in Wonderland he used it as a theme in many of his later political cartoons. Sadly, this was not the last time that Alice was used to this effect. The Nazis also used various themes from the book to support their ideology. I found the final section of the book to be perhaps the most interesting and it showed just how much the tale is still referenced today in modern culture. The theme of Alice is widely used in films of all types including Porn films. The ‘Steam Punk’ movement and fashion is heavily influenced by Alice in Wonderland. There have been Alice themed ‘escape rooms’ and murder mystery nights. Even the Chief Heston Blumenheck (as I call him) staged a Mad Hatters Tea Party at his restaurant and on his television programme. Dodgson’s book lends itself well to food related activities due to the Tea Party and Alice themed food and drink events are popular worldwide.
All in all, I found this to be an interesting and fascinating look into the origins of the children’s book and the its wider influences and I must admit that I found the latter section of the book to be the most interesting.

I received this and as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for giving me access.

Anything Wonderland, sign me up! I had such high hopes for this but unfortunately this fell short of wonder and awe for me. This became very repetitive and all came back to Dodgson enjoying the company of young children -- especial young girls. While aware that this would be a portion of darkness in the story, it wasn't all the darkness that was eluded in the synopsis.

If this was less repetitive (and I mean repetitive; every chapter referred back to Dodgson being essentially a pedophile) I might have enjoyed this more.