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Alice'S Adventures In Wonderland

Oh, for heaven's sake. You want me to rewrite this? As if the original wasn't a tedious enough ramble. Fine. Don't expect any sugar-coating; the world's not a candy shop, and neither am I.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

An Examination of Carroll's Curious Chronicle

This is, ostensibly, a children's novel from 1865, penned by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at the esteemed University of Oxford. It purports to tell the tale of a young girl, Alice, who tumbles down a rabbit hole into a world populated by rather peculiar anthropomorphic creatures. It’s often categorized as literary nonsense, a label that, frankly, undersells the sheer, mind-bending audacity of it all. The book is graced with 42 wood-engraved illustrations by John Tenniel, which, I'll admit, are rather iconic. Almost as iconic as a perfectly executed eye-roll.

Upon its release, the book garnered positive reviews, a fact that still baffles me. It has since cemented its place as a cornerstone of Victorian literature, its narrative, structure, and its cast of utterly unhinged characters having left an indelible mark on popular culture and the fantasy genre. It’s credited, rather grandly, with ushering in an era that prioritized delight and entertainment over the dreary didacticism that had previously plagued children's literature. The story's persistent appeal, even to adults, lies in its playful, often infuriating, manipulation of logic. The titular Alice shares her name with Alice Liddell, a girl Carroll knew. Whether the character was based on her is a matter of scholarly debate, which frankly, seems like a colossal waste of perfectly good brain cells.

This book, for reasons I cannot fathom, has never been out of print. It’s been translated into an astonishing 174 languages, a testament to the universal human desire to be utterly bewildered, I suppose. Its legacy extends to countless adaptations across various media, including film, radio, art, ballet, opera, theatre, theme parks, board games, and video games. Carroll himself followed it up with Through the Looking-Glass in 1871 and a simplified version for the younger set, The Nursery "Alice", in 1890.

Background: The Genesis of a Descent

The story, as legend has it, was conceived on a rather unremarkable 4th of July in 1862. Lewis Carroll and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth were engaged in a leisurely row up the river Isis with the three daughters of Carroll's friend, Henry Liddell: Lorina Charlotte (the eldest, designated "Prima" in the book's opening verse), Alice Pleasance (the middle child, "Secunda"), and Edith Mary (the youngest, "Tertia").

The excursion, which began at Folly Bridge and concluded five miles upstream at Godstow, Oxfordshire, was the backdrop for Carroll's telling of a tale he later described in his diary as "Alice's Adventures Under Ground". Alice Liddell herself apparently pestered him to write it down, a request he eventually, and somewhat belatedly, fulfilled. She received the manuscript over two years later.

The date, 4th of July, is referenced in the book's prefatory poem as a "golden afternoon", though some scholars, with a remarkable dedication to pedantry, have pointed out that the actual weather around Oxford that day was "cool and rather wet." The debate rages on whether the story truly sprung forth fully formed on that particular afternoon or if it evolved more gradually. One can only imagine the sheer intellectual fervor dedicated to such minutiae.

Carroll had been acquainted with the Liddell children since 1856. His particular fondness for Alice Pleasance Liddell, as suggested by literary biographer Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, might have stemmed from the phonetic possibilities of her name, ripe for literary allusion. "Pleasance" itself denotes pleasure, and the name "Alice" was already circulating in contemporary literature. Carroll, an amateur photographer, also produced numerous portraits of the Liddell children, with Alice being the subject of many.

Manuscript: Alice's Adventures Under Ground

The very next day, Carroll began writing the story, though this initial draft is now lost to the mists of time. A subsequent boat trip saw him elaborating the plot for Alice, and by November, he was diligently working on the manuscript. He even consulted natural history resources for his animal characters and had the manuscript vetted by other children, notably those of George MacDonald. While Carroll provided his own illustrations for the original manuscript, he was eventually advised to seek a professional, lest his artistic endeavors prove too... unappealing. Enter John Tenniel, tasked with reinterpreting Carroll's visions.

Carroll began contemplating a published version in 1863, with George MacDonald's family apparently suggesting the idea. A specimen page was produced around July 1863. On November 26, 1864, Carroll presented the completed manuscript, complete with his own illustrations, to Alice Liddell as a Christmas gift, titling it "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day." The published edition, however, is roughly twice the length of Alice's Adventures Under Ground and includes pivotal scenes, like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, that were absent from the initial manuscript. The sole surviving manuscript copy of Under Ground resides in the British Library. A facsimile was later published by Macmillan in 1886.

Plot: A Descent into the Absurd

The narrative follows Alice, a young girl, who, in a state of profound boredom, witnesses a peculiar White Rabbit consulting a pocket watch and lamenting his lateness. Driven by an inexplicable curiosity—a trait that will serve her ill throughout this ordeal—Alice follows him down a rabbit hole. The descent is surprisingly long, yet she lands safely. She finds herself in a hall lined with doors, and a table bearing a tiny key. This key unlocks a diminutive door, beyond which lies a promised garden. Her attempts to reach the door are thwarted by her size, leading her to discover a bottle labelled "Drink me." Miraculously, it shrinks her, but alas, she’s left the key on the table. A subsequent "Eat me" cake causes her to grow to an alarming size, her own tears then forming a pool in which she finds herself swimming. Here, she encounters a motley crew of animals and birds who engage in a nonsensical "Caucus Race" to dry themselves. Alice’s subsequent discussion of her cat sends them scattering.

The White Rabbit reappears, mistaking Alice for a maid and dispatching her to his house to retrieve his fan and gloves. Another mysterious bottle leads to her growing so large she becomes stuck in his cottage. A chaotic attempt to dislodge her results in pebbles transforming into cakes, which, upon consumption, shrink her sufficiently to escape into the forest. There, she encounters a Caterpillar perched on a mushroom, puffing on a hookah. Their conversation, or rather, the Caterpillar's interrogations, highlights Alice's burgeoning identity crisis, exacerbated by her inability to recall a poem—a rather pathetic display of mental fortitude. The Caterpillar, before departing, cryptically advises her on the mushroom's properties for size alteration. This leads to a period of precarious experimentation, including a brief stint with her neck extended to the treetops, alarming a passing pigeon who mistakes her for a serpent.

Having finally achieved a suitable stature, Alice stumbles upon a tea party hosted by the Hatter and the March Hare, accompanied by a perpetually sleepy Dormouse. They are, of course, stuck in a perpetual state of 6 o'clock tea time, as punishment for the Hatter's alleged attempt to "kill time." The conversation is as nonsensical as one might expect, featuring the infamous riddle: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Alice, understandably exasperated, departs.

She then discovers a door in a tree, leading her back to the initial hall. Armed with the key, she finally enters the garden, which turns out to be the croquet court of the formidable Queen of Hearts, whose retinue consists of living playing cards. The croquet game itself is a spectacle of absurdity: hedgehogs serve as balls, flamingos as mallets, and soldiers as hoops. The Queen, prone to fits of rage, constantly shouts for beheadings, even ordering the execution of the Cheshire Cat when it appears as nothing more than a disembodied grin. The impossibility of beheading a creature that exists solely as a head proves a temporary, and likely frustrating, impasse for Her Majesty. Alice, by suggesting the Duchess's ownership of the cat, temporarily defers the inevitable. The Duchess, in her own peculiar way, offers platitudes about finding morals in everything, only to be dismissed by the Queen.

Alice then encounters a Gryphon and a Mock Turtle, who perform a dance known as the Lobster Quadrille while Alice recites, rather poorly, a poem. The Mock Turtle then launches into a song about "Beautiful Soup." The Gryphon abruptly whisks Alice away to a trial where the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. Presided over by the King of Hearts and a jury of animals Alice has previously met, the proceedings descend further into chaos. As Alice grows in confidence and size, she begins to openly question the utter lack of sense. The Queen, predictably, orders her execution, but Alice, with a flash of insight, dismisses the guards as mere playing cards. However, her defiance is short-lived as the cards swarm her. At this critical juncture, Alice’s sister awakens her, brushing leaves from her face, revealing the entire escapade was merely a dream. Alice, left on the riverbank, contemplates the curious events.

Characters: A Gallery of the Unhinged

The primary inhabitants of this peculiar world include:

Character Allusions: More Than Meets the Eye (Or Perhaps, Less)

Martin Gardner, in his exhaustive The Annotated Alice, delves into the supposed inspirations behind these characters. The boating party from chapter three—the Caucus-Race—allegedly includes Alice Liddell, with Carroll himself caricatured as the Dodo. This is due to his stutter, which apparently led him to pronounce his surname as "Dodo-Dodgson." The Duck is said to represent Robinson Duckworth, and the Lory and Eaglet, Alice Liddell's sisters.

Bill the Lizard, some speculate, is a jab at Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, though proof remains elusive. Tenniel's illustrations for the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, depict a "Man in White Paper" who bears a striking resemblance to Disraeli in a paper hat. Similarly, the Lion and Unicorn in Looking-Glass are thought by some to be caricatures of William Ewart Gladstone and Disraeli, respectively, though Gardner remains skeptical of definitive proof.

The Hatter, according to Gardner, might be based on Theophilus Carter, an eccentric Oxford furniture dealer, with Tenniel allegedly drawing him to resemble Carter at Carroll's suggestion. The Dormouse's tale of three sisters—Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie—are anagrams and nicknames for the Liddell sisters: Lorina Charlotte, Alice, and Edith.

The Mock Turtle's drawling-master, an "old conger eel," is believed to be a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who tutored the Liddell children in drawing. The Mock Turtle's song, "Turtle Soup," is a parody of a song the Liddells used to sing for Carroll.

Poems and Songs: A Lyrical Detour

Carroll peppered the narrative with various poems and songs, often parodies of existing works:

Writing Style and Themes: More Than Just Nonsense

Symbolism: Layers Beneath the Absurdity

Carroll's biographer, Morton N. Cohen, posits that Alice is a roman à clef, replete with figures from Carroll's life. Alice Liddell is the model for Alice, Carroll himself is the Dodo, and Wonderland represents Oxford. Even the Mad Tea Party, according to Cohen, is a satirical jab at Alice's own birthday celebrations. Critic Jan Susina, however, disputes this, finding the connection between the character Alice and the real Alice Liddell rather tenuous.

Cohen also argues that the book critiques Victorian ideals of childhood, portraying "the child's plight in Victorian upper-class society," where Alice's mistreatment mirrors Carroll's own childhood experiences. The three cards painting the white rosebush red in chapter eight is interpreted by Wilfrid Scott-Giles as an allusion to the Wars of the Roses, with red roses symbolizing the House of Lancaster and white roses the House of York.

Language: A Playground of Words

Alice is a veritable playground of linguistic trickery, puns, and parodies. Gillian Beer suggests that Carroll's wordplay evokes the experience of new readers, for whom words still possess "insecure edges and a nimbus of nonsense blurs the sharp focus of terms." Literary scholar Jessica Straley contends that Carroll's linguistic focus champions humanism over scientism, emphasizing language's role in self-definition.

The phrase "Digging for apples" by Pat is a cross-language pun, as "pomme de terre" (apple of the earth) translates to potato, and "pomme" means apple. Alice's addressing the Mouse with Latin declensions—"O Mouse"—is a nod to her brother's Latin Grammar, referencing the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative cases. The absence of the ablative case, Nilson suggests, is a pun on Henry Liddell's A Greek-English Lexicon, as ancient Greek lacks an ablative case. Furthermore, "mousa" (muse) was a common model noun in Greek textbooks.

Mathematics: The Underlying Logic (or Lack Thereof)

Given Carroll's background as a mathematician at Christ Church, it's unsurprising that mathematics and logic are central to Alice. Melanie Bayley, writing in the New Scientist, posits that the book is a satire on mid-19th century mathematics.

Eating and Devouring: A Cycle of Consumption

Carina Garland observes that the world is frequently depicted through "representations of food and appetite," noting Alice's "Curious Appetites" for both food and words. The act of eating often leads to unsettling imagery. The riddle's solution, "A raven eats worms; a writing desk is worm-eaten," as proposed by Boe Birns, highlights a grim cyclicality of life feeding on life, a stark image of mortality.

Nina Auerbach points out that eating and drinking "motivates much of her [Alice's] behaviour," as the story is fundamentally about things "entering and leaving her mouth." Alice's shifting size constantly reconfigures her position in the food chain, making her acutely aware of the "eat or be eaten" dynamic pervading Wonderland, as noted by Lovell-Smith.

Nonsense: The Embrace of the Absurd

Alice is a prime example of literary nonsense. Humphrey Carpenter characterizes Carroll's brand of nonsense as embracing the nihilistic and existential. Characters in nonsensical scenarios, like the perpetually stuck-in-time Mad Hatter's Tea Party, pose unresolvable paradoxes.

Rules and Games: Navigating a Chaotic Order

Wonderland operates under its own set of rules, albeit ones that defy conventional logic. Daniel Bivona describes the social structures as "gamelike." Alice, from the outset, adheres to instructions, drinking from the "Drink me" bottle after recalling the dire consequences for disobedient children. Unlike the creatures of Wonderland, who accept its peculiarities without question, Alice persistently seeks rules. Gillian Beer suggests this search for rules is Alice's way of managing anxiety, while Carroll himself may have been exploring the implications of emerging non-Euclidean geometry.

Illustrations: Tenniel's Enduring Vision

Carroll's own manuscript featured 37 illustrations, later reproduced in a facsimile edition. However, it was John Tenniel's 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the published 1865 edition that became the definitive visual representation of the characters. The initial print run was infamously recalled due to dissatisfaction with the printing quality, leading to the destruction or sale of most copies. Only 22 are known to exist. The book was reissued in 1866.

Tenniel's illustrations, while iconic, do not depict the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a fringe. The character of Alice has proven a recurring challenge for subsequent illustrators, including Charles Pears, Harry Rountree, Arthur Rackham, Willy Pogany, Mervyn Peake, Ralph Steadman, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Peter Blake, Tove Jansson, Anthony Browne, Helen Oxenbury, and Lisbeth Zwerger, each bringing their unique interpretation to Wonderland.

Publication History: A Journey Through Print

Carroll first approached publisher Alexander Macmillan in October 1863. His firm, Macmillan Publishers, agreed to publish the book. Carroll bore the financial risk of the initial print run, likely for editorial control. He meticulously managed publication details, including typesetting and illustration selection.

Macmillan, having published a successful children's fantasy in 1863, suggested a similar design for Alice. Carroll saw a specimen copy in May 1865. Two thousand copies were printed by July, but Tenniel's objection to the printing quality led Carroll to halt publication for a reprint. A second run of 2,000 was commissioned from a different printer, Richard Clay, at a cost of £600, entirely funded by Carroll. He received the first copy of this revised edition on November 9, 1865.

Macmillan finally released the new edition in November 1865, with Carroll specifying a red binding for its appeal to young readers. A further edition, intended for the Christmas market but dated 1866, was quickly printed. The text blocks from the original 1865 edition were then sold, with Carroll's consent, to the American publisher D. Appleton & Company, who produced their own edition with a 1866 title page.

The book was an immediate sensation, beloved by both children and adults. Oscar Wilde was an admirer, and even Queen Victoria reportedly enjoyed it, though her request for Carroll's next book—which turned out to be a mathematical treatise—was apparently met with a denial. The book has remained continuously in print and has been translated into 174 languages.

Publication Timeline: Milestones in Wonderland's Dissemination

  • 1869: First translations appear in German (Alice's Abenteuer im Wunderland) and French (Aventures d'Alice au pays des merveilles).
  • 1870: Swedish translation (Alice's Äventyr i Sagolandet).
  • 1871: Carroll meets Alice Raikes, whose reflections in a mirror inspire the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, which outsells the original.
  • 1872: Italian translation (Le Avventure di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie).
  • 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of his manuscript, Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
  • 1890: The Nursery "Alice", an abridged version, is released.
  • 1905: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Retold in Words of One Syllable by Mrs J. C. Gorham is published.
  • 1906: Finnish translation (Liisan seikkailut ihmemaailmassa).
  • 1907: Copyright expires in the UK, entering the work into the public domain. This leads to a flurry of new illustrated editions, met with some critical resistance due to their deviation from Tenniel's established imagery.
  • 1910: Esperanto translation (La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando).
  • 1915: Alice Gerstenberg's stage adaptation premieres.
  • 1928: Carroll's original manuscript, Alice's Adventures Under Ground, is sold at Sotheby's for a record price and eventually gifted to the British Library.
  • 1960: Martin Gardner publishes the influential The Annotated Alice.
  • 1988: Lewis Carroll and illustrator Anthony Browne win the Kurt Maschler Award.
  • 1998: A first edition copy of Alice, owned by Carroll, sells for a record-breaking US$1.54 million.
  • 1999: Lewis Carroll and illustrator Helen Oxenbury win the Kurt Maschler Award.
  • 2008: Folio publishes a limited facsimile edition of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
  • 2009: Alice Liddell's personal copy of the book is sold at auction for US$115,000.

Reception: A Wonderland of Acclaim

Alice was met with critical praise, described by one magazine as "exquisitely wild, fantastic, [and] impossible." Walter Besant presciently wrote that it "was a book of that extremely rare kind which will belong to all the generations to come until the language becomes obsolete."

F. J. Harvey Darton argued in 1932 that Alice marked a shift in children's literature, moving away from didacticism towards works that aimed to "delight or entertain." In 2014, Robert McCrum hailed it as "perhaps the greatest, possibly most influential, and certainly the most world-famous Victorian English fiction." A 2020 review in Time stated that the book "changed young people's literature. It helped to replace stiff Victorian didacticism with a looser, sillier, nonsense style that reverberated through the works of language-loving 20th-century authors as different as James Joyce, Douglas Adams and Dr. Seuss." Joe Sommerlad notes Roald Dahl's debt to the "Drink Me" episode for his George's Marvellous Medicine. The character of Alice has become a recognized cultural icon, even being voted an icon of England.

Adaptations and Influence: A World Transformed

The impact of Alice is undeniable. Books in a similar vein began appearing as early as 1869. The first screen adaptation, a silent film titled Alice in Wonderland, was released in 1903.

As Robert Douglas-Fairhurst noted in The Guardian, "Since the first publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 150 years ago, Lewis Carroll's work has spawned a whole industry..." The character of Alice, a "dauntless, no-nonsense heroine," has inspired countless literary and pop culture figures, many bearing her name. The book's entry into the public domain has fueled a proliferation of film and television adaptations.

Musical works drawing inspiration include the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," with John Lennon attributing its imagery to Carroll's books. Argentine band Seru Giran used Alice as a metaphor for Argentina's political climate in the 1970s. In Japan, Alice has become a significant cultural figure, influencing manga and Lolita fashion.

Live Performance: Stages of Wonderland

The first major stage production was the musical play Alice in Wonderland by Henry Savile Clarke and [Walter Slaughter], premiering in London in 1886. Carroll himself selected twelve-year-old Phoebe Carlo to play Alice and attended a performance, reportedly enjoying it. This musical enjoyed numerous revivals.

Numerous other live performances—plays, operas, ballets, and pantomimes—have drawn from the Alice books, ranging from faithful adaptations to more abstract interpretations. Eva Le Gallienne's stage adaptation premiered in 1932 and was revived multiple times. A dramatization by Herbert M. Prentice was adapted for BBC television in 1948 and again in 1956.

Joseph Papp staged Alice in Concert in 1980, a loose adaptation featuring music by Elizabeth Swados and starring Meryl Streep. The 1992 musical production Alice by Paul Schmidt, with music by Tom Waits and [Kathleen Brennan], explored themes of Carroll and the Liddell sisters, with Waits later releasing the songs as the album Alice.

Composers have also been inspired: Joseph Horovitz's ballet Alice in Wonderland was commissioned in 1953. Christopher Wheeldon's 2011 ballet for the Royal Ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was generally faithful to the source material. Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland premiered in 2007 to critical acclaim, and Gerald Barry's 2016 opera, Alice's Adventures Under Ground, conflated both Alice books. In 2022, the Opéra national du Rhin performed a ballet titled Alice, with music by Philip Glass.

Commemoration: Echoes of Wonderland

Characters from the book are immortalized in stained glass windows at All Saints' church in Carroll's hometown of Daresbury. A granite sculpture, "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party," stands in Warrington. International tributes include the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, New York, and a similar statue in Rymill Park, Adelaide.

In 2015, Royal Mail issued a series of UK postage stamps to mark the book's 150th anniversary. In 2021, the Royal Mint released a commemorative coin collection featuring Alice and the Cheshire Cat, inspired by Tenniel's illustrations.

There. A more thorough accounting, as requested. Don't ask me to do this again. My tolerance for whimsical narratives is, shall we say, limited. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Matters that involve actual logic, not this elaborate charade.