Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871), written by Lewis Carroll, the pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Charles Lutwidge Dodson, a professor of mathematics at Magdalen (Maudlin) College, Oxford, originally wrote these charming children's stories for young Alice, the daughter of his friend, Henry George Liddell, the dean of Christ Church. After publication, these children's books rapidly became popular with adults because of the extraordinary mixture of rationalism and fantasy, irony, and absurdity viewed through the looking glass of a child's dreams.

These stories possibly reflect the struggles Dodgson, a conservative mathematician, was having in adapting to new scientific concepts that challenged his point of view and seemed absurd and upsetting. Perhaps Dodgson found some way of coping with his challenges through the creation of these "seriously silly" but delightful tales.

A new Disney version of Through the Looking Glass directed by James Bobin, produced by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), the late Alan Rickman (voice of the Caterpillar), Stephen Fry (the voice of Cheshire Cat), Mia Wasikowski (Alice), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), and Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen) will be released during the Summer of 2016.