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Lewis Carroll’s classic work Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland made its Korean TV debut in the show, and despite merely being shown in the hands of actor Hyun Bin and actress Ha Ji-won, sales sky rocketed soon afterwards. Why Half the World Starves by Jean Ziegler also doubled in sales thanks to a copy appearing in the show. However, Why Half the World Starves only experienced a brief period of popularity due to a passing reference in the show. On the other hand, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland holds a more prominent place in the story, which has led to much more remarkable results.

While Carroll’s classic fantasy of a young girl tumbling down a rabbit hole into an enchanted world has always enjoyed steady sales, its appearance on Secret Garden really took things up a notch. Within three days of its appearance 9,000 copies had been sold and after two weeks a total of 50,000 had left the shelves. As of last week, the book was ranked third in Kyobo Online Bookstore’s sales chart and was listed as the 13th best offline seller by Korea Publishers Society, which consolidates sales data from leading book stores including Kyobo and Youngpoong.

Minumsa, the publisher of the Korean version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, were able to get a privileged place in the show after lending 3,000 books to fill up the library in the main character’s house. Previously, the company had experienced similar success after Momo by Michael Ende, another worldwide bestseller, was featured in MBC’s romantic comedy My Lovely Sam-soon.

This has benefitted many publishers, who are naturally welcoming the increased interest in their products from young audiences and improved sales. However, some publishers are cautious about just how far reaching the influence of TV dramas is in actually getting audiences to open their books. While the sales are of course beneficial the key question is whether people are actually buying these books to read or simply to hold in their hands and be seen with, transforming fine works of literature into nothing more than fashion accessories. Indeed, only time will tell just how seriously audiences are taking these classic works.