Reviews for Contemporary Scottish Studies

The average rating for Contemporary Scottish Studies based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-09-26 00:00:00 Bradley Wooten The title is a little misleading since many of the stories have no Alice, have no girl lead, and are related to the original stories only in that they are fantasy stories. Also, a number of the entries are only a chapter or a few chapters at most from a particular book so this is like a sampling of things. Mopsa the Fairy, 1869. Part of a book using a strong female lead. Amelia and the Dwarfs, 1870: It's a nice story although it is utterly unrelated to Alice. Speaking Likenesses, 1874: Heavily moralistic. Behind the White Brick, 1879. By the person that wrote A Secret Garden, this is a good story and has the feel of the original. She's talking to Santa Claus and he says 'And don't be too fond of flourishing your rights in people's faces-that's the worst of all, Miss Midget. Folks who make such a fuss about their rights turn them into wrongs sometimes.' Wanted-A King: 1890. A good story but not related to Alice. A New Alice in the Old Wonderland, 1895. It's okay. Justnow Land, 1912. A story supporting socialism. Good. Ernest, 1969. This has a male lead. From Nowhere to the North Pole, 1875. Another male lead. Down the Snow Stairs, 1887. One chapter only. Davy and the Goblin, 1885. One chapter. The Wallypug of Why, 1895. New Adventures of Alice, 1907. A girl finds a third Alice book in a room where books that were wished to be written can be found. Uncle Wiggily in Wonderland, 1916. David Blaize and the Blue Door, 1919. Quite boring. The Westminister Alice, 1900-1902. It's poking fun of the British government at the time. Clara in Blunderland, 1902. Also outdated. Alice and the Stork, 1915. Alice in the Delighted States, 1928. Overall it's sort of a disappointing book.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-04-25 00:00:00 Ken Norman This book is made up almost entirely of Alice in Wonderland pastiches, some intentional and some accidental on the part of their authors. Yes, there are some stories which subvert the common Victorian children's literature tropes more than the Alice books already do, but not signficantly more. And there are a few political parodies towards the end, but, on the whole, it's a book of Victorian and Edwardian Alice pastiches, some more successful than others. None, even the more successful ones, come anywhere close to the wit and style of the Alice books, which makes this anthology a disappointment to someone coming to try to read more books in that vein. Rather, it's simply fascinating as a study of Victorian literature, and the effect Lewis Carroll had on it. The sentimentality and didacticism can get simply overwhelming if one isn't prepared for them, and I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone without a particular interest in Victorian children's literature - it's too overwhelming to foist on the ususpecting.