The Reprieve - Post I

Over lunch today the question came up about favourite books and films and I said that a recent DVD of a French film called Hidden (La Cache) had really left you wondering what the moral was. There are books that make the reader work as well and as the wine went round it was hard to come up with an example. However on boarding the train afterwards to head home it became obvious that based on the first chunk of reading that Jean-Paul Sartre’s second in the Roads to Freedom trilogy, The Reprieve, is going to be one of those books.

Where other writers might insert an asterisk or page break Sartre moves from one scenario to another with such fluidity you almost fail to realise the location has changed until someone you have never heard of starts talking. The blurb on the dust jacket describes the style in these terms: “Cutting incisively from one scene to another…” It leaves you desperate for a friendly face from the first book but even then there has been a gap and things have moved on with almost no explanation. This has been hard work today.

Bullet points from pages 1 – 50

* Things start with two things being established – that everyone is waiting to see what Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain manages to get out of Hitler at Munich and that France is expected to play a role helping the Czechs if the outcome is bad

* Characters in presumably German occupied border areas wait tensely to see what will happen with Milan Hlinka protecting his family behind closed doors and the diplomats receiving news that Hitler is postponing Chamberlain’s audience

* Quickly a host of characters are introduced with a man and a nurse involved in an affair in a hospital that faces being moved because in the event of a war it would be on the front line, a man who has come to Marseille to seek a better life and communists in Paris readying for the conflict

* There is a glimpse of familiar ground with Mathieu on holiday with his brother’s wife Odette at her villa and they talk about the war as he makes sand pies and thinks about Ivich who he has been writing to

* Then there is more confusion with the subject of everyone the prospect of war before another familiar couple – Daniel and Marcelle – appear and you discover they are married but she has not yet had Mathieu’s child

* Everyone is looking for signs of war and finding them in different things with Mathieu experiencing it in the heat of the desert, the diplomats starting to realise it is in the way Hitler treats Chamberlain and for those already in the firing line by stones being hurled and intimidation

More tomorrow…

book of books - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The reason for choosing to read what is often seen as a children’s book by Lewis Carroll was firstly to read the text free of the film version confusion and secondly to remind myself of the book I have not read since being a child.

On the first point there are differences between the book and the film versions, I’m thinking of the Disney version here mainly, with the book being much more episodic and short and based in far fewer locations than you might imagine.

On the second it made me realise that although when I read it as a child we were being told to keep a look out for mathematical and historical references (the mad hatter being mad because of lead poisoning as an example) it is possible to read it and enjoy it as a story of the power of childhood imagination.

Plot summary
Alice falls into a dream after noticing a white rabbit hopping by and in her dream state she follows the rabbit down a hole that falls for a long time. At the bottom there are doors, mostly locked except one small door looking onto a garden, and a table with a bottle marked ‘drink me’. This drink shrinks Alice who then spends sometime regretting that she did not remember the key. Once she finally manages to get to the right size she encounters several characters including a hookah smoking caterpillar, a mock turtle and a Cheshire Cat. But what continues to be a theme is the white rabbit who finally reappears with the queen and the king in their kingdom of playing cards. A game of croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos is broken up by threats of mass executions. A final court scene is broken up by Alice growing back to her normal size and then as the playing cards attack her she wakes to tell her sister all about it.

Is it well written?
From a style point of view what you have to admire is the ability to keep a dream state going without constantly reminding the reader that Alice is dreaming. This is done primarily through the confusing use of language and the constant disorientation Alice experiences in both size and her interaction with the animals she encounters. If you put to onside the search for some deeper hidden meaning and appreciate the power of imagination then this is a work of inspiration as well as enjoyment. The slight problem for an adult reader is the stigma attached by reading a ‘child’s book’ but then as Harry Potter and Curious Incident of the Dog… have proved it is quite acceptable to read a title aimed in principle at a younger reader.

Should it be read?
It is the sort of book that gets read at school then forgotten and lost underneath the interpretations of the films, both cartoon and acted, that add to the excesses of the story. This is part of the Penguin Red series, which are short but important works the publisher has decided to brand for an adult readership. It deserves to be read by anyone who can look back and remember the dreams they had as children and appreciate the power of imagination that although strong in children sadly rarely flickers into life again this strongly except in the pages of the fiction written by Carroll and J.M Barrie.

Summary
Alice falls into a dream populated by white rabbits, mad hatters and an execution hungry Queen but wakes with a memory that will live with her forever

Version read – Penguin paperback Red Edition

bookmark of the week

This is from the Natural History Museum in London and is of a Lemur tale. I had a reasonably enoyable day there until mu youngest decided to try and destroy exhibits that had been safe from harm for centuries.

book of books - The Age of Reason

This book covers two days in the life of Mathieu Delarue a professor in philosophy at the Sorbonne. But in those two days Jean-Paul Sartre manages to pack in a huge amount around the main story of the pregnancy of Mathieu’s mistress. On top of the individual concerns of the characters there is a shadow cast by the changing situation in Europe with one mention of the possibility of war.

This book really feels like the first part in a trilogy because there are plenty of places for the characters to go at the end and of course war is looming, which will change everything.

Plot summary
Mathieu discovers that his mistress Marcelle is pregnant so they agree on an abortion but it involves him finding 4,000 francs and in his chase for the funds he asks a rich friend Daniel, who refuses him, as well as his brother Jacques who asks him to recognise he needs to grow up and accept that he is old enough to have the age of reason. Part of the reason Mathieu does not want the child is because he has spent most of his 34 years searching for freedom and it would compromise that. Also he is harbouring some sort of fantasy love with Ivich a sister of one of his pupils Bruno. She is an odd girl who fails her exams and faces the prospect of having to go back home. In the meantime Marcelle, encouraged by Daniel who has been seeing her secretly for a long time, admits she would like to keep the baby. Daniel hopes to trap Mathieu and end his friend’s freedom. But Mathieu goes as a far as stealing from Boris’s older girlfriend Lola the money and that brings it to a head and as Marcelle refuses her long standing lover Daniel steps into the breach and agrees to marry her. Denied of love or family Mathieu seems to suddenly realise that the freedom he believed was at risk was something unattainable and as a result of this realisation accepts he must be at the age of reason.

Is it well written?
It is much easier to read than Nausea because there is much more of a story here and the chase for the abortion money gives it a momentum. The introspective philosophical moments are kept much more as a constant background theme that surface now and again. What makes it enjoyable is that there are characters that like Daniel and Lola who despise Mathieu providing the reader with a couple of outlets for letting off steam with the professor. Throughout the book the theme is age with Mathieu at 34 and Lola a bit older both feeling like they are on death’s door. The age of reason is not just about recognising personal development but you suspect there is a link to the fate of France, which was still indulging in the play politics Mathieu displays when asked if he will become a communist.

Should it be read?
To provide a glimpse into how little people cared about the world and the developments on the political stage it is worth comparing with Goodbye to Berlin where the Germans experienced an equally slow dawn. Despite the strong story, rounded characterisation and pace there are still going to be plenty of people put off by the name Sartre but this is an easier read than Nausea and even through it is a trilogy there is not a compunction on the reader to carry onto The Reprieve and Iron in the Soul. For those that enjoy history there is the added attraction here of getting an insight into the almost ignorant bliss that still existed in Paris as late as 1938.

Summary
Facing an unwanted pregnancy a professor runs around Paris trying to raise the money for an abortion but once he has it he loses his mistress and realises he was never free anyway

Version read – Penguin paperback

Sick

I'm afraid there will not be any posts of any significance today as I am feeling unwell. I am bent double with stomach ache and am about to crawl off to bed. Hopefully will be better and able to post some reviews tomorrow...

Goodbye to Berlin - post II (part two)

“The trams are going up and down the Kleistrasse, just as usual, They, and the people on the pavement, and the tea-cosy dome of the Nollendorfplatz station have an air of curious familiarity, or striking resemblance to something one remembers as normal and pleasant in the past – like a very good photograph.
No. Even now I can’t altogether believe that any of this has really happened…”

Bullet points between pages 139 – 204

Again it is simpler to break the highlights down into the respective chapters

The Landauers
* Following a comment Christopher hears about the owners of the Landauer department store that is anti-Jewish he is determined to make their acquaintance and starts to visit their home and makes friends with the 18-year-old daughter

* But an odd relationship develops with the nephew of the owners of the store Bernhard who seems to sum up the vulnerability of the Jews that are being targeted by the Nazis and at one point he shows Christopher a death threat he has received

* In the end the Landauer daughter and mother seek refugee in Paris and are finally followed by the father after Bernhard, a solitary man unable to relate to the political events around him, has been murdered by the authorities

* Throughout the story there is a mixture of sympathy, unbelief at the lack of interest and anger shown by Bernhard and finally great regret that they were targets of the black and brown shirted Nazi thugs

A Berlin Diary (Winter 1932-3)
* This is written very much as a diary and records the slide into Hitler’s takeover with the increasing violence of his henchmen and the unquestioned violence directed at the Jews

* One particular passage about a boxing match that is rigged is a particularly powerful observation of just how easily the Germans could be dragged along by Hitler:

“The audience took the fights dead seriously, shouting encouragement to the fighters, and even quarrelling and betting amongst themselves on the results. Yet nearly all of them had been in the tent as long as I had, and stayed on after I had left. The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe in anybody or anything.”

* The reports of intimidation and violence are coupled with the depressing way people that Christopher has known like his former landlady start to eulogise about Hitler and start to revise everything that have believed in

* The final contacts Christopher makes in the city are involved with the communist movement, which is more fun and games than real political protest, but as the tension rises these same actors are used by the Nazi’s for their own purposes

“I am thinking of Rudi in hiss absurd Russian blouse. Rudi’s make believe, story-book game has become earnest; the Nazis will play it with him. The Nazis won’t laugh at him; they’ll take him on trust for what he pretended to be. Perhaps at this very moment Rudi is being tortured to death.”

Historians have always wondered how and why a madman could drag a civilised nation into the mire. What Isherwood shows is that it’s possible to laugh off the threat until it is too late and the moral has to be that if you want to stop history repeating itself then you have to get out there and shout down tyranny before it gets its hands on power.

A full review will follow shortly…

Goodbye to Berlin - post II (part one)

When you start reading this book you half start wondering where it is all leading to and it’s possible to view it as a little bit of a self indulgent semi-autobiographical collection of snippets over a three year stay in Berlin. But it is at the very end you realise that everything he has seen and enjoyed has started to disappear and is being wiped away by the Nazi’s. It is only in the last few pages you get a sense of the distress and anger and that ironically would have not been anywhere as powerful if the preceding chapters had not been so normal.

Bullet points between pages 79 – 138

Again it is simpler to break the highlights down into the respective chapters

On Ruegen Island (Summer 1931)
* Christopher decides to spend some time in the Baltic and is based with a fellow Englishman Peter who is a nervous wreck, who is really trying to struggle with his homosexuality, and has set up with a German man named Otto

* Otto exploits Peter’s dependency on him and is clearly only interested for the money and flirts with both Peter and women he meets in the local dancehall and as a result of the tension life is made difficult for Christopher

* Ultimately Otto disappears back to Berlin having stolen clothes and money from Peter while Christopher and the Englishman were out in a boat and that also leads to Peter cutting his stay short and heading back to England

The Nowaks
* Back in Berlin and down on his luck Christopher goes to visit Otto and his family and ends up renting a room from them in a very poor and run down part of the City which introduces him to a different set of characters

* Otto’s mother is ill and his father a drunkard but it is his brother Lothar who is the first introduction to the Nazi’s with the quiet and determined young man visiting the party most nights

* As her illness gets worse Otto’s mother has to go to a sanatorium and despite the fact that Otto shows no interest in anything other than sponging off the men and women he has relationships with he finally betrays a genuine human side when he has to wave goodbye to his mother at the hospital

Lunchtime read: Alice's Aventures in Wonderland

The book ends with a jolt as the dream ends and Alice finds herself back with her sister and the white rabbit running into the bushes. The final sentiments seem to be around the joy of childhood and the comforts that a Wonderland can offer.

“…how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland…”

Highlights from chapters nine, ten and eleven

* Having met up with the queen again Alice is told to accompany the Griffin and go and hear the history of the Mock Turtle, a sort of half pig and half turtle creature, that reminisces about the past

* One of the main features of his story is when he details a dance – the lobster quadrille – and explains a little bit about the underwater world to Alice, including telling her that whiting is used to colour and polish shoes

* But the memories are broken by a shout that the trial has started and Alice runs off to see the king and the queen in session trying a knave for stealing tarts in a case that seems to be based on a nursery rhyme

* Alice starts to grow and as she is finally called as a witness manages to upset the queen enough to be threatened with execution to which she replies that all they are is a pack of cards and they start to jump on her

* At that moment she wakes up next to her sister fighting off the leaves that have dropped on her from the tree above and tells her all about her dream and the characters in it

A review will be posted shortly…

book of books - The High Window

Certain books come with preconceptions that can help as well as hinder a reader’s appetite and most of the time Hollywood is the cause of establishing the image for a book. That is certainly the case with Raymond Chandler’s private detective Philip Marlowe who before you even get to the end of the first page is hard not to see as Humphrey Bogart.

But focusing on the trilby, Macintosh with the lapels pulled up and pistol toting image of a private detective is relatively one dimensional and one of the biggest surprises in The High Window is the various moods and attitudes that Marlowe takes making it a more rounded personality and the way the plot develops is complex and inventive.

Plot summary
Hired by a rich and grumpy widow to find out if her daughter-in-law stole a famous coin from her deceased husband’s collection Marlowe heads off to find the girl and the coin. But very quickly the scale of his enquiries expand as he discovers that not only is the coin being used as a model for a fraudulent scam but his employer has a few secrets that she has not shared. With the coin dealer, a fellow detective hired to find out about the coin and the man behind the scam all dead Marlowe is left with the police against him and his employer failing to share the information he needs to close the case. What seals it is the evidence that Marlowe finds in a blackmailers room that links his employer with the death of her husband and the persecution of her secretary, who Marlowe finally helps escape into the more peaceful world of Kansas.

That might well sound confused and rambling and the reason for that is that firstly the plot is so crucial to a crime novel it seems a shame to spell it all out; and secondly the plot develops organically and in numerous directions making it difficult to wrap up in a single paragraph.

Is it well written?
It is of its time with the language and cars being of a set period in the late forties and early 1950s. But put that to one side and the human emotions are as valid as today and the tension is gripping in places. What carries the book through is the strong character of Marlowe who is fascinating and sometimes borders on the unliveable with his wisecracks and persistent willingness to rub people up the wrong way. The final addition to strong character is the plot that develops in ways that you cannot predict but it subtle enough to get the reader in on Marlowe’s world.

Should it be read?
The only reason not to is if you can’t stand the crime novel genre. Otherwise if you have mot read any Chandler before then it is a great introduction to a world of liars, rich gangsters and dames looking for fame. The book has a pace that helps it skip along and as has already mentioned the plot is far from predictable making it more enjoyable. There are also some great lines in the book that will make you laugh and want to store away to mimic later on.

Summary
Tough talking private detective cracks the case he was never hired for and saves a woman from a life of misery

Version read – Penguin paperback

Lunchtime read: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

My wife commented last night that Alice as standard reading in her convent school days and she expressed surprise I had chosen to read it. Having explained that I wanted a non Disney version she understood.

Already there are several differences with the first main one being that the book is incredibly episodic with one meeting with a character or set or characters being completed before another is started. There is only one character present almost throughout - the white rabbit – and apart from mistaking Alice for a maid he hasn’t spoken to her. There seems to be a habit of most of the characters of not really being able to engage with Alice in conversation or show any interest about where she has come from.

Highlights from chapters seven and eight

* In one of the most famous scenes from the book Alice heads to the mad hare’s home and stumbles across a tea party in full swing with the mad hatter, hare and dormouse all sitting round a table

* The mad hatter explains that because he annoyed time it is permanently six o’clock and tea time and to relieve the boredom they move places and tell each other stories - something they try to get the dormouse to do

* Alice keeps arguing with the dormouse over the story and then the hare and the hatter are rude to her and she leaves in disgust and comes across three playing cards painting roses from white to red to appease the queen

* At that moment the queen arrives and drags Alice into a came of croquet using hedgehogs for balls and flamingos for mallets and the monarch seems to have an obsession with issuing executions

* Her next intended victim is the Cheshire cat but without a body there is an issue about exactly how he could be executed and Alice lets it slip that the duchess might know – who is currently awaiting execution – so she is sent for

More tomorrow…

Goodbye to Berlin - post I

The reason for deciding to read Goodbye to Berlin is that although it is set in 1930/31 and Sartre’s Age of Reason is set in 1938 they both have the same feeling of impending doom caused by the second world war.

This book is written almost like a diary, it starts that way and continues to be written like that although Isherwood makes the point in the introduction that although the character is called Christopher it could have been anyone experiencing the events.

Bullet points from pages 1 – 78

These pages cover two chapters so it’s best to look at it like that.

A Berlin Diary
It sets up the context of the book with the main character Christopher working as an English teacher and living in a house full of lodgers owned by a woman who has fallen on hard times. Those earning money seem to be employed as prostitutes or have hereditary wealth but everyone else is strapped.

Against this background some are turning to the Nazi party as an answer but it is all done in a superficial way. Meanwhile there is no impression that there is a dislike of the English it is the French who seem to be in for criticism.

The section ends with Christopher’s friend Fritz introducing him to another English in Berlin and this marks the transition to the second part of an aspiring actress Sally Bowles.

Sally Bowles
A real friendship grows between Sally and Christopher and it is to him she turns when she becomes pregnant and requires an abortion. They share the same accommodation and share the same friendships but there is no love there and in the end after an absence the relationship has not grown stronger and things fall apart and she leaves Berlin and heads to Rome via Paris.

What Sally shows is that although men desire good looking women very few have money, it is the Americans who seem to be rich in Berlin and in terms of entertainment and fun there is not a great deal to be had.

By the end of these two chapters you get a feeling of a city on the edge of something that is being fuelled by unhappiness caused by financial problems. Isherwood paints a picture of a capital that is waiting almost for the rise of Hitler not because he is the solution but at least he might do something to end the malaise. More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Now Alice has managed to get away from the confines of the corridor she fell into there are more weird characters and perceptions of reality are challenged. Throughout it all Alice remains stoical and tries to be polite and clear despite her continually changing size.

Highlights from chapters five and six

* The next encounter is with a caterpillar smoking a hookah who asks Alice who she is and where she has come from – both questions that she struggles to answer but when the caterpillar hears that she wants to grow in size he disappears telling her over his shoulder that the mushroom can make her shrink or grow

* After some trial and error Alice manages to get to the right size to be able to approach a four foot high house that has a fish footman outside who is meant to be informing the duchess who lives inside that she has been invited to play croquet with the queen

* Alice barges inside to find the duchess sitting in the kitchen with the cook throwing saucepans and all manner of things at her while the duchess cradles a howling baby which she eventually hands over to Alice

* Alice cradles the baby that finally turns into a pig and she is left with the Cheshire Cat, who keeps disappearing, and tells her she has a choice of visiting the hare or the hatter, both of which are mad

More tomorrow…

book of books - A Sentimental Education

It is a clever technique to set the characters of a story into a historical situation that can impact on them when required to stir some action and reflect their characteristics. Tolstoy does it brilliantly in War and Peace and there are scenes in Gustave Flaubert’s book that remind you of how it is easy to get caught up in the crowd.

Central to A Sentimental Education is Frederic, an ambitious country lad who wants to succeed, who from the very outset falls in love with a married woman and his chase for her shapes his destiny. Flaubert also introduces a best friend from school who is slightly more successful in his studies and career but in his chase for fame and fortune opts for politics and in the end the two friends compare their failure in both approaches.

Plot summary
Frederic is studying in Paris when he comes across Madame Arnoux who he falls in love with and in order to come into her orbit starts to hand around with her husband who runs an art gallery and magazine. As Frederic extends into the artistic circle around Arnoux he tries to increase his links with Madame Arnoux but he is set back firstly by his own financial problems and then by hers as her husband’s business ventures fail and they eventually have to leave Paris to escape their debts. Meanwhile the revolutionists are threatening to overthrow the monarchy and as he jostles for power Frederic gets involved with Arnoux’s mistress, taking her as his own, and then sets out to seduce a bankers wife because of the feeling of success such a conquest would give him. But in the end he only really loves Madame Arnoux and although they meet again and discuss their love it never amounts to anything and she leaves to age in Brittany. Meanwhile Frederic’s friends have had mixed fortunes with some doing well out of the revolution and others, including his best friend, failing to make the most of the changing conditions.

Is it well written?
The revolution, rise of friends and the chase to become successful are all seen through the eyes of Frederic the provincial and although you never quite feel an over whelming sympathy for him you do want him to find love. The fact that he never manages to secure it is perhaps because he was too sentimental but also a result of position in French society and the disadvantages of a provincial upbringing. The story develops and the ending is never certain and this deserves to be read by anyone who enjoyed Madame Bovary. The character he is also looking for something that they fail to find but it is a more rounded study not just of the search for love but also of the difficulty breaking out of a class strata into another position in French society.

Should it be read?
It is not as well known as Madame Bovary and presumably that is partly because it is not as much of a scandal for men to bed hop but this is as powerful. In the end it is not just Madame Arnoux that is beyond Frederic but the riches of the elite. The class debate runs through the book with the revolutionary background and so on that level it belongs to that strain of literature that uses political unrest as a background. But it also is worth reading as a study of personal growth and the risks of independence and the personal costs of making the wrong decisions. We have all grown up with regrets and as a result we can all identify with Frederic.

Summary
A provincial law student is smitten after seeing Madame Arnoux and spends the rest of his youth chasing a dream of her only to be left with nothing but maybes and dreams

Version read – Oxford University Press World’s Classics paperback

The Age of Reason - post V

There is something quite disturbing about the character of Daniel who wants to destroy Mathieu’s freedom so much that he will sacrifice his own happiness in order to do so. It reminds me of a couple of people I know that fall into the category of ‘control freaks’ but you would hope no one would be prepared to concentrate their hatred on you like Daniel does on Mathieu.

The first part of the trilogy ends with things nicely set up for part two with you wondering just what will become of the leading characters. Things are left with Mathieu, Marcelle, Boris, Ivich, Lola and Daniel all in midstream.

Bullet points between pages 250 - 300

* Having taken Ivich back to his flat to try and console her after she failed her exams he is interrupted in trying to convince her to stay in Paris by Sarah who gives him an update on the abortionist

* Mathieu spills the beans to Ivich and then they part on bad terms because she is angry and refers to him as already thinking as a married man after he confesses he will have to marry Marcelle

* Things cut back to Daniel who is leaving the apartment after a homosexual encounter and in his rage with himself plans to go home and cut off his penis with a shaving blade but fails to do it and instead realises as he sips whisky in a bar that Mathieu will be meeting Marcelle

* On the way to see his mistress Mathieu steals 4,000 francs from Lola and then shows them to Marcelle who suddenly realises he is so keen to get rid of the baby he would steal to make that happen

* They argue and force each other to say that they don’t love each other anymore and then Mathieu leaves and finds Ivich in his flat and this is a critical second encounter where he angers her and ruins any chances of the relationship developing

* Lola bursts in and asks where Boris is accusing her boyfriend of the theft of 4,000 francs and she doesn’t believe it when Mathieu admits stealing the money and it is only resolved when Daniel walks in and hands the money back

* Daniel then tells Mathieu that he is going to marry Marcelle and they are going to have the baby but then follows that bombshell up with an admission that he is a homosexual – both bits of news are designed to anger Mathieu and they succeed in doing so

* But as Daniel leaves and Mathieu is left to his freedom he realises that he is nowhere near freedom and the last words are a confirmation that he has reached the age of reason

A review will follow shortly…

Lunchtime read: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The first difference between most of the film or cartoon versions I’ve seen and the book is that the action down the hole is taking a lot longer than I imagined. You expect Alice to go straight into the mad hatter’s tea party and bump into the queen but already a third of the book has passed and she is still not much further than where she started.

The other difference is that it is clear that there is a continued dream state because despite growing smaller and larger and facing other animals Alice never once seems to be that concerned other than to cry a bit for the world she is leaving behind.

Highlights from chapters three and four

* Alice and the animals swim out of her pool of tears and then play a game to dry each other out but how ever hard she tries Alice cannot get the mouse to share his family history and she frightens everyone off mentioning her cat and its liking for eating birds

* Then the white rabbit reappears running down the corridor and mistakes her for a maid and sends her back to his house to get another fan and a pair of gloves

* But once inside Alice notices a bottle saying ‘Drink Me’ and after drinking it she grows so large that her foot is up the chimney and her hand is out of the window where she uses it to try and grab the white rabbit and his gardener as they try to pull her out

* They then send a lizard, named Bill, down the chimney but Alice kicks him out and the poor animal is being helped by friends by the time Alice eats some cakes and shrinks back down to size

* She evades capture by the angry group of rabbit and his friends but now needs to find something else to eat to make her return to the same size as she was in the real world and she spies a mushroom with a caterpillar on top sucking on a hookah

More tomorrow…