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Most people know Alice before they ever open the book. The White Rabbit, the rabbit hole, the girl in the pinafore: these images have been retold in films, cartoons, picture books, and countless pieces of merchandise. But the original "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a stranger and funnier thing than its adaptations. It is a book that plays with language itself, and that is something no screen version quite captures.
Who wrote it, and when
"Lewis Carroll" was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, born on 27 January 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, and died on 14 January 1898 in Guildford, Surrey. By profession he was a mathematician. In 1855 he won the Mathematical Lectureship at Christ Church, Oxford, and held it for 26 years. He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1861, and he was also a keen early photographer, producing around 3,000 images between 1856 and 1880.
The book began as a story told aloud. On 4 July 1862, Dodgson went rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth and the three young daughters of Henry Liddell. To pass the time, he made up a tale for the girls. One of them, Alice Liddell, asked him to write it down, and in November 1864 he gave her a handwritten manuscript called "Alice's Adventures Under Ground."
The expanded version, roughly twice as long, was published by Macmillan in November 1865, with 42 wood-engraved illustrations by John Tenniel. Tenniel was so unhappy with the print quality of the first run that it was withdrawn and reprinted. A sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass," followed in 1871.
Where the story begins
It is a hot, sleepy afternoon. Alice is sitting on a riverbank beside her older sister, who is reading. Alice peeks at the book and is unimpressed:
"and what is the use of a book," thought Alice "without pictures or conversations?"
She is idly wondering whether making a daisy-chain is worth the trouble when a White Rabbit with pink eyes runs past. That alone would not have been so remarkable. But this rabbit is muttering that he will be late, and he takes a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, checks it, and hurries on.
Burning with curiosity, Alice runs after him and drops down a large rabbit hole under a hedge. The hole turns out to be more like a very deep well, and she falls for a long, long time.
At the bottom she finds a long, low hall lined with doors, all of them locked. On a little glass table lies a tiny golden key, which opens a door only about fifteen inches high. Through it she can see the loveliest garden imaginable, but she cannot even fit her head through the doorway. Then a small bottle appears on the table, labeled "DRINK ME."
What happens when she tries to reach that garden, and who she meets along the way, is for you to discover.
What makes it worth reading
The first pleasure is the wordplay. The book is packed with puns, jokes that hinge on taking words literally, and conversations that follow the rules of grammar perfectly while making no sense at all. Reading it as an adult, you notice how carefully built the nonsense is. Critics place it at the heart of the tradition called literary nonsense, and it remains one of the best examples of the form.
The second is the parody. Many of the poems Alice tries to recite were twisted versions of well-known moral verses that Victorian children were made to memorize. Carroll turned these improving little rhymes into absurd ones, and the joke still lands even if you have never heard the originals, though it is even funnier if you have.
The third is Alice herself. Wonderland's inhabitants argue with great confidence and very little logic, and Alice keeps trying to apply the rules she learned in the schoolroom to a world that refuses to obey them. It is fitting that the author was a mathematician; much of the comedy comes from logic bent slightly out of shape. Alice is curious, polite, occasionally cross, and never quite willing to give up on making sense of things, which makes her excellent company.
Finally, there are Tenniel's illustrations. Text and pictures were made to work together, so it is worth choosing an edition that includes them.
Who will enjoy it
This is a good choice for anyone who knows Alice from films or cartoons and wants to meet the original. It suits readers who enjoy clever dialogue, puzzles, and jokes about language, and it is short enough to read in a few sittings. Parents will find it rewarding to read aloud, since the rhythm of Carroll's sentences comes alive when spoken. And if you have ever felt that the adult world runs on rules that do not quite add up, Alice's frustrations may feel surprisingly familiar.
Follow the rabbit as far as the first locked door, and you will understand why readers have been tumbling after Alice for over a century and a half.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (published November 1865 by Macmillan; Tenniel's 42 wood-engraved illustrations and the withdrawn first printing; the 4 July 1862 boat trip; the manuscript "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" given in November 1864; sequel published 1871; puns, parodied poems, literary nonsense) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
- Wikipedia, "Lewis Carroll" (real name, birth and death dates and places, Christ Church mathematical lectureship, ordination as deacon, photography) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll
- Project Gutenberg, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll" (eBook #11; Chapter I and the quoted line) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11