Facsimile page from
Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a work of children's
literature by the English mathematician and author, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, written under the pseudonym Lewis
Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a
fantasy realm populated by grotesque figures like talking
playing cards and anthropomorphic creatures.
The tale is fraught with satirical allusions to Dodgson's friends (and enemies), and to the
lessons that British schoolchildren were expected to memorize. The Wonderland described in the tale plays with logic in ways that have made the story of lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to
be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of literary nonsense.
The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland. This alternate title was
popularized by the numerous film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title
contain both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the
Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
History
Alice was first published on 4 July 1865, exactly three
years after the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth
rowed in a boat up the River Thames with three little girls:[1]
- Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13) ("Prima" in the book's prefatory verse)
- Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10) ("Secunda" in the prefatory verse)
- Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8) ("Tertia" in the prefatory verse)
The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford,
England and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend
Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an
adventure.
The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. He eventually did so and on 26 November 1864 gave Alice the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under
Ground. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate there was an earlier version that
was destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand (Gardner, 1965), but there is no real
evidence to support this.
According to Dodgson's diaries, in the spring of 1863 he gave the unfinished manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under
Ground to his friend and mentor George MacDonald, whose children loved it. On
MacDonald's advice, Dodgson decided to submit Alice for publication. Before he had even finished the manuscript for Alice
Liddell he was already expanding the 18,000-word original to 35,000 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire
Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print
run of 2,000 was destroyed because Tenniel had objections over the print quality. (Only 23 copies are known to have survived; 18
are owned by major archives or libraries,
such as the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, while the
other five are held in private hands.) A new edition, released in December of the same year but carrying an 1866 date, was
quickly printed.
The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. Among
its first avid readers were young Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria. The book has never been out of print.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages, including Esperanto and Faroese. There have now been over a hundred editions
of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.
Publishing highlights
- 1865: Alice has its first American printing. As was the case with most American books of this period, this was pirated
from the British edition without any payment. [2]
- 1871: Dodgson meets another Alice during his time in London, Alice Raikes, and talks with her about her reflection in a
mirror, leading to another book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found
There, which sells even better.
- 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of the earlier Alice's Adventures Under Ground manuscript.
- 1890: He publishes The Nursery "Alice", a special edition "to
be read by Children aged from Nought to Five."
- 1908: Alice has its first translation into Japanese.
- 1960: American writer Martin Gardner publishes
a special edition, The Annotated Alice, incorporating the text of both
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
It has extensive annotations explaining the hidden allusions in the books, and includes full texts of the Victorian era poems parodied in them. Later editions expand on these
annotations.
- 1961: The Folio Society publication with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel.
- 1964: Alicia in Terra Mirabili is published: the first Latin translation of the
book.
- 1998: One of the few surviving copies of the 1865 first edition is sold at auction for US$1.5 million, becoming the most
expensive children's book ever traded.
Synopsis
cover of the 1898 edition
Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit-Hole
Alice is sitting by her sister lazily, and she sees a White Rabbit in a waist-coat carrying a pocket-watch. She follows it
down a rabbit hole, and falls down a very long chamber full of strange things on shelves. After landing safely on the ground, she
goes into a long hallway with a glass table with a gold key. Alice opens up a curtain and finds a small door, which the key fits
in perfectly, and behind it is a beautiful garden, but she can't fit in. Alice then finds a small bottle labelled DRINK ME, and
drinks it, causing her to shrink. Alice accidentally left the key on the table, so she can't reach it. She then discovers a cake
that says EAT ME, and eats it.
Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears
Due to the effect of the cake, Alice grows 9 feet tall. She cries, creating a pool of tears. The White Rabbit comes into the
hallway, and is so frightened he drops his fan and kid-gloves. Alice then fans herself with his fan and kid-gloves, causing her
to shrink very small again, but she stops before she goes out altogether. She swims through the pool of tears, and finds a mouse
who is awfully scared of cats. They wash up onto a bank, where they meet many birds and animals, also wet.
Chapter 3: A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
A Dodo decides that the birds and animals should dry off with a Caucus Race, which has no rules but to run in a circle. After
a half an hour or so, the race ends and everyone wins, which means they all get prizes. Alice gives out her comfits as the
prizes, and the Mouse tells Alice his long and sad tale why he hates cats, which Alice misinterprets as "tail." The chapter ends
with Alice alienating the participants of the Race, resulting in her being left alone once again.
Chapter 4: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill
The White Rabbit mistakes Alice for his house maid, Mary Ann, so he tells her to fetch a pair of gloves and a fan. Alice goes
in to his house, and she finds a bottle. Though not labeled DRINK ME, she drinks it anyways, and as a result, she grows so big
that the White Rabbit can't get into the house. The White Rabbit tells a lizard named Bill to get her out of there. Bill climbs
into the chimney, but is kicked out. The White Rabbit then pours pebbles down the chimney, which turn into cakes. Alice eats the
cakes, causing her to shrink again. She goes outside, seeing a crowd of animals.
Alice then confronts a giant puppy, so she uses a stick to tire it out. She then stumbles upon a Caterpillar, who is on a
mushroom smoking a hookah.
Chapter 5: Advice from a Caterpillar
Alice asks how she can get bigger, but the Caterpillar asks her to recite "Old Father William" instead. After doing so (with a
few errors,) the Caterpillar tells her that one side of the mushroom will make her bigger, and another side will maker her
smaller. The Caterpillar disappears, leaving Alice all alone. Alice first tries the right side, which makes her chin get stuck to
her foot. Then she tries the left side, which makes her neck grow very long. A pigeon flies into her face, believing she is a
serpent, but Alice tells her that she is a little girl. She then eats different sides of the mushroom until she is at her usual
height.
Chapter 6: Pig and Pepper
Now at her right size, Alice comes upon a house with a Frog-Footman and a Fish-Footman in front. The Fish-Footman has an
invitation for the Duchess, which he delivers to the Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and after a perplexing
conversation with the frog, she goes into the house and meets The Duchess, The Cook, The Baby, and The Duchess's Cheshire-Cat.
The Cook is making a soup and throwing dishes, which has too much pepper, for it causes Alice, the Duchess, and the baby to
sneeze, though not the cook or the Cheshire-Cat. The Duchess tosses her baby up and down, while reciting the poem "Speak roughly
to your little boy." When the poem is over, The Duchess gives Alice the baby while she leaves to play croquet with the Queen. To
Alice's surprise, the baby later turns into a pig, so she lets it go off into the woods. The Cheshire-Cat then appears in a tree,
telling her about the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. He then disappears, with only a grin left.
Chapter 7: A Mad Tea Party
Alice becomes a guest at a mad tea party, along with the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and the Dormouse. They all give Alice many
riddles and stories, until she becomes so insulted that she leaves, claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had
ever been to. Alice comes upon a door in a tree, and enters it, finding herself back into the long hallway. She opens the door,
eats part of her mushroom, and shrinks so she can get into the beautiful garden.
Chapter 8: The Queen's Croquet Ground
Now in the beautiful garden, she comes upon 3 cards painting the roses on a rose tree red, for they accidentally planted a
white-rose tree (which the Queen of Hearts hates). A procession of more cards, kings and queens, and even the White Rabbit come
into the garden. She meets the violent Queen of Hearts, and the less violent King of Hearts. The Queen tells the executioner to
chop off the three card gardener's heads off. A game of croquet begins, with flamingos as the mallets and hedgehogs as the balls.
The Queen condemns more people to death, and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat, who asks her how the queen is. The Queen of
Hearts then tries to find out how they can chop off the Cheshire Cat's head, even though he is only a floating head. Alice asks
her about the Duchess, so the Queen asks the executioner to get the Duchess out of prison.
Chapter 9: The Mock Turtle's story
The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground. She is now less angry and is always trying to find morals in things (she claims
the pepper made her angry.) The Queen of Hearts then shows Alice the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle
is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a turtle, which The Gryphon
interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter 10: The Lobster Quadrille
The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon start dancing to the Lobster Quadrille, singing "Tis the Voice of the Lobster." After that,
The Mock Turtle sings "Beautiful Soup", but Alice and The Gryphon have to leave for a trial while The Mock Turtle is singing.
Chapter 11: Who Stole the Tarts?
At the trial, the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the tarts. The jury box is full of twelve animals, including Bill the
Lizard, and the judge is the King of Hearts. The first witness is the Mad Hatter, who doesn't help the case at all. The next
witness though, is Alice.
Chapter 12: Alice's Evidence
Alice eats part of the mushroom, causing her to grow and accidentally knock over the Jury Box. The Queen of Hearts is about to
sentence them to death, but Alice calls them all just a pack of cards, causing them to swirl around her and turn into dead
leaves. Alice's sister wakes her up, since it was all a dream. Alice returns to her house, and her sister has a dream about her
lost childhood, very similar to Alice's.
Themes
Major themes
Language/word play
Other Themes
Characters in order of introduction
"The chief difficulty
Alice found at first was in managing her
flamingo"
Alice surrounded by the characters of Wonderland in
The Nursery
"Alice" (1890)
Misconception of characters
Although Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and the Jabberwock are often thought to be characters in Alice in Wonderland, they are actually all in
Through the Looking Glass, not Alice in Wonderland.
Character allusions
The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale all show up in Chapter 3 ("A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale") in
one form or another. There is, of course, Alice herself, while Carroll, or Charles Dodgson, is caricatured as the Dodo. Carol is
known as the Dodo because Dodgson stuttered when he spoke, thus if he spoke his last name it would be Do-Do-Dodgson. The
Duck refers to Rev. Robinson Duckworth, the Lory to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell.
Bill the Lizard may be a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli. One of Tenniel's
illustrations in Through the Looking Glass depicts a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat, as a passenger on a
train. The illustrations of the Lion and the Unicorn also bear a striking resemblance to Tenniel's Punch illustrations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
The Hatter is most likely a reference to Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer
known in Oxford for his unorthodox inventions. Tenniel apparently drew the Hatter to resemble
Carter, on a suggestion of Carroll's.
The Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie. These are the Liddell sisters: Elsie is
L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.
The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel", that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling,
Stretching, and Fainting in Coils". This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who
came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. (The
children did, in fact, learn well; Alice Liddell, for one, produced a number of skilled watercolours.)
The Mock Turtle also sings "Turtle Soup". This is a parody of a song called "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star", which was
performed as a trio by Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell for Lewis Carroll in the Liddell home during the same summer in which he
first told the story of Alice's Adventures Under Ground (source: the diary of Lewis Carroll, August 1, 1862 entry).
Contents
Poems and songs
Tenniel's illustrations
John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had
dark hair and a short fringe. Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, but whether Tenniel
actually used Babcock as his model is open to dispute.
Famous lines and expressions
The term "Wonderland", from the title, has entered the language and refers to a marvelous
imaginary place, or else a real-world place that one perceives to have dream like qualities. It, like much of the Alice
work, is widely referenced in popular culture.
"Down the Rabbit-Hole", the Chapter 1 title, has become a popular term for going on an adventure into the unknown. In
computer gaming, a "rabbit hole" may refer to the initiating element that drives the player
to enter the game. In drug culture, "going down the rabbit hole" is a metaphor for
taking drugs.
In Chapter 6, the Cheshire Cat's disappearance prompts Alice to say one of her most memorable lines: "...a grin without a cat!
It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"
In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new
preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very
flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar"—turning it into "raven" when
inverted. This spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost). Puzzle expert
Sam Loyd offered the following solutions:
- Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes
- Poe wrote on both
- Bills and tales are among their characteristics
- Because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels (steals), and ought to be made to shut up
Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice.
Arguably the most famous quote is used when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice (and everyone else she
feels slightly annoyed with). Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's
Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of
Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"
Symbolism in the text
As is frequently done with works of fiction, people search for symbolism in the text and
context of a story.
References to Mathematical Ideas
Being a mathematician at Christ Church, it has been suggested[3] that there are many references and
mathematical concepts in both this story and also in Through the
Looking-Glass; examples include:
- In chapter 1, "Down the Rabbit-Hole", in the midst of shrinking, Alice waxes philosophic concerning what final size she will
end up as, perhaps "going out altogether, like a candle."; this pondering reflects the concept of a limit.
- In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice tries to perform multiplication but produces some odd results: "Let me see: four
times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that
rate!". This explores the representation of numbers using different bases and positional numeral systems (4 x 5 = 12 in base 18 notation;
4 x 6 = 13 in base 21 notation. 4 x 7 could be 14 in base 24 notation, following the sequence).
- In chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar", the Pigeon asserts that little girls are some kind of serpent, for both little
girls and serpents eat eggs. This general concept of abstraction occurs widely in many fields of science; an example in
mathematics of employing this reasoning would be in the substitution of
variables.
- In chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party", the March Hare and Mad Hatter give several examples in which the semantic value of a
sentence A is not the same value of the inverse of A (for example, "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see
what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"); in logic and mathematics, this is discussing an inverse relationship.
- Also in chapter 7, Alice ponders what it means when the changing of seats around the circular table places them back at the
beginning. This is an observation of addition on a ring of the integers
modulo N.
References to the French Language
It has been suggested by several people including Martin Gardner and Selwyn Goodacre[3] that Dodgson had an interest in the French
language, choosing to make references and puns about it in the story. It is most likely that these are references to
French lessons which would have been a common feature of a Victorian middle-class girl's upbringing. A sampling of these
include:
- In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice imagines sending a present to her own foot; she addresses the foot as Alice's
Right Foot, Esq.. Esquire is the description of a person whose gender is male; it's been suggested[3] that this is a play on the French word for foot. The word in French is le pied,
and due to the rules of the language concerning noun gender, will always be addressed
as masculine regardless of the gender of the owner of the foot.
- Also in chapter 2, Alice posits that the mouse may be French and chooses to speak the first sentence of her French
lesson-book to it: "Où est ma chatte?'"
- In chapter 4, "The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill", the White Rabbit's assistant, Pat, states that he has been digging for
apples. This is likely a play on the French word for potato, la pomme de terre, which translates word-for-word into the
apple of earth.
Cinematic adaptations
Live performance
Lewis Carroll's most famous work has also inspired numerous live performances, including plays,
operas, ballets, and traditional English pantomimes. These works range from adaptations which are fairly faithful to the original book to those which
use the story as a basis for new works. A good example of the latter is The Eighth
Square, a murder mystery set in Wonderland. Written by Matthew D Fleming and Music
& Lyrics by Ben J Macpherson. This goth-toned rock musical premiered in 2006 at the New
Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, England.
With the immediate popularity of the book, it didn't take long for live performances to begin. One early example is
Alice in Wonderland, a musical
play by H. Saville Clark (book) and Walter
Slaughter (music), which played in 1886 at the Prince of Wales Theatre in
London.
Over the years, many notable people in the performing arts have been involved in Alice productions. One of the most
well-known American productions was Joseph Papp's 1980 staging of Alice in Concert at the Public Theater in New York City. Elizabeth Swados wrote the book, lyrics, and
music. Based on both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Papp and Swados had previously
produced a version of it at the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Meryl Streep played Alice, the White Queen, and Humpty Dumpty. The cast also included
Debbie Allen, Michael Jeter, and Mark Linn-Baker. Performed on a bare stage with the actors in modern dress, the play is a loose
adaption, with song styles ranging the globe.
A free theater script of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is available from FunAntics Theater Scripts at
www.angelfire.com/scifi/theaterscripts/alice.html. It includes the original poems that schoolchildren were expected to recite
such as "You are Old Father William" and "The Voice of the Sluggard" which Lewis Carroll satirized.
Similarly, the 1992 operatic production Alice used both Alice books as its inspiration. However, it also employs
scenes with Charles Dodgson, a young Alice Liddell, and an adult Alice Liddell, to frame the story. Paul Schmidt wrote the play,
with Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan writing the
music. Although the original production in Hamburg, Germany,
received only a small audience, Tom Waits released the songs as the album Alice in
2002, to much acclaim.
In addition to professional performances, school productions abound. Both high schools and colleges have staged numerous
versions of Alice-inspired performances. The imaginative story and large number of characters are well-suited to such
productions.
A large-scale operatic adaptation of the story by the Korean composer Unsuk Chin to an
English language libretto by David Henry Hwang received its world premiere at the
Bavarian State Opera on June 30, 2007.
Criticism
The book was generally received in a positive light, but has also caught a large amount of derision for its strange and
unpredictable tone. One of the best-known critics is fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, who
has openly stated that he dislikes the book.[4]
L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of
Oz series, likewise disliked having his stories compared to Carroll's, saying his books were fantasy "with purpose"
while the Alice stories were just "nonsense"[citation needed]. This draws a certain irony, considering Alice's explicitly stated desire
for such "nonsense" — and as such, nonsense is a deliberate theme in the text.
In 1931, the book was banned in Hunan because
"animals should not use human language" and it "put animals and human beings on the same level."[5]
Works influenced
-
Alice and the rest of Wonderland continue to inspire or influence many other works of art to this day—sometimes indirectly;
via the Disney movie, for example. The character of the plucky yet
proper Alice has proven immensely popular and inspired similar heroines in literature and pop culture, many also named Alice in
homage.
Culture and collecting
Alice continues to be a cultural phenomenon today, spawning hundreds of collectors' items, websites, and works of
art.
- There is a vast Alice-collecting cottage industry, which has recently burgeoned due to the Internet.
- There are often more than 2500 items up for auction via eBay at any given time, from rare books
to more recent commissioned art. Just about every kind of Alice merchandise imaginable is available, from clocks to earrings to
pillow cases.
- They are not always easy to locate, but can often be found in so-called "Alice shops". In England, such shops include The Rabbit Hole in Llandudno and Alice's Shop in
Oxford. Smaller ones can be found in Halton Cheshire and in
Bournemouth where there is an Alice Theme Park. In the United States they include The White Rabbit in California.
Media
See also
Notes
- ^ [1]. Bedtime Stories History of Alice.
Retrieved January 29, 2007.
- ^ Carroll, Lewis (1995). The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works. New York: Gramercy Books. ISBN
0-517-10027-4.
- ^ a b c
Gardner, Martin (1990). More Annotated Alice. New York: Random House, 363.
ISBN 0-394-58571-2.
- ^ "Words from the Master". Retrieved from Unseen University January
29, 2007.
- ^ "Banned Books Week: September 25-October 2. University
of California, San Diego Social Sciences & Humanities Library. Retrieved January
29, 2007.
References
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Additional information
Online texts
- Project Gutenberg:
- University of Adelaide:Text with illustrations by Tenniel
- Art Passions: Text with
illustrations by Arthur Rackham
- GASL.org: First editions of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There With 92
Illustrations by Tenniel, 1866/1872.
- British Library:Original
manuscript and drawings by Lewis Carroll (requires Flash)
- Indiana.edu: Text
only
- GASL.org: Text with
illustrations by Tenniel (PDF, coloured edition in the Arno Schmidt Reference Library)
- Duchs.com: Text only (RSS version)
- PublicLiterature.org: Chapter indexed, Searchable text
- Sabiana: Text with illustrations by
Tenniel, with a commentary by Dr Marc Edmund Jones
- DjVu editions: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (colour illustrations, searchable, several formats)
- Multiple Formats ( html, XML, opendocument ODF, pdf (landscape, portrait), plaintext, concordance ) SiSU
Illustrations
ru-sib:Алиска в Краю Дивовzh-yue:愛麗絲夢遊仙境
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