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StoryPDFThrough the Looking GlassLewis Carroll

Through the Looking Glass

Lewis Carroll

Complete text
NovelEnglish

Alice steps through the mirror into a world organized by unfamiliar rules of movement and language. Her journey across a chessboard brings encounters with talking flowers, argumentative figures and strange royalty, each testing how she can make sense of what she hears.

12 sections29,370 wordsAbout 2 h 14 min
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About Through the Looking Glass

Conversation repeatedly changes the apparent meaning of words, while the chess framework imposes a structure Alice does not always understand. Rules may be explained confidently without becoming more reasonable. The pleasure lies partly in following her attempts to remain courteous and logical when those habits produce answers quite unlike the ones she expects.

Reading focus

Compare the announced rules of each encounter with what happens when Alice tries to follow them literally.

This reading edition contains 29,370 words in 12 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.

Author: Lewis Carroll. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.

Opening excerpt

One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it:—it was the black kitten’s fault entirely. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that it couldn’t have had any hand in the mischief.

Read the complete opening section

Contents

All sections
  1. CHAPTER I. Looking-Glass House15 min
  2. CHAPTER II. The Garden of Live Flowers13 min
  3. CHAPTER III. Looking-Glass Insects14 min
  4. CHAPTER IV. Tweedledum And Tweedledee14 min
  5. CHAPTER V. Wool and Water15 min
  6. CHAPTER VI. Humpty Dumpty14 min
  7. CHAPTER VII. The Lion and the Unicorn12 min
  8. CHAPTER VIII. “It’s my own Invention”19 min
  9. CHAPTER IX. Queen Alice19 min
  10. CHAPTER X. Shaking1 min
  11. CHAPTER XI. Waking1 min
  12. CHAPTER XII. Which Dreamed it?4 min

Reading & download help

Is this the complete Through the Looking Glass?

This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 12 sections and 29,370 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.

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A4 is designed for 210 × 297 mm paper; US Letter for 8.5 × 11 inch paper. Both contain the same complete text, selectable text and section bookmarks.

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Edition details and corrections.