Lewis Carroll’s original Alice book
The real Lewis Carroll, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, created the original “Alice” stories for the young Alice Liddell and her two sisters one day when they were rowing on the Thames. The story was originally spoken extemporaneously, but the girls liked it so much that Alice begged him to write it down. And so he did, which means young Alice Liddell had not just an inspirational role in the great classic but a more direct one.
Dodgson made a handwritten and hand-illustrated copy for Alice and her sisters. The famous editions the rest of us know were illustrated by Tenniel later, but Dodgson’s concepts were different. The work is a labor of love, and Alice herself kept it till 1928 and only sold it to get money after her husband died.
See the care with which the cover is made – it must have taken Dodgson a lot of time. (After the photos load, you can make each one bigger to see the detail.)
Also this:
I love the Alice books. As a child, I really didn’t understand them. But I was drawn to them nevertheless. My very young grandchildren seem to feel the same way. And the Alice books are among those childhood classics that only get better when a person becomes an adult.
I am sure I never read the book, missed out on something maybe.
Anyway, link in link gets to possible pedophilia and I thought it was positive.
But either way seems to be a good story
Here’s a 2.5 hour audio recording of the whole book (I think). I listened to a few minutes of it. A good man’s voice narrating (or “a man’s good voice narrating”), with a young girl narrating Alice’s lines. Could be listened to in segments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LHYnEyItEg
Yes, there are some very good lines in the book.
The author had quite an imagination.
Skip:
I’ve read tons about the pedophile accusations and am convinced it’s a lie or error from people who don’t understand the ethos of those times, or Carroll himself.
“There goes Bill!”
Re: the pedophile issue, IMO:
No pedophile would have any interest in writing and personally producing such a book as a gift to children, even if “he” were capable of doing so, which is highly unlikely.
There very probably would never have been the slightest opportunity for pedophilia to occur. Upper-class children, and especially girls, were supervised and chaperoned to the nth degree, not to mention having layers and layers of clothing on year-round. They would not have been alone with the author.
One account does not always show the true story so do need to see what others say. Think only ever read 1 account of this.
Skip:
I’ve read a lot about it from both sides, and I find the charges unconvincing.
It was unique among children’s books in that I did not abandon it in my teens. At that age, we often overdo trying to be grown up. So (for a while) others like Pooh and Wind in the Willows fell off the list. Fortunately I outgrew that. But the Alices I loved through my teens, as well as the rest of my life.
It is said to be the only work of literature you can assume a philosopher is acquainted with.
So,
There’s Glory for you!
VV:
You are correct about the supervision. Even on that rowing excursion there were other adults.
However, Dodson took semi-nude and I believe even some nude photos of children. He was a skillful amateur photographer. What most people don’t know, however, is that this was a quite common practice among photographers of that time, with the children’s parents’ permission and perhaps even with the parents present. Children were considered completely innocent and asexual beings till puberty, and the photos were considered tributes to innocence. But the photos have sparked the accusations.
Eeypte:
The annotated versions are fabulous too.
I enjoyed Dreamchild when it came out in 1985. Google the trailer, or watch the whole enchilada aqui:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-qFf66OEuw
They didn’t have birth control then so if he messed with the girls they would have got pregnant. Duh.
I’m not that much of a collector, but I was sure freaking out when I saw the hands in the video carelessly perusing this priceless handmade book without gloves.
I was also wondering how the book could look so clean.
I was relieved to discover the book was a copy based on the original manuscript. Furthermore, a touching historical note:
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Alice Liddell treasured the manuscript until 1928, but was then forced to sell it to pay death duties after the death of her husband. The manuscript was sold at auction at Sotheby’s for £15,000 to an American dealer, Dr Rosenbach. He in turn sold it to Eldridge Johnson upon returning to America. Following Johnson’s death in 1946 the manuscript was again sold at auction. This time, however, it was purchased by a wealthy group of American benefactors, who donated the manuscript to the British Museum in 1948. The return of this important work to the British people was a token of gratitude for Britain’s stand against Adolf Hitler during World War Two.
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/alices-adventures-under-ground-the-original-manuscript-version-of-alices-adventures-in-wonderland
I have a thing, a negative thing, about Alice. As a child I found the Disney version somewhat disturbing, and as a consequence never read the books. I think of “the question is, who is to be master, that’s all” at least once a week in response to something in the political-cultural news. I have an edition which includes the Tenniel illustrations. Past time to actually read it.
I suspect we are reading our 20th-21st century erotomania into Dodgson’s delight in little girls.
I had the same experience as neo and others. Enjoyed the stories when I was young and even more as a teen and adult. I can still recite a fair amount of the poems, including “Jabberwocky.” The stories didn’t seem to click with any of my children.
I have a thing, a negative thing, about Alice. As a child I found the Disney version somewhat disturbing, and as a consequence never read the books.
Mac:
I can understand that. Disney’s “Alice” is flat bizarre compared to the standard Disney fare, as great as that was. Dodson/Carroll created an amazing story, but the Disney team added images and songs which kicked it up a notch.
I confess it’s my favorite of classic Disney animations.
No doubt just my personal quirk, huxley.
neo on July 29, 2023 at 7:26 pm said:
Eeypte:
The annotated versions are fabulous too.
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One of my professors at UVa, Peter L Heath, wrote the Philosopher’s Alice. Also did the Carrol/Dodgson entry in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
He actually had the ability to make you think, during his lectures, that you understood German philosophers like Kant. Unfortunately, by the time you reached the Rotunda, that illusion had dispelled, and the fog had descended.
I have to say I really enjoy Jefferson Airplane’s song ‘White Rabbit’.
We’ve long since passed the queen in the capacity to believe impossible things.
I never paid any attention to these books when I was young. It was only a decade or so ago that I knew that Humpty Dumpty should be known more for his disdain for the meaning words.
I did not read it until I was in my 20s, but that was the Annotated Alice, which is readily available, and strongly recommended. There are jokes and aspects of things which are very era-oriented, and you don’t Get Them as they were meant.
Martin Gardner did the definitive version as far as I know:
The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition
https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-Definitive-Lewis-Carroll/dp/0393048470
And it’s actually cheaper in NEW hardcover than the Kindle edition. Go figure. You can get a used HC copy for as little as 3 bucks plus S&H. Seriously a fantastic buy.
There is also a “newer” 150th Anniversary edition, now:
The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-150th-Anniversary-Deluxe/dp/0393245438
It’s not all THAT much more expensive, about 15 bucks more than the former.
I will also, for much the same reasons, recommend the same for Gardner’s The Hunting of The Snark
The Annotated Hunting of the Snark
https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Hunting-Snark-Books/dp/0393062422
Only addressing the written materials:
Alice, Dorothy, Pooh – good examples of the trend of taking the danger out of children’s tales, replaced with pablum. Grimm, if you want more extreme.
In Alice’s stories, she’s actually in danger and fights/figures her way out of it. Yes, like almost all stories, we know the protag will live, but that doesn’t remove the danger.
Most people think the dangerous movie was Baum’s original mood for Oz but it wasn’t. To let him say it (from intro to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz):
Eliminating morals. In Baum’s tale Dorothy splashes on the witch because she got mad as they squabbled over the silver slippers while Dorothy was doing chores. That’s it, on to next chapter.
The Pooh stories were pablum and actually akin in intellectual contentt to the little brownie stories (I hate) that had a flash of popularity in England turn 20th century.
The nerfing of kids has been going on for a very long time.
Lawn darts, anyone?
.
I liked fairy tales when I was a kid but nevertheless found most of them creepy to some extent, hence confusing. Then when I was all grown up I read Bruno Bettelheim’s “The Uses of Enchantment” and it all became clear to me.
Bettelheim may have been a fraud, but he was right about fairy tales.
I watched the Disney “Alice” (1951) last night. Evergreen for me. After I saw the movie as a kid, I got the soundtrack as a gift and played it for hours in my bedroom.
I just discovered there was an earlier live action version with Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, W.C. Fields and Edward Everett Horton:
–“Alice in Wonderland (1933) Official Trailer”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQgmpEom3KI
And who can forget the MTV video withTom Petty as the Mad Hatter?
–“Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Don’t Come Around Here No More (Official Music Video)” (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0JvF9vpqx8
According to wiki the title was a line Steve Nicks said when breaking up with Joe Walsh.
Carroll was a mathematician of great distinction. His article “What the Tortoise Said to Achilles” is still widely read by students of logic.
FWIW there are an amazing number of film versions on YouTube, including a very short one from 1903, a silent one from 1915 (b&w with music, or colorized without), another from 1915 starring Viola Savoy, 1972 with a cast I’ve never heard of, 1998 offering with Whoopi and Ben Kingsley, Tim Burton’s “returns” to Wonderland and Looking Glass World starring Mia Wasikowska.
Some are only trailers for “buy or rent” films (Disney 1951 is in that category), and some are full movies.
Plus audio books.
There is no end to Wonderland!
There is no end to Wonderland!
AesopFan:
Back in Boston the last stop north on the Blue Line was “Wonderland.”
A Boston friend of mine used to enjoy a bit of theater. He would stand erect, then adopt the stoic movie mannerisms of a Native American, intoning:
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My son, take the Green Line to Government Center, then north on the Blue Line to Aquarium, then Maverick. Stay and you will reach Wonderland.
Then he swept out a horizontal plane with his right hand and forearm.
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Wonderland was an amusement park, done by 1910. I’m not sure if the reference to Alice was explicit, but it was a great name.