The Complete Alice in Wonderland

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
is—deservedly—one of the best-loved books in all the world. It is a triumph not only of the imagination, but also of wit, humor, logical paradox, and the ageless appeal of Victorian charm. Excellent editions of this most excellent book are to be discovered everywhere. Finding a quality
electronic
version of
Alice
is, however, a confounding exercise in futility.

Many of the electronic editions are hastily produced, poorly formatted, unedited, or even incomplete. Worse, the abbreviated title
Alice in Wonderland
can refer to both
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
and
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
; or, only the first book; or, incomplete excerpts of each (and often without any publisher clarification on the matter). Due to these well-intentioned yet oddly universal mistakes in the world of electronic publishing, a need was seen for one definitive Kindle Master Edition of the
Alice
works, created and formatted specifically for the Kindle.

As a Kindle owner and devotee myself, I am very sympathetic to the peculiar woes which readers suffer as a result of over-exposure to amateurish electronic documents. The problems in such works often include (but are by no means limited to): spelling errors; font size issues; character identification issues (such as “w” appearing as “vv,” or the word “corner” as “comer”); forced hyphenation breaks; indentation and spacing issues; spurious pagination; nonexistent tables of contents; a lack of uniquely-created backing matter (glossaries, research essays, endnotes, etc.); incomplete front matter; footnote errors; illustration errors (or no illustrations at all); missing poetry or paragraphs; absent or profligate italics, and much, much more. “Curiouser and curiouser” indeed! In the interests of reader sanity, I have endeavored to make
The Complete Alice in Wonderland
as correct, complete, user friendly, and simply enjoyable as possible.

Beyond such assuaged frustrations, of course, good readers also demand Master Editions of the texts themselves! In this regard, I have offered not only
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
, but also
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
. Further, this edition includes
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
(the first draft of
Wonderland
),
The Wasp in a Wig
(a long-lost chapter of
Through the Looking-Glass
),
The Nursery “Alice”
(an abridged but enlightening supplementary text of the original story), and
The Hunting of the Snark
(with explanatory notes from Lewis Carroll, revealing its relevance to Wonderland). I trust that the inclusion of these rarer works will provide the Alice devotee with a fascinating and far more inclusive understanding of Wonderland, Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell herself, which the two common “core” books alone cannot hope to satisfy.

Of course, these works in and of themselves do not tell the entire story. I have also specially written many essays and background articles to support and illuminate Carroll’s masterpieces. These essays include chronologies, biographies, explanatory notes, and a complete glossary of unfamiliar Carrolliana and Victoriana. Additional relevant materials, such as diary entries, letters, period articles and quotations (from Carroll, Alice and others) are included as well. I can certainly guarantee that any Alice fan or Carrollian scholar reading this edition—regardless of their age or their own adventures—will find a
muchness
of treasures they have never seen before!

Considering the magnitude of this research, writing and editing project, mistakes are certain to creep in. (Perfection, Carroll himself might say, is our unreachable destination; but error is our ongoing journey.) If you, the reader, have any corrections, recommended additions, or simply a comment concerning this work and its supporting materials, your feedback is always welcome! I will be more than happy to attribute those who assist in this
“perfecting” endeavor (by name or username, as you prefer) in a future edition of this work.

In this regard, please feel free to visit me at my author page on Amazon (
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004AO4O36
), my Facebook site (
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000867874518
), or the page specifically crafted for
The Complete Alice in Wonderland
. I am also the author of the Carrollian-Lovecraftian “mash-up,”
Cthulhu in Wonderland: The Madness of Alice
, for those who are interested in further exploration of the darkly humorous nature of insanity (
http://www.amazon.com/Cthulhu-Wonderland-Dreadful-Mash-Ups-ebook/dp/B0049H8WSC/
). You can of course also reach me personally at any time via e-mail, at
[email protected]
.

An electronic text, of course, will always have its own advantages and disadvantages—all of them considerable. For those Alice fanatics (like me!) who would prefer to own the finest hardcopy versions as well, I can unreservedly recommend
The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition
, and
The Annotated Hunting of the Snark
, both written by Martin Gardner. Mister Gardner’s insights into Carroll’s texts are meticulous, brilliant and fascinating. Even better, he has a tremendous respect for Carroll’s favored illustrators, John Tenniel and Henry Holiday. These annotated editions are beautiful and are wonderful additions to any library.

Proper editions of
The Nursery “Alice”
and
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
, however, are much harder to come by, but can occasionally be discovered in quality used bookstores. Another good (but not excellent) book,
The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll
, is of use, but it is far from perfect, and misleading in its title. To my knowledge,
The Complete Alice in Wonderland
you are now reading is the
only
work in existence which compiles, supports and annotates all of the “Alice” stories in a single source.

With all that said, I have only one more e-text peeve to confide to you: that of long introductions! And so, without further ado, I welcome you to
The Complete Alice in Wonderland
. Enjoy your adventures alongside Alice, and do remember:

“Of course you’re mad. Or else you wouldn’t have come here
.”

Onward and downward, into Wonderland!

PART I

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Introduction: The Creation of Alice

By Kent David Kelly

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
is a beloved and ageless classic. Indeed, it is one of the most popular, enduring and fondly-quoted books in all the world. Its beginnings, however, were exceedingly humble. If not for the stubborn insistence of a very intelligent and endearing little girl—one Alice Pleasance Liddell—we would not possess this treasury of Victorian wit and humor at all!

The story of Alice was first improvised as it was spoken, in 1862, by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (who we know today by his pen name, Lewis Carroll). One summer day, Carroll was out on a boating jaunt with his good friend Robinson Duckworth, and three “Liddell” girls: Lorina, Edith and Alice Pleasance.

On July 4, Carroll made the following entry in his diary:

“Duckworth and I made an expedition
up
the river to Godstow with the 3 Liddells: we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Christ Church again till 1/2 past 8, when we took them on to my rooms to see my collection of micro-photographs, and restored them to the Deanery [their home], just before 9.”

Robinson Duckworth’s own reminiscences of that fateful day were as follows:

“I was very closely associated with him [Lewis Carroll] in the production and publication of
Alice in Wonderland
. I rowed
stroke
and he rowed
bow
in the famous Long Vacation voyage to Godstow, when the three Miss Liddells were our passengers, and the story was actually composed and spoken
over my shoulder
for the benefit of Alice Liddell, who was acting as ‘cox’ of our gig. I remember turning round and saying, ‘Dodgson, is this an extempore romance of yours?’ And he replied, ‘Yes, I’m inventing as we go along.’ I also well remember how, when we had conducted the three children back to the Deanery, Alice said, as she bade us good-night, ‘Oh, Mr. Dodgson, I wish you would write out Alice’s adventures for me.’ He said he should try, and he afterwards told me that he sat up nearly the whole night, committing to a MS. book his recollections of the drolleries with which he had enlivened the afternoon. He added illustrations of his own, and presented the volume, which used often to be seen on the drawing-room table at the Deanery.”

In retrospect, Alice’s memories of those golden summer days may be the most important of all. Later in life, she explained the secret of her stories in this way:

“Most of Mr. Dodgson’s stories were told to us on river expeditions to Nuneham or Godstow, near Oxford. My eldest sister, now Mrs. Skene, was ‘Prima,’ [Latin, roughly translated as ‘first daughter,’ or ‘eldest’] I was ‘Secunda,’ [‘second’] and ‘Tertia’ [‘third’] was my sister Edith. I believe the beginning of
Alice
was told one summer afternoon when the sun was so burning that we had landed in the meadows down [
sic
] the river, deserting the boat to take refuge in the only bit of shade to be found, which was under a new-made hayrick. Here from all three came the old petition of ‘tell us a story,’ and so began the ever-delightful tale.

Other books

Lothaire by Kresley Cole

Halcón by Gary Jennings

The Wedding Agreement by Elizabeth Hayley

Thunder on the Plains by Rosanne Bittner

Fuckowski - Memorias de un ingeniero by Alfredo de Hoces García-Galán

Immortal's Eden by Lori Perry

Spies and Commissars: The Bolshevik Revolution and the West by Robert Service

Gone Bamboo by Bourdain, Anthony

5 Peppermint Grove by Jackson, Michelle

The Music of Pythagoras by Kitty Ferguson