Alice in Wonderland Book Club Questions

Ten discussion questions for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865) - written for groups who have finished the book and want an argument, not a summary. Full spoilers ahead. The first six are anchored to this novel’s specific turns; the last four keep the room talking when the wine runs low.

Print questions

Alice in Wonderland book club questions · readeasy.app/book-club-questions/alices-adventures-in-wonderland/

1. 1. Every adult in Wonderland is arbitrary, procedural, or mad. Is this a children's book that hates authority, or one that finds it funny?

2. 2. Alice keeps insisting on the rules of the world she left. Where is the scene where that stops working — and what replaces it?

3. 3. The trial of the Knave is the book's climax and its emptiest proceeding. What is Carroll doing to the idea of a verdict?

4. 4. 'Who are YOU?' shrinks and grows across the whole book. Is the caterpillar's question answered by the end — and if so, by whom?

5. 5. Dodgson the Oxford don wrote under a name that scrambles his own. Does knowing who wrote it — and why — belong in the reading, or beside it?

6. 6. The book runs on dream logic but keeps its mathematics honest. Where did you catch a rule actually working, and what did that feel like?

7. 7. What did Alice in Wonderland make you feel that you didn't want to feel?

8. 8. If you had to cut one plotline from Alice in Wonderland entirely, which goes — and what does the book lose?

9. 9. Whose story in Alice in Wonderland deserved its own novel instead of a chapter?

10. 10. The first line of Alice in Wonderland — does the book keep the promise it makes? Where best and where worst?

How to run the meeting

Don’t go in order. Open with whichever question matches your group’s mood - a quiet room starts with a character question, a lively one starts with an argument about the ending. Let one question run until it genuinely dies, then jump. Two rules keep it alive: every claim gets pointed at the text (someone will have the book on their phone), and “I hated it” counts as an opinion that must be defended like any other.

Alice in Wonderland runs about 27,000 words - roughly 96 pages - so a month between meetings is comfortable at 30 minutes a day; the full session math is on the reading time page. For a quicker take on who actually finished it, open the meeting with the Alice in Wonderland quiz - scores settle grudges faster than discussion. The book’s famous quotes make good meeting-openers too, and if the group wants a next pick built like this one, the books like Alice in Wonderland list is the handout.

Taking the club through the whole author? Our Lewis Carroll books in order guide orders the full shelf.

Ground rules that save meetings

Three habits keep a club alive past the first bottle. First, the person who picked the book opens the discussion - they owe the group one sentence on why they chose it, which is usually the strongest prompt of the night. Second, silence is allowed to sit for a full ten seconds; the second answer is always better than the first. Third, end on the next pick while everyone is still arguing, because momentum is the only renewable fuel a book club has. The questions above are written to survive all three rules.

More book club question sets

The Odyssey questions, Moby-Dick questions, Don Quixote questions, The Count of Monte Cristo questions - or grab questions for all 133 classics. For the end-of-season meeting, the mixed-classics book quiz settles who read the most.

Frequently asked questions