Alice in Blunderland: an Iridescent Dream by John Kendrick Bangs (Free Audio Book)

 

 

Alice in Blunderland: an Iridescent Dream by John Kendrick Bangs – A free audiobook

 

Narrated by Ruth Golding
 

This satiric version of the classic Alice in Wonderland story was written by novelist John Kendrick Bangs and was published in 1907. It is intended as a political parody of the classic Lewis Carroll novels; Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. John Kendrick Bangs used the characters in Carroll’s classic as a tool in order to critic that taxation laws during the time as well as corruption and corporate greed. In this novel, Alice gets transported into another world but instead of it being Wonderland she finds herself trapped in Blunderland which is also called as the Municipal Ownership Country. Similar to the Lewis Carroll novels, this one also featured some drawings by Albert Levering that were similar to the originals of John Tenniel. A little known factoid is that this is not the first satire written by Bangs that takes inspiration from Alice in Wonderland as he wrote a book titled Rollo in Emblemland in 1902.

The story here begins when Alice gets sent to Blunderland wherein everything is the other way around. Children are brought up in the Municipal House of the Children where the Duchess and the city government are the parents. The novel is littered with familiar faces from Carroll’s original fantasy such as the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire cat just to name a few of the returning characters. This time though, all characters are used as an allegory to the state of economy during the time of its publishing. Ruth Golding helps build up the world with her nuances in storytelling and in fact makes this satirical look into the blunders of government all the more hilarious.
 

You can listen below (it may take a moment to appear) or download here.
 

 

 

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