Rereading: ALICE’S ADVENTURES UNDER GROUND by Lewis Carroll

The book that became known as “Alice in Wonderland” was first a story told, or at least begun, on an idyllic summer of 1862 boat trip with Reverend Charles Dodgson (Carroll), his friend Robinson Duckworth, and young Alice Liddell and two of her sisters. Carroll was most fond of Alice, and made her the main character of the story. Alice and her siblings begged him to write it all down, and eventually he did, preparing this hand-written presentation copy with his own drawings to her at Christmas 1864. The published version, almost twice as long, with illustrations by John Tenniel, came out in 1865, and has long been considered one of the best and most unusual books written for children.

Many years after Alice was grown with children of her own, Carroll asked permission to publish a facsimile edition of his original gift book, and that first came out from Macmillan in 1886 after struggles with a dubious engraver. The manuscript was sold in 1928 to an American, and was here until resold to the British Library in 1948. This Dover edition is printed from photos of that manuscript, but only the front and back cover (as seen above) are reproduced in color.

The story pages are still interesting and pretty easy to read. Carroll’s illustrations vary in quality, but aren’t too bad, and are interesting in their own right as showing how he saw the characters. Included are the fall down the rabbit hole, difficulties getting out of it at the other end, swimming in a sea of tears, the mouse’s tail, giant Alice stuck in the White Rabbit’s house, the caterpillar on the mushroom, the Father William poem, croquet with the Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, and the trial before the Queen. The writing is just as funny and charming as in the published book, though often different.

I think this is still pretty easy to find today, and worth a look. Recommended.

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