What is Alice in Wonderland?

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a children's novel. The title is usually shortened to Alice in Wonderland. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote the book. He wrote it using the pen name Lewis Carroll.John Tenniel drew the 42 pictures in the book. The book was published by Macmillan Publishers in London. It was released on 26 November 1865. It has been adapted to numerous movies.

Story.

The story starts with Alice sitting with her sister beside a lake. Suddenly, a white rabbit runs by. Alice runs after him. She finds his rabbit hole. She falls through the hole. She meets many characters underground and has some amazing adventures. She grows larger or smaller by eating different things like cakes and mushrooms. At the end, she enters a lovely garden. The Knave of Hearts is charged with stealing some tarts. A trial is held. Alice thinks the trial is ridiculous. She says so. Everyone is offended. There is a great commotion. Alice suddenly wakes up. She is back where she started, sitting with her sister beside the lake.

Background.

The story was told on a summer outing to three little girls. One of them was named Alice Liddell. Alice asked Dodgson to write the story down. Dodgson accepted the task. It took two years. The story was first called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. When Dodgson prepared the Alice story for publication, he added more events, such as the Mad Hatters's Tea Party, new characters, such as the Cheshire Cat, and changed the title to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The story was so popular that Dodgson, (under the pen name Lewis Carroll), wrote a sequel called Through the Looking-Glass. The Alice stories, often known as Alice in Wonderland, are popular in music, movies and plays.

 Who was the Real Alice?

Alice Pleasance Liddell (1852–1934) was the middle daughter of Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church at Oxford. Alice, along with her sisters Edith and Lorina, first met Lewis Carroll on April 25, 1856, as he and a friend were setting up to photograph Christ Church Cathedral from the garden of the Dean’s residence.

Over the next few years, Carroll would become a close friend of the Liddell family. Alice and her sisters were frequent models for Carroll’s photography, and he often took the children on outings.

On July 4th, 1862, Carroll and the Rev. Robinson Duckworth took the girls boating up the Isis. Alice later recalled that as the company took tea on a shaded bank, she implored Carroll to “tell us a story.”

According to Carroll, “in a desperate attempt” and “without the least idea what was to happen afterwards,” he sent his heroine “straight down a rabbit-hole.” Upon Alice’s urging, Carroll began writing down his tale. On November 26, 1864, he presented her with an elaborate hand-illustrated manuscript, titled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.

When Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published a year later, Alice Liddell became immortalized as the inspiration for Carroll’s much-loved literary character. But unlike the fictional “Alice,” Alice Liddell grew up. By the time Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There was published, she was almost 20 years old, and Carroll’s close friendship with the Liddell family had weakened. His sequel can be seen as a fond farewell to Alice as she enters adulthood.

In 1880, Alice married amateur cricket player Reginald Hargreaves. She lived the cultured life of a country lady in Lyndhurst, England. She had three sons, two of whom were killed in World War I. To help pay taxes after the death of her husband, Alice put the original Under Ground manuscript up for auction in 1928.

Alice traveled to the United States in 1932 to receive an honorary doctorate from Columbia University in celebration of the centennial anniversary of Carroll’s birth. She died two years later.

Following are photographs including the real Alice, the three friends, and Dodgson (these images are not included in the book offered here, but thought you may enjoy them):