Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: A Publishing History

by Zoe Jaques, Eugene Giddens

Emerging in several different versions during the author's lifetime, Lewis Carroll's Alice novels have a publishing history almost as magical and mysterious as the stories themselves. Zoe Jaques and Eugene Giddens offer a detailed and nuanced account of the initial publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and investigate how their subsequent transformations through print, illustration, film, song, music videos, and even stamp-cases and biscuit tins affected the reception of these childhood favourites. The authors consider issues related to the orality of the original tale and its impact on subsequent transmission, the differences between the manuscripts and printed editions, and the politics of writing and publishing for children in the 1860s. In addition, they take account of Carroll's own responses to the books' popularity, including his writing of major adaptations and a significant body of meta-textual commentary, and his reactions to the staging of Alice in Wonderland. Attentive to the child reader, how changing notions of childhood identity and needs affected shifting narratives of the story, and the representation of the child's body by various illustrators, the authors also make a significant contribution to childhood studies.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2013

Reviews

[Ruby Granger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this one! So engaging and some really interesting tibits I haven't seen anywhere else. It is very well researched (with a great bibliography!).

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice is a regular but very intelligent girl. But one day, she stumbles upon a rabbit hole, in which takes her to a strange place with various talking animals. Throughout the story, she meets very interesting characters such as the Caterpillar, the Cheshire-Cat, the Mad-Hatter, and many more whom help her on her journey through Wonderland. Other characters such as the Queen of Hearts, antagonise her in ways that make her journey of returning home difficult. Wonderland itself is a mysterious world full of mysterious characters and mysterious events.
I gave this classic a three-star rating because it IS truly a classic. It's a book filled with, like I said previously, mystery. Not so mysterious as to say that I had to figure puzzles out, but the essence of the Wonderland was so mysterious. Its characters had very strange but cool personalities of their own that Alice and even myself had to enjoy and question. It made me want to think of Wonderland and to explore it imaginatively as Alice went along through the book. The novel had a very interesting language. Of course, this book was written long ago, so its English is very articulate and complex compared to today's English- very put together, I'll say. Not to mention, the words Lewis Carroll used were very interesting in terms of the relationship they had to the funny characters. He was very descriptive with his events. And of course, I noticed more French, once again, in this novel as well! The thing I didn't like is that everyone pretty much knew the legacy of Alice, even if they didn't read or watch the book or movie. Classics aren't my favourite genre, but I sometimes come across a cool classic book like this one. Those are many of the reasons why this classic received a three-star rating.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very informative read.