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AliceinWonderland

First edition cover (1865)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland commonly abbreviated as Alice in Wonderland, is an English fantasy novel for children by Lewis Carroll in November 1865. John Tenniel illustrated the first edition, and most subsequent visual renditions of the novel have used his illustrations as a reference point.

It details the story of a young girl named Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. Carroll followed Alice with a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, in 1871. In the public consciousness, the two books are treated as one entity, with many stage and film adaptations conflating characters and incidents from both. It's renowned for its nonsensical wordplay, imaginative characters, and its ability to resonate with both children and adults, inviting readers to embrace the wonder and illogic of their own imaginations.

Synopsis[]

The story begins with Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole while chasing a white rabbit in a waistcoat. This plunge into the unknown leads her into a fantastical world known as Wonderland.

In Wonderland, Alice encounters a series of bizarre characters and experiences surreal situations. She meets a variety of unusual creatures, including the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Caterpillar, and the Queen of Hearts. Each character embodies different aspects of absurdity, logic, and wordplay, contributing to the dreamlike nature of the story.

As Alice navigates Wonderland, she constantly changes size, growing to towering heights and shrinking to minuscule proportions. She struggles to make sense of the nonsensical rules and logic of this world. The story is marked by its playful and often confusing dialogue, as well as the whimsical events that unfold, such as the Mad Tea Party and the croquet game with flamingos as mallets and hedgehogs as balls.

Alice's journey is guided by her curiosity and determination to find her way back home. Along the way, she faces challenges and encounters obstacles that test her patience and wit. Throughout the story, Alice's perceptions and understandings are constantly challenged, reflecting the arbitrary nature of reality in Wonderland.

The story's conclusion brings Alice face-to-face with the Queen of Hearts, who presides over a chaotic trial. The trial highlights the absurdity of Wonderland's rules and showcases the whimsical and irrational nature of authority. Eventually, Alice realizes that she has the power to control her experiences in Wonderland and, at the peak of her frustration, she wakes up from her dream.

It received positive reviews upon release and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature; its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have had widespread influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. It is credited as helping end an era of didacticism in children's literature, inaugurating a new era in which writing for children aimed to "delight or entertain". The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children.

Inspiring Baum's Oz[]

L. Frank Baum was a huge admirer of the Alice series, which was a profound influence on Baum's creation of Oz and related fairylands. A New Wonderland, Baum's first solid children's novel, referenced the older book in its title. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dot and Tot of Merryland, and several other Baum books, follow the Alice story format of having a child (usually a girl) from the author's own nationality traveling to a magical land and visiting a succession of absurd otherworldly creatures and places. Dorothy Gale is essentially an American Alice.

Ruth Plumly Thompson was also fond of Alice, and had several of her characters sing songs written in Carroll's style.

A large number of Crossover Oz works revolve around meetings between Alice and Dorothy.

Gallery[]

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