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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll, 1865

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Alice, bored on a riverbank, follows a waistcoated White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and lands in a world where she shrinks and grows, swims in a pool of her own tears and meets a Caterpillar, a grinning Cheshire Cat, a Mad Hatter and a March Hare at an endless tea party. She ends up at the Queen of Hearts's croquet game and then in her trial court, where the Queen keeps calling for heads. Alice finally refuses to be scared of a pack of cards. The book plays with logic, language and the rules adults set for children.

Where it happens

  1. Christ Church, Oxford College where Carroll lived for most of his life as scholar, teacher and deacon.2
  2. Daresbury Cheshire village where Dodgson was born in 1832, the third of 11 children.2

Through time

  1. 1832Charles Dodgson, later Lewis Carroll, is born at Daresbury in Cheshire.2
  2. 1863Carroll meets the publisher Alexander Macmillan on 19 October.1
  3. 1864Carroll gives Alice the manuscript Alice's Adventures Under Ground on 26 November.1
  4. 1865Macmillan publishes the book in November after the first printing is halted and reprinted by Richard Clay.1
  5. 1871The sequel Through the Looking-Glass appears.1
  6. 1907UK copyright expires and the book enters the public domain.1

Who is in it, and behind it

Lewis Carroll author

Pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, English author, mathematician and Anglican deacon who lived and taught at Christ Church, Oxford.2

John Tenniel printer

Punch cartoonist who produced 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the first edition.1

Alice Liddell subject

Girl Carroll knew who shares her name with the heroine, though scholars disagree about how closely the character follows her.1

Alexander Macmillan patron

London publisher whom Carroll met in October 1863 and whose firm published the book.1

George MacDonald patron

Writer whose children read the manuscript, and whose family urged Carroll to publish.1

Alice character

Girl who follows a white rabbit down a hole into a world of talking creatures.13

The Mad Hatter character

Host of the tea party where the March Hare and a dormouse also sit.3

Queen of Hearts character

Ruler of Wonderland who cries "Off with her head" at every offence.1

What it is about

Nonsense with logic

The tale plays with logic and belongs to the literary nonsense genre, which is why adults enjoy it as much as children.1

End of didactic children's books

It is credited with helping end an era of moralizing for children and starting one where books aimed to delight.1

Who is Alice now

After shrinking and growing, Alice asks who in the world she is, turning identity into a puzzle.13

In its own words

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations
I. The opening sentence, with Alice bored on the bank before the rabbit appears. Read on
“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); “now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was
II. Alice's famous exclamation as she grows, in a book playing with how she speaks. Read on
I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle
II. The identity puzzle at the heart of the book. Read on
It’s a Cheshire cat,” said the Duchess, “and that’s why. Pig!” She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby, and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:⁠— “I didn’t know that Cheshire cats always
VI. The grinning cat is introduced with a bark of explanation. Read on
Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them
VIII. Alice sees through the court and loses her fear. Read on

The shape of the book

13 chapters, 26,688 words. Point at a bar.

How it came to be here

Lewis Carroll, the pen name of the Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson, first told the story to a girl named Alice Liddell and her sisters on a boat trip and wrote it out for her as Alice's Adventures Under Ground in 1864. On advice he sought a professional illustrator and chose John Tenniel. Macmillan published the book in 1865 after Carroll withdrew a first printing because Tenniel disliked the quality. It has never gone out of print and exists in 174 languages. A sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, followed in 1871. The site carries Tenniel's illustrated edition.

Free to read elsewhere

Sources

  1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wikipedia)
  2. Lewis Carroll (Wikipedia)
  3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by John Tenniel (Standard Ebooks)

Text: PG 11. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).

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