《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》是英國數學家卡羅爾，興之所致，給友人的女兒愛麗絲所講的故事，寫下後加上自己的插圖送給了她。後來在朋友鼓勵下，卡羅爾將手稿加以修訂、擴充、潤色後，於1865年正式出版。故事講述了一個叫愛麗絲的小女孩，在夢中追逐一隻兔子而掉進了兔子洞，開始了漫長而驚險的旅行，直到最後與撲剋牌王後、國王發生頂撞，急得大叫一聲，纔大夢醒來。這部童話以神奇的幻想，風趣的幽默，昂然的詩情，突破了西歐傳統兒童文學道德說教的刻板公式，此後被翻譯成多種文字，走遍了全世界。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-故事簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》是英國童話作傢劉易斯·卡洛爾的一部中篇童話。故事寫一個名叫愛麗絲的女孩在打瞌睡時，突然看見一隻穿衣服的白兔跑過去。愛麗絲跟着兔子跌進了一個黑洞，跌了好久纔跌到了一堆枯樹葉上。她走進一個大廳，四周有許多扇門。
大廳中央玻璃桌上放着一串金鑰匙。她用其中一把打開了一扇最小的門，裏面是一座美麗的花園。門太小，她鑽不進，後來喝了桌上一瓶飲料，就變成了一個衹有10英寸高的小人。她吃了桌下一塊糕，一下長到9英尺，門又進不了。她急得大哭起來，淚水流成河。
白兔出現了，丟下一把扇子，她用來一扇，又縮成個小人。她失足落入自己的淚水池中，好容易纔遊到岸邊。愛麗絲來到白兔傢，看見櫃子上有飲料，她纔喝了半瓶，身體就變大，頭頂天花板，胳膊伸出窗外，無法動彈。兔子撿石頭砸她，石子落地全變成糕餅。她一吃，馬上又縮小了，於是她奪門逃跑，逃到林子裏，吃了點蘑菇纔恢復了原來的形狀。
愛麗絲走進一個公爵夫人傢的花園，在這裏她認識了樸剋紅心國王K和皇后Q。皇后脾氣暴躁，動不動就砍掉人傢的頭。切捨貓惹皇后生氣，被判砍頭。但貓的身子消失了，劊子手不知怎樣去砍沒有身子的頭，最後皇后又下令砍掉不肯對荒唐事作證的愛麗絲的頭，愛麗絲在自衛中驚醒。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-角色簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》愛麗絲和穿衣服的兔子
愛麗絲：故事的主角，一個純真可愛的小女孩，充滿好奇心和求知欲，在她身上體現出了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
兔子：一隻穿着背心的白兔，在故事開場正要去給女王取東西的它喊着“天哪！天哪！要遲到了！”跑過愛麗絲面前，引起了她的註意，為了追它，愛麗絲纔從兔子洞掉進了那個神秘的世界，後來愛麗絲在它的傢裏又誤喝了一瓶魔藥而變成巨人。
蜥蜴比爾：愛麗絲在兔子傢裏誤喝魔藥變成巨人，無法離開房屋，兔子以為屋裏出現了怪物，派這衹小蜥蜴從煙囪進去看看情況，結果不等進去就被愛麗絲踢了出來。
毛毛蟲：一隻坐在蘑菇上吸煙斗的古怪毛毛蟲，態度有點目中無人，不過它教給了愛麗絲自由變大變小的方法。
公爵夫人：一個愛好說教的女人，口頭語是“一切事皆能引申出一個教訓”。愛麗絲去過她傢，正是在那裏她纔認識了柴郡貓。
柴郡貓：一隻總是咧着嘴笑的貓，來源於英諺“笑得像一隻柴郡貓”。它幫了愛麗絲幾次忙。
帽匠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像個帽匠”。
三月兔：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像衹三月的野兔”。
睡鼠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，總是在睡覺。
紅心女王：率領着一群撲剋牌士兵的撲剋牌女王，很容易生氣，動輒要砍別人的頭，不過其實並沒有實行過。
紅心國王：撲剋牌國王，不像妻子那麽愛動怒，相反給人以受妻子指使的老好人的感覺。
格裏芬：希臘神話中的獅身鷹首怪獸，在女王的命令下帶愛麗絲去見了假海龜。
假海龜：女王命令格裏芬帶愛麗絲去見的角色，它給愛麗絲講了一個充滿文字遊戲的莫名其妙的故事。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作品評價
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》是一部被公認為世界兒童文學經典的童話，由於其中豐富的想象力和種種隱喻，不但深受各代兒童歡迎，也被視為一部嚴肅的文學作品。《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》到卡羅爾1898年去世之前，已經成為英國最暢銷的兒童讀物。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》作品以夢幻的形式，將你帶入一個離奇的故事中，情節撲朔迷離，變幻莫測。表面看來荒誕不經，實際上卻富有嚴密的邏輯性和深刻的內涵，是智慧與幻想的完美結合。吃些東西就可以長大或變小；小老鼠可以和你一起遊泳；毛毛蟲和你一般高；小豬接見公爵夫人的孩子；還有竜跳舞……那裏是一個奇異的世界。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中主人公愛麗絲是個十分可愛的小女孩。她天真活潑，充滿好奇心和求知欲；她有同情心，懂得是非。在愛麗絲身上，充分體現了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中充滿了有趣的文字遊戲、雙關語、謎語和巧智、因此有時是難以翻譯的，比如第二章章名裏的“Tale（故事）”因為被愛麗絲聽成同音的“Tail（尾巴）”而鬧出了笑話。由於開始時是一部給朋友的孩子講的自娛之作，故事裏的很多角色名都影射了作者身邊的人，如第三章裏的渡渡鳥（dodo）是作者自己（因為他有口吃的毛病，聽起來像dodo這個詞）、鴨子（duck）是朋友Duckworth、鸚鵡（Lory）是愛麗絲的姐姐Lorina，小鷹（Eaglet）是愛麗絲的妹妹Edith。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作者簡介
劉易斯·卡羅爾的真名叫查爾斯·勒特威奇·道奇森（1832～1898），是一位數學家，長期在享有盛名的牛津大學任基督堂學院數學講師，發表了好幾本數學著作。他因有嚴重的口吃，故而不善與人交往，但他興趣廣泛，對小說、詩歌、邏輯都頗有造詣，還是一個優秀的兒童像攝影師。
1862年7月的一個下午，作傢帶着三個孩子，劃着一隻小船在泰晤士河上蕩漾。在孩子們的再三央求下，他信口講了一個夢遊奇境的故事給他們聽。後來經過其中一個叫艾麗絲的小女孩的請求，他將故事寫成文字，送給了她。
這篇文字就是《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》。後來在朋友鼓勵下，卡羅爾將手稿加以修訂、擴充、潤色後，於1865 年正式出版。卡羅爾後來又寫了一部姐妹篇，叫《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇記》，並與《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》一起風行於世。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-改編與仿作
劉易斯·卡羅爾的《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》由於作品的廣受歡迎，《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》曾被改編成各種體裁，包括電影、舞臺劇和動畫，其中迪斯尼於1951年改編的 AliceinWonderland是比較著名的。此外還出現了各種仿作，比如瀋從文的童話《阿麗思中國遊記》便是假托愛麗絲續集的名義反映當時社會的黑暗。
另外，這個充滿奇幻色彩的題材也不時被各種日本漫畫套用，由貴香織裏的《毒伯爵該隱》有一章就藉用了愛麗絲的故事，衹是在以頽廢風格聞名的由貴筆下，故事也變得陰森恐怖了。
還有很多漫畫傢喜歡把自己筆下的角色套進愛麗絲的世界裏，《櫻蘭高校男公關部》、山田南平的《紅茶王子》都做過類似的事，看看同一個故事在不同的作者筆下各自呈現出怎樣的新色彩，其實也是件有趣的事。
History
Facsimile page from Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Alice was published in 1865, three years after the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat, on 4 July 1862, up the River Thames with three young girls:
* Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13, born 1849) ("Prima" in the book's prefatory verse)
* Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10, born 1852) ("Secunda" in the prefatory verse)
* Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8, born 1853) ("Tertia" in the prefatory verse).
The three girls were the daughters of Henry George Liddell, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church as well as headmaster of Westminster School.
The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.
The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay—over two years —he eventually did so and on 26 November 1864 gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate there was an earlier version that was destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand, but there is no known prima facie evidence to support this.
But before Alice received her copy, Dodgson was already preparing it for publication and expanding the 15,500-word original to 27,500 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was held back because Tenniel objected to the print quality. A new edition, released in December of the same year, but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed. As it turned out, the original edition was sold with Dodgson's permission to the New York publishing house of Appleton. The binding for the Appleton Alice was virtually identical to the 1866 Macmillan Alice, except for the publisher's name at the foot of the spine. The title page of the Appleton Alice was an insert cancelling the original Macmillan title page of 1865, and bearing the New York publisher's imprint and the date 1866.
The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. Among its first avid readers were Queen Victoria and the young Oscar Wilde. The book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages[citation needed]. There have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.
The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland, an alternative title popularized by the numerous stage, film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title contain both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and, What Alice Found There.
Publishing highlights
cover of the 1898 edition
* 1865: First UK edition (the suppressed edition).
* 1865: First US edition.
* 1869: Alice's Abenteuer im Wunderland is published in German translation by Antonie Zimmermann.
* 1869: Aventures d'Alice au pays des merveilles is published in French translation by Henri Bué.
* 1870: Alice's Äfventyr i Sagolandet is published in Swedish translation by Emily Nonnen.
* 1871: Dodgson meets another Alice during his time in London, Alice Raikes, and talks with her about her reflection in a mirror, leading to another book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, which sells even better.
* 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of the earlier Alice's Adventures Under Ground manuscript.
* 1890: Carroll publishes The Nursery "Alice", a special edition "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five".
* 1905: Mrs J. C. Gorham publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable in a series of such books published by A. L. Burt Company, aimed at young readers.
* 1908: Alice has its first translation into Japanese.
* 1910: La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando is published in Esperanto translation by Elfric Leofwine Kearney.
* 1916: Publication of the first edition of the Windermere Series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Illustrated by Milo Winter.
* 1928: The manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground that Carroll wrote and illustrated and that he had given to Alice Liddell was sold at Sotheby's on April 3. It sold to Philip Rosenbach for ₤15,400, a world record for the sale of a manuscript at the time.
* 1960: American writer Martin Gardner publishes a special edition, The Annotated Alice, incorporating the text of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It has extensive annotations explaining the hidden allusions in the books, and includes full texts of the Victorian era poems parodied in them. Later editions expand on these annotations.
* 1961: The Folio Society publication with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel.
* 1964: Alicia in Terra Mirabili is published in Latin translation by Clive Harcourt Carruthers.
* 1998: Lewis Carroll's own copy of Alice, one of only six surviving copies of the 1865 first edition, is sold at an auction for US$1.54 million to an anonymous American buyer, becoming the most expensive children's book (or 19th-century work of literature) ever traded. (The former record was later eclipsed in 2007 when a limited-edition Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, was sold at auction for £1.95 million ($3.9 million).
* 2003: Eachtraí Eilíse i dTír na nIontas is published in Irish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2008: Folio Alice's Adventures Under Ground facsimile edition (limited to 3,750 copies, boxed with The Original Alice pamphlet).
* 2009: Alys in Pow an Anethow is published in Cornish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2009: Children’s book collector and former American football player Pat McInally reportedly sold Alice Liddell’s own copy at auction for $115,000.
Synopsis
The White Rabbit in a hurry
Chapter 1-Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is bored sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she sees a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit, but through which she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key. A cake with "EAT ME" on it causes her to grow to such a tremendous size her head hits the ceiling.
Chapter 2-The Pool of Tears: Alice is unhappy and cries and her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him but all she can think of talking about is her cat, which offends the mouse.
Chapter 3-The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away. Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again. The mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror. A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner. Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking about her cat.
Chapter 4-The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. He orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing. The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes, which, when Alice eats them, reduce her again in size.
Chapter 5-Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her usual height. She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.
Chapter 6-Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess and her baby (but not the cook or her grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig.
Chapter 7-A Mad Tea Party: The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat. Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the Hatter (now more commonly known as the Mad Hatter), the March Hare, and a sleeping Dormouse who remains asleep for most of the chapter. The other characters give Alice many riddles and stories. The Mad Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea time). Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo
The grinning Cheshire Cat
Chapter 8-The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens and even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase "Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject.
Alice is invited (or some might say ordered) to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter.
Chapter 9-The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which The Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter 10-Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter 11-Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. Meanwhile witnesses at the trial include the Mad Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter 12-Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards. Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.
Characters
Peter Newell's illustration of Alice surrounded by the characters of Wonderland. (1890)
* Alice
* The White Rabbit
* The Mouse
* The Dodo
* The Lory
* The Eaglet
* The Duck
* Pat
* Bill the Lizard
* The Caterpillar
* The Duchess
* The Cheshire Cat
* The Hatter
* The March Hare
* The Dormouse
* The Queen of Hearts
* The Knave of Hearts
* The King of Hearts
* The Gryphon
* The Mock Turtle
Misconceptions about characters
Although the Jabberwock is often thought to be a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it actually only appears in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It is, however, often included in film versions, which are usually simply called "Alice in Wonderland", causing the confusion. The Queen of Hearts is commonly mistaken for the Red Queen who appears in the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, but shares none of her characteristics other than being a queen. The Queen of Hearts is part of the deck of card imagery present in the first book, while the Red Queen is representative of a red chess piece, as chess is the theme present in the sequel. Many adaptations have mixed the characters, causing much confusion.
Character allusions
The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale all show up in Chapter 3 ("A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale") in one form or another. There is, of course, Alice Liddell herself, while Carroll, or Charles Dodgson, is caricatured as the Dodo. Carroll is known as the Dodo because Dodgson stuttered when he spoke, thus if he spoke his last name it would be Do-Do-Dodgson.[citation needed] The Duck refers to Canon Duckworth, the Lory to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell (Alice Liddell's sisters).
Bill the Lizard may be a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli. One of Tenniel's illustrations in Through the Looking-Glass depicts the character referred to as the "Man in White Paper" (whom Alice meets as a fellow passenger riding on the train with her), as a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat. The illustrations of the Lion and the Unicorn also bear a striking resemblance to Tenniel's Punch illustrations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
The Hatter is most likely a reference to Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer known in Oxford for his unorthodox inventions. Tenniel apparently drew the Hatter to resemble Carter, on a suggestion of Carroll's. The Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie. These are the Liddell sisters: Elsie is L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.
The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel", that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils". This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. (The children did, in fact, learn well; Alice Liddell, for one, produced a number of skilled watercolours.)
The Mock Turtle also sings "Beautiful Soup". This is a parody of a song called "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star", which was performed as a trio by Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell for Lewis Carroll in the Liddell home during the same summer in which he first told the story of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
Contents
Poems and songs
* "All in the golden afternoon..." — the prefatory verse, an original poem by Carroll that recalls the rowing expedition on which he first told the story of Alice's adventures underground
* "How Doth the Little Crocodile" — a parody of Isaac Watts' nursery rhyme, "Against Idleness And Mischief"
* "The Mouse's Tale" — an example of concrete poetry
* "You Are Old, Father William" — a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them"
* The Duchess's lullaby, "Speak roughly to your little boy..." — a parody of David Bates' "Speak Gently"
* "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" — a parody of "Twinkle twinkle little star"
* The Lobster Quadrille — a parody of Mary Botham Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly"
* "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" — a parody of "The Sluggard"
* "Beautiful Soup" — a parody of James M. Sayles's "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star"
* "The Queen of Hearts" — an actual nursery rhyme
* "They told me you had been to her..." — the White Rabbit's evidence
Tenniel's illustrations
John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a short fringe. There is a persistent legend that Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, but no evidence for this has yet come to light, and whether Tenniel actually used Babcock as his model is open to dispute.
Famous lines and expressions
The term "Wonderland", from the title, has entered the language and refers to a marvelous imaginary place, or else a real-world place that one perceives to have dream-like qualities. It, like much of the Alice work, is widely referred to in popular culture.
Illustration of Alice with the White Rabbit by Arthur Rackham
"Down the Rabbit-Hole", the Chapter 1 title, has become a popular term for going on an adventure into the unknown. In drug culture, "going down the rabbit hole" is a metaphor for taking hallucinogenic drugs, as Carroll's novel appears similar in form to a drug trip.
In Chapter 6, the Cheshire Cat's disappearance prompts Alice to say one of her most memorable lines: "...a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"
In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" When asked by Alice what the answer was, he responds with, "I haven't the slightest idea." Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar"—turning it into "raven" when inverted. This reverse spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost.) Puzzle expert Sam Loyd offered the following solutions:
* Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes
* Poe wrote on both
* They both have inky quills
* Bills and tales ("tails") are among their characteristics
* Because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels ("steals"), and ought to be made to shut up.
* Occult: Marquis Andras, the raven from The Lesser Key of Solomon, riding a wolf with a sword.
Cyril Pearson proposed:
* Because they both slope with a flap.
Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice. In Frank Beddor's novel Seeing Redd, the main antagonist, Queen Redd (a megalomaniac parody of the Queen of Hearts) meets Lewis Carroll and declares that the answer to the riddle is "Because I say so". Carroll is too terrified to contradict her.
Other answers include “because there is a B in both and an N in neither,” (an answer which was meant to highlight the absurdity of the original question), "Neither one is made of cheese", and "it isn't."
Arguably the most famous quote is used when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice (and everyone else she feels slightly annoyed with). Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"
When Alice is growing taller after eating the cake labeled "Eat me" she says, "curiouser and curiouser", a famous line that is still used today to describe an event with extraordinary wonder. The Cheshire Cat confirms to Alice "We're all mad here", a line that has been repeated for years as a result.
Symbolism in the text
Oxford Locations
Most of the book's adventures may have been based on and influenced by people, situations and buildings in Oxford and at Christ Church, e.g., the "Rabbit Hole," which symbolized the actual stairs in the back of the main hall in Christ Church. A carving of a griffon and rabbit, as seen in Ripon Cathedral, where Carroll's father was a canon, may have provided inspiration for the tale.
Mathematics
Since Carroll was a mathematician at Christ Church, it has been suggested that there are many references and mathematical concepts in both this story and also in Through the Looking-Glass; examples include:
* In chapter 1, "Down the Rabbit-Hole", in the midst of shrinking, Alice waxes philosophic concerning what final size she will end up as, perhaps "going out altogether, like a candle."; this pondering reflects the concept of a limit.
* In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice tries to perform multiplication but produces some odd results: "Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!" This explores the representation of numbers using different bases and positional numeral systems: 4 x 5 = 12 in base 18 notation, 4 x 6 = 13 in base 21 notation, and 4 x 7 could be 14 in base 24 notation. Continuing this sequence, going up three bases each time, the result will continue to be less than 20 in the corresponding base notation. (After 19 the product would be 1A, then 1B, 1C, 1D, and so on.)
* In chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar", the Pigeon asserts that little girls are some kind of serpent, for both little girls and serpents eat eggs. This general concept of abstraction occurs widely in many fields of science; an example in mathematics of employing this reasoning would be in the substitution of variables.
* In chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party", the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse give several examples in which the semantic value of a sentence A is not the same value of the converse of A (for example, "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"); in logic and mathematics, this is discussing an inverse relationship.
* Also in chapter 7, Alice ponders what it means when the changing of seats around the circular table places them back at the beginning. This is an observation of addition on a ring of the integers modulo N.
* The Cheshire cat fades until it disappears entirely, leaving only its wide grin, suspended in the air, leading Alice to marvel and note that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. Deep abstraction of concepts (non-Euclidean geometry, abstract algebra, the beginnings of mathematical logic...) was taking over mathematics at the time Dodgson was writing. Dodgson's delineation of the relationship between cat and grin can be taken to represent the very concept of mathematics and number itself. For example, instead of considering two or three apples, one may easily consider the concept of 'apple', upon which the concepts of 'two' and 'three' may seem to depend. However, a far more sophisticated jump is to consider the concepts of 'two' and 'three' by themselves, just like a grin, originally seemingly dependent on the cat, separated conceptually from its physical object.
Mathematician Keith Devlin asserted in the journal of The Mathematical Association of America that Dodgson wrote Alice in Wonderland in its final form as a scathing satire on new modern mathematics that were emerging in the mid-1800s.
The French language
It has been suggested by several people, including Martin Gardner and Selwyn Goodacre, that Dodgson had an interest in the French language, choosing to make references and puns about it in the story. It is most likely that these are references to French lessons—a common feature of a Victorian middle-class girl's upbringing. For example, in the second chapter, Alice posits that the mouse may be French and chooses to speak the first sentence of her French lesson-book to it: "Où est ma chatte?" ("Where is my cat?"). In Henri Bué's French translation, Alice posits that the mouse may be Italian and speaks Italian to it.
Pat's "Digging for apples" could be a cross-language pun, as pomme de terre means potato and pomme means apple, which little English girls studying French would easily guess.
Classical languages
In the second chapter, Alice initially addresses the mouse as "O Mouse", based on her vague memory of the noun declensions in her brother's textbook: "A mouse (nominative)— of a mouse (genitive)— to a mouse (dative)— a mouse (accusative)— O mouse! (vocative)." This corresponds to the traditional order that was established by Byzantine grammarians (and is still in standard use, except in the United Kingdom and some countries in Western Europe) for the five cases of Classical Greek; because of the absence of the ablative case, which Greek does not have but is found in Latin, the reference is apparently not to the latter as some have supposed.
At the Mad Tea Party, Alice is astonished not to have jam served because the rule is: "Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never jam today." This is a reference to the rule in Latin that the word iam or jam meaning now in the sense of already or at that time cannot be used to describe now in the present, which is nunc in Latin. Jam is therefore never available today.
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-故事簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》是英國童話作傢劉易斯·卡洛爾的一部中篇童話。故事寫一個名叫愛麗絲的女孩在打瞌睡時，突然看見一隻穿衣服的白兔跑過去。愛麗絲跟着兔子跌進了一個黑洞，跌了好久纔跌到了一堆枯樹葉上。她走進一個大廳，四周有許多扇門。
大廳中央玻璃桌上放着一串金鑰匙。她用其中一把打開了一扇最小的門，裏面是一座美麗的花園。門太小，她鑽不進，後來喝了桌上一瓶飲料，就變成了一個衹有10英寸高的小人。她吃了桌下一塊糕，一下長到9英尺，門又進不了。她急得大哭起來，淚水流成河。
白兔出現了，丟下一把扇子，她用來一扇，又縮成個小人。她失足落入自己的淚水池中，好容易纔遊到岸邊。愛麗絲來到白兔傢，看見櫃子上有飲料，她纔喝了半瓶，身體就變大，頭頂天花板，胳膊伸出窗外，無法動彈。兔子撿石頭砸她，石子落地全變成糕餅。她一吃，馬上又縮小了，於是她奪門逃跑，逃到林子裏，吃了點蘑菇纔恢復了原來的形狀。
愛麗絲走進一個公爵夫人傢的花園，在這裏她認識了樸剋紅心國王K和皇后Q。皇后脾氣暴躁，動不動就砍掉人傢的頭。切捨貓惹皇后生氣，被判砍頭。但貓的身子消失了，劊子手不知怎樣去砍沒有身子的頭，最後皇后又下令砍掉不肯對荒唐事作證的愛麗絲的頭，愛麗絲在自衛中驚醒。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-角色簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》愛麗絲和穿衣服的兔子
愛麗絲：故事的主角，一個純真可愛的小女孩，充滿好奇心和求知欲，在她身上體現出了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
兔子：一隻穿着背心的白兔，在故事開場正要去給女王取東西的它喊着“天哪！天哪！要遲到了！”跑過愛麗絲面前，引起了她的註意，為了追它，愛麗絲纔從兔子洞掉進了那個神秘的世界，後來愛麗絲在它的傢裏又誤喝了一瓶魔藥而變成巨人。
蜥蜴比爾：愛麗絲在兔子傢裏誤喝魔藥變成巨人，無法離開房屋，兔子以為屋裏出現了怪物，派這衹小蜥蜴從煙囪進去看看情況，結果不等進去就被愛麗絲踢了出來。
毛毛蟲：一隻坐在蘑菇上吸煙斗的古怪毛毛蟲，態度有點目中無人，不過它教給了愛麗絲自由變大變小的方法。
公爵夫人：一個愛好說教的女人，口頭語是“一切事皆能引申出一個教訓”。愛麗絲去過她傢，正是在那裏她纔認識了柴郡貓。
柴郡貓：一隻總是咧着嘴笑的貓，來源於英諺“笑得像一隻柴郡貓”。它幫了愛麗絲幾次忙。
帽匠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像個帽匠”。
三月兔：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像衹三月的野兔”。
睡鼠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，總是在睡覺。
紅心女王：率領着一群撲剋牌士兵的撲剋牌女王，很容易生氣，動輒要砍別人的頭，不過其實並沒有實行過。
紅心國王：撲剋牌國王，不像妻子那麽愛動怒，相反給人以受妻子指使的老好人的感覺。
格裏芬：希臘神話中的獅身鷹首怪獸，在女王的命令下帶愛麗絲去見了假海龜。
假海龜：女王命令格裏芬帶愛麗絲去見的角色，它給愛麗絲講了一個充滿文字遊戲的莫名其妙的故事。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作品評價
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》是一部被公認為世界兒童文學經典的童話，由於其中豐富的想象力和種種隱喻，不但深受各代兒童歡迎，也被視為一部嚴肅的文學作品。《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》到卡羅爾1898年去世之前，已經成為英國最暢銷的兒童讀物。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》作品以夢幻的形式，將你帶入一個離奇的故事中，情節撲朔迷離，變幻莫測。表面看來荒誕不經，實際上卻富有嚴密的邏輯性和深刻的內涵，是智慧與幻想的完美結合。吃些東西就可以長大或變小；小老鼠可以和你一起遊泳；毛毛蟲和你一般高；小豬接見公爵夫人的孩子；還有竜跳舞……那裏是一個奇異的世界。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中主人公愛麗絲是個十分可愛的小女孩。她天真活潑，充滿好奇心和求知欲；她有同情心，懂得是非。在愛麗絲身上，充分體現了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中充滿了有趣的文字遊戲、雙關語、謎語和巧智、因此有時是難以翻譯的，比如第二章章名裏的“Tale（故事）”因為被愛麗絲聽成同音的“Tail（尾巴）”而鬧出了笑話。由於開始時是一部給朋友的孩子講的自娛之作，故事裏的很多角色名都影射了作者身邊的人，如第三章裏的渡渡鳥（dodo）是作者自己（因為他有口吃的毛病，聽起來像dodo這個詞）、鴨子（duck）是朋友Duckworth、鸚鵡（Lory）是愛麗絲的姐姐Lorina，小鷹（Eaglet）是愛麗絲的妹妹Edith。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作者簡介
劉易斯·卡羅爾的真名叫查爾斯·勒特威奇·道奇森（1832～1898），是一位數學家，長期在享有盛名的牛津大學任基督堂學院數學講師，發表了好幾本數學著作。他因有嚴重的口吃，故而不善與人交往，但他興趣廣泛，對小說、詩歌、邏輯都頗有造詣，還是一個優秀的兒童像攝影師。
1862年7月的一個下午，作傢帶着三個孩子，劃着一隻小船在泰晤士河上蕩漾。在孩子們的再三央求下，他信口講了一個夢遊奇境的故事給他們聽。後來經過其中一個叫艾麗絲的小女孩的請求，他將故事寫成文字，送給了她。
這篇文字就是《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》。後來在朋友鼓勵下，卡羅爾將手稿加以修訂、擴充、潤色後，於1865 年正式出版。卡羅爾後來又寫了一部姐妹篇，叫《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇記》，並與《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》一起風行於世。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-改編與仿作
劉易斯·卡羅爾的《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》由於作品的廣受歡迎，《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》曾被改編成各種體裁，包括電影、舞臺劇和動畫，其中迪斯尼於1951年改編的 AliceinWonderland是比較著名的。此外還出現了各種仿作，比如瀋從文的童話《阿麗思中國遊記》便是假托愛麗絲續集的名義反映當時社會的黑暗。
另外，這個充滿奇幻色彩的題材也不時被各種日本漫畫套用，由貴香織裏的《毒伯爵該隱》有一章就藉用了愛麗絲的故事，衹是在以頽廢風格聞名的由貴筆下，故事也變得陰森恐怖了。
還有很多漫畫傢喜歡把自己筆下的角色套進愛麗絲的世界裏，《櫻蘭高校男公關部》、山田南平的《紅茶王子》都做過類似的事，看看同一個故事在不同的作者筆下各自呈現出怎樣的新色彩，其實也是件有趣的事。
History
Facsimile page from Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Alice was published in 1865, three years after the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat, on 4 July 1862, up the River Thames with three young girls:
* Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13, born 1849) ("Prima" in the book's prefatory verse)
* Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10, born 1852) ("Secunda" in the prefatory verse)
* Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8, born 1853) ("Tertia" in the prefatory verse).
The three girls were the daughters of Henry George Liddell, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church as well as headmaster of Westminster School.
The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.
The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay—over two years —he eventually did so and on 26 November 1864 gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate there was an earlier version that was destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand, but there is no known prima facie evidence to support this.
But before Alice received her copy, Dodgson was already preparing it for publication and expanding the 15,500-word original to 27,500 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was held back because Tenniel objected to the print quality. A new edition, released in December of the same year, but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed. As it turned out, the original edition was sold with Dodgson's permission to the New York publishing house of Appleton. The binding for the Appleton Alice was virtually identical to the 1866 Macmillan Alice, except for the publisher's name at the foot of the spine. The title page of the Appleton Alice was an insert cancelling the original Macmillan title page of 1865, and bearing the New York publisher's imprint and the date 1866.
The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. Among its first avid readers were Queen Victoria and the young Oscar Wilde. The book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages[citation needed]. There have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.
The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland, an alternative title popularized by the numerous stage, film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title contain both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and, What Alice Found There.
Publishing highlights
cover of the 1898 edition
* 1865: First UK edition (the suppressed edition).
* 1865: First US edition.
* 1869: Alice's Abenteuer im Wunderland is published in German translation by Antonie Zimmermann.
* 1869: Aventures d'Alice au pays des merveilles is published in French translation by Henri Bué.
* 1870: Alice's Äfventyr i Sagolandet is published in Swedish translation by Emily Nonnen.
* 1871: Dodgson meets another Alice during his time in London, Alice Raikes, and talks with her about her reflection in a mirror, leading to another book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, which sells even better.
* 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of the earlier Alice's Adventures Under Ground manuscript.
* 1890: Carroll publishes The Nursery "Alice", a special edition "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five".
* 1905: Mrs J. C. Gorham publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable in a series of such books published by A. L. Burt Company, aimed at young readers.
* 1908: Alice has its first translation into Japanese.
* 1910: La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando is published in Esperanto translation by Elfric Leofwine Kearney.
* 1916: Publication of the first edition of the Windermere Series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Illustrated by Milo Winter.
* 1928: The manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground that Carroll wrote and illustrated and that he had given to Alice Liddell was sold at Sotheby's on April 3. It sold to Philip Rosenbach for ₤15,400, a world record for the sale of a manuscript at the time.
* 1960: American writer Martin Gardner publishes a special edition, The Annotated Alice, incorporating the text of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It has extensive annotations explaining the hidden allusions in the books, and includes full texts of the Victorian era poems parodied in them. Later editions expand on these annotations.
* 1961: The Folio Society publication with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel.
* 1964: Alicia in Terra Mirabili is published in Latin translation by Clive Harcourt Carruthers.
* 1998: Lewis Carroll's own copy of Alice, one of only six surviving copies of the 1865 first edition, is sold at an auction for US$1.54 million to an anonymous American buyer, becoming the most expensive children's book (or 19th-century work of literature) ever traded. (The former record was later eclipsed in 2007 when a limited-edition Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, was sold at auction for £1.95 million ($3.9 million).
* 2003: Eachtraí Eilíse i dTír na nIontas is published in Irish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2008: Folio Alice's Adventures Under Ground facsimile edition (limited to 3,750 copies, boxed with The Original Alice pamphlet).
* 2009: Alys in Pow an Anethow is published in Cornish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2009: Children’s book collector and former American football player Pat McInally reportedly sold Alice Liddell’s own copy at auction for $115,000.
Synopsis
The White Rabbit in a hurry
Chapter 1-Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is bored sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she sees a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit, but through which she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key. A cake with "EAT ME" on it causes her to grow to such a tremendous size her head hits the ceiling.
Chapter 2-The Pool of Tears: Alice is unhappy and cries and her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him but all she can think of talking about is her cat, which offends the mouse.
Chapter 3-The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away. Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again. The mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror. A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner. Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking about her cat.
Chapter 4-The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. He orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing. The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes, which, when Alice eats them, reduce her again in size.
Chapter 5-Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her usual height. She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.
Chapter 6-Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess and her baby (but not the cook or her grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig.
Chapter 7-A Mad Tea Party: The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat. Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the Hatter (now more commonly known as the Mad Hatter), the March Hare, and a sleeping Dormouse who remains asleep for most of the chapter. The other characters give Alice many riddles and stories. The Mad Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea time). Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo
The grinning Cheshire Cat
Chapter 8-The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens and even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase "Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject.
Alice is invited (or some might say ordered) to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter.
Chapter 9-The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which The Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter 10-Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter 11-Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. Meanwhile witnesses at the trial include the Mad Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter 12-Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards. Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.
Characters
Peter Newell's illustration of Alice surrounded by the characters of Wonderland. (1890)
* Alice
* The White Rabbit
* The Mouse
* The Dodo
* The Lory
* The Eaglet
* The Duck
* Pat
* Bill the Lizard
* The Caterpillar
* The Duchess
* The Cheshire Cat
* The Hatter
* The March Hare
* The Dormouse
* The Queen of Hearts
* The Knave of Hearts
* The King of Hearts
* The Gryphon
* The Mock Turtle
Misconceptions about characters
Although the Jabberwock is often thought to be a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it actually only appears in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It is, however, often included in film versions, which are usually simply called "Alice in Wonderland", causing the confusion. The Queen of Hearts is commonly mistaken for the Red Queen who appears in the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, but shares none of her characteristics other than being a queen. The Queen of Hearts is part of the deck of card imagery present in the first book, while the Red Queen is representative of a red chess piece, as chess is the theme present in the sequel. Many adaptations have mixed the characters, causing much confusion.
Character allusions
The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale all show up in Chapter 3 ("A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale") in one form or another. There is, of course, Alice Liddell herself, while Carroll, or Charles Dodgson, is caricatured as the Dodo. Carroll is known as the Dodo because Dodgson stuttered when he spoke, thus if he spoke his last name it would be Do-Do-Dodgson.[citation needed] The Duck refers to Canon Duckworth, the Lory to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell (Alice Liddell's sisters).
Bill the Lizard may be a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli. One of Tenniel's illustrations in Through the Looking-Glass depicts the character referred to as the "Man in White Paper" (whom Alice meets as a fellow passenger riding on the train with her), as a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat. The illustrations of the Lion and the Unicorn also bear a striking resemblance to Tenniel's Punch illustrations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
The Hatter is most likely a reference to Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer known in Oxford for his unorthodox inventions. Tenniel apparently drew the Hatter to resemble Carter, on a suggestion of Carroll's. The Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie. These are the Liddell sisters: Elsie is L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.
The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel", that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils". This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. (The children did, in fact, learn well; Alice Liddell, for one, produced a number of skilled watercolours.)
The Mock Turtle also sings "Beautiful Soup". This is a parody of a song called "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star", which was performed as a trio by Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell for Lewis Carroll in the Liddell home during the same summer in which he first told the story of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
Contents
Poems and songs
* "All in the golden afternoon..." — the prefatory verse, an original poem by Carroll that recalls the rowing expedition on which he first told the story of Alice's adventures underground
* "How Doth the Little Crocodile" — a parody of Isaac Watts' nursery rhyme, "Against Idleness And Mischief"
* "The Mouse's Tale" — an example of concrete poetry
* "You Are Old, Father William" — a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them"
* The Duchess's lullaby, "Speak roughly to your little boy..." — a parody of David Bates' "Speak Gently"
* "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" — a parody of "Twinkle twinkle little star"
* The Lobster Quadrille — a parody of Mary Botham Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly"
* "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" — a parody of "The Sluggard"
* "Beautiful Soup" — a parody of James M. Sayles's "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star"
* "The Queen of Hearts" — an actual nursery rhyme
* "They told me you had been to her..." — the White Rabbit's evidence
Tenniel's illustrations
John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a short fringe. There is a persistent legend that Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, but no evidence for this has yet come to light, and whether Tenniel actually used Babcock as his model is open to dispute.
Famous lines and expressions
The term "Wonderland", from the title, has entered the language and refers to a marvelous imaginary place, or else a real-world place that one perceives to have dream-like qualities. It, like much of the Alice work, is widely referred to in popular culture.
Illustration of Alice with the White Rabbit by Arthur Rackham
"Down the Rabbit-Hole", the Chapter 1 title, has become a popular term for going on an adventure into the unknown. In drug culture, "going down the rabbit hole" is a metaphor for taking hallucinogenic drugs, as Carroll's novel appears similar in form to a drug trip.
In Chapter 6, the Cheshire Cat's disappearance prompts Alice to say one of her most memorable lines: "...a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"
In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" When asked by Alice what the answer was, he responds with, "I haven't the slightest idea." Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar"—turning it into "raven" when inverted. This reverse spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost.) Puzzle expert Sam Loyd offered the following solutions:
* Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes
* Poe wrote on both
* They both have inky quills
* Bills and tales ("tails") are among their characteristics
* Because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels ("steals"), and ought to be made to shut up.
* Occult: Marquis Andras, the raven from The Lesser Key of Solomon, riding a wolf with a sword.
Cyril Pearson proposed:
* Because they both slope with a flap.
Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice. In Frank Beddor's novel Seeing Redd, the main antagonist, Queen Redd (a megalomaniac parody of the Queen of Hearts) meets Lewis Carroll and declares that the answer to the riddle is "Because I say so". Carroll is too terrified to contradict her.
Other answers include “because there is a B in both and an N in neither,” (an answer which was meant to highlight the absurdity of the original question), "Neither one is made of cheese", and "it isn't."
Arguably the most famous quote is used when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice (and everyone else she feels slightly annoyed with). Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"
When Alice is growing taller after eating the cake labeled "Eat me" she says, "curiouser and curiouser", a famous line that is still used today to describe an event with extraordinary wonder. The Cheshire Cat confirms to Alice "We're all mad here", a line that has been repeated for years as a result.
Symbolism in the text
Oxford Locations
Most of the book's adventures may have been based on and influenced by people, situations and buildings in Oxford and at Christ Church, e.g., the "Rabbit Hole," which symbolized the actual stairs in the back of the main hall in Christ Church. A carving of a griffon and rabbit, as seen in Ripon Cathedral, where Carroll's father was a canon, may have provided inspiration for the tale.
Mathematics
Since Carroll was a mathematician at Christ Church, it has been suggested that there are many references and mathematical concepts in both this story and also in Through the Looking-Glass; examples include:
* In chapter 1, "Down the Rabbit-Hole", in the midst of shrinking, Alice waxes philosophic concerning what final size she will end up as, perhaps "going out altogether, like a candle."; this pondering reflects the concept of a limit.
* In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice tries to perform multiplication but produces some odd results: "Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!" This explores the representation of numbers using different bases and positional numeral systems: 4 x 5 = 12 in base 18 notation, 4 x 6 = 13 in base 21 notation, and 4 x 7 could be 14 in base 24 notation. Continuing this sequence, going up three bases each time, the result will continue to be less than 20 in the corresponding base notation. (After 19 the product would be 1A, then 1B, 1C, 1D, and so on.)
* In chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar", the Pigeon asserts that little girls are some kind of serpent, for both little girls and serpents eat eggs. This general concept of abstraction occurs widely in many fields of science; an example in mathematics of employing this reasoning would be in the substitution of variables.
* In chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party", the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse give several examples in which the semantic value of a sentence A is not the same value of the converse of A (for example, "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"); in logic and mathematics, this is discussing an inverse relationship.
* Also in chapter 7, Alice ponders what it means when the changing of seats around the circular table places them back at the beginning. This is an observation of addition on a ring of the integers modulo N.
* The Cheshire cat fades until it disappears entirely, leaving only its wide grin, suspended in the air, leading Alice to marvel and note that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. Deep abstraction of concepts (non-Euclidean geometry, abstract algebra, the beginnings of mathematical logic...) was taking over mathematics at the time Dodgson was writing. Dodgson's delineation of the relationship between cat and grin can be taken to represent the very concept of mathematics and number itself. For example, instead of considering two or three apples, one may easily consider the concept of 'apple', upon which the concepts of 'two' and 'three' may seem to depend. However, a far more sophisticated jump is to consider the concepts of 'two' and 'three' by themselves, just like a grin, originally seemingly dependent on the cat, separated conceptually from its physical object.
Mathematician Keith Devlin asserted in the journal of The Mathematical Association of America that Dodgson wrote Alice in Wonderland in its final form as a scathing satire on new modern mathematics that were emerging in the mid-1800s.
The French language
It has been suggested by several people, including Martin Gardner and Selwyn Goodacre, that Dodgson had an interest in the French language, choosing to make references and puns about it in the story. It is most likely that these are references to French lessons—a common feature of a Victorian middle-class girl's upbringing. For example, in the second chapter, Alice posits that the mouse may be French and chooses to speak the first sentence of her French lesson-book to it: "Où est ma chatte?" ("Where is my cat?"). In Henri Bué's French translation, Alice posits that the mouse may be Italian and speaks Italian to it.
Pat's "Digging for apples" could be a cross-language pun, as pomme de terre means potato and pomme means apple, which little English girls studying French would easily guess.
Classical languages
In the second chapter, Alice initially addresses the mouse as "O Mouse", based on her vague memory of the noun declensions in her brother's textbook: "A mouse (nominative)— of a mouse (genitive)— to a mouse (dative)— a mouse (accusative)— O mouse! (vocative)." This corresponds to the traditional order that was established by Byzantine grammarians (and is still in standard use, except in the United Kingdom and some countries in Western Europe) for the five cases of Classical Greek; because of the absence of the ablative case, which Greek does not have but is found in Latin, the reference is apparently not to the latter as some have supposed.
At the Mad Tea Party, Alice is astonished not to have jam served because the rule is: "Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never jam today." This is a reference to the rule in Latin that the word iam or jam meaning now in the sense of already or at that time cannot be used to describe now in the present, which is nunc in Latin. Jam is therefore never available today.