Product Description

In 1862, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson went on a rowboat outing with friends, including three daughters of the dean of Oxford’s Christ Church College – Lorina, Edith, and Alice Liddell. Dodgson made up a story to entertain the girls during the short trip – Alice asked him to write the story down, and he agreed to. The result was Alice’s Adventures under Ground, which friends of Dodgson’s encouraged him to publish - it was to go through substantial revision and expansion before becoming the tale we are so familiar with today. Readers can now have a glimpse into the genesis of one of the greatest children’s stories of all time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #839322 in Books
• Published on: 1965
• Format: Facsimile
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Source of legend and lyric, reference and conjecture, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is, for most children, pure pleasure in prose. While adults try to decipher Lewis Carroll's putative use of complex mathematical codes in the text, or debate his alleged use of opium, young readers simply dive with Alice through the rabbit hole, pursuing "The dream-child moving through a land / Of wonders wild and new". There they encounter the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle and the Mad Hatter, together with a multitude of other characters--extinct, fantastical and commonplace creatures. Alice journeys through this Wonderland, trying to fathom the meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be "curiouser and curiouser", seemingly without moral or sense.

For more than 130 years, children have revelled in the delightfully non-moralistic, non-educational virtues of this classic. In fact, at every turn Alice's new companions scoff at her traditional education. The Mock Turtle, for example, remarks that he took the "regular course" in school: Reeling, Writhing and branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision. Carroll believed John Tenniel's illustrations were as important as his text. Naturally, Carroll's instincts were good; the masterful drawings, reproduced here, are inextricably tied to the well-loved story. (All ages)

From the Publisher
An absolute necessity for anyone, young, old, or in-between, who has ever read Alice.

The only edition in print of an early manuscript that was a vital step in the development of the Alice books, Alice’s Adventures under Ground is also accompanied by Lewis Carroll’s original illustrations.

About the Author
Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of the writer, mathematician and photographer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 – 1898), known especially for Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1865) and Through The Looking Glass (1872).

Customer Reviews

Timeless
An utterly timeless book that has been, at various times, an amusing children's book, a psychedelic text to rival 'Lord of the Rings', and a bible for enthusiastic young programmers who are bored of cyberpunk. It remains a striking record of a repressed imagination suddenly untethered, and the lively writing style hasn't dated - it presents the strange world of Wonderland simply and effectively.

Meanwhile, John Tenniel's illustrations are definitive, and similarly timeless - abstract fantasy doesn't date, and the few pieces that seem old-fashioned might as well be modern illustrations with a Victorian design brief.

The sequel, 'Alice Through the Looking-Glass' seems slightly darker, has a complex chess theme, and includes the famous 'Jabberwocky' poem, something which a certain type of precocious teenager will memorise and recite at parties.

"And what is the use of a book without pictures or conversation?" might as well be a motto for the internet, too.

Beautifully Illustrated Classic!
Angel Dominguez adds another dimension to this classic tale. His illustrations are, without a doubt, awesome. You have to own this book!

A Delightful Book!
It's a book with a lot of creativity. Also with a lot of imagination. It's a must have book. It is also an unforgetable book with a lot of talent. I really recommend it to everyone that includes adults as well as children!