The white rabbit

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is generally accepted as a turning point in children's literature. Just as Grimms' fairy tales had heralded a new era, Lewis Carroll's story freed children's literature from the last strands of morality that had restricted it for decades. Some didacticism would still linger a little longer, but the door to imagination and fantasy was pushed wide open. Perhaps surprisingly this was recognised by critics at the time; sales were good and reprints rapidly followed. When copyright lapsed in 1907, publishers throughout England and America rushed their own editions into print, and a multitude of illustrators tried their hand at illustrating the story. Translations into many languages also followed, although this had begun in Carroll's own lifetime, with authorised translations into French and German (1869) and Italian (1872).

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 1832-98) was a tutor and later lecturer, at Christ Church, Oxford. and had already ventured into publishing, writing comedic pieces for The Comic Times, and later The Train. In 1856 George Liddell becames Dean of Christ Church and Carroll became acquainted with the Liddell children, including Alice. It was also at this period that his interest in photography blossomed, and the Liddell children were often his subjects. Later they would take boat trips together and it was on these occasions that Carroll began telling them stories drawing on his own fertile imagination. On one of these occasions he told them the story of 'Alice's adventures underground'. Alice Liddell asked for a copy of this story, and from this Carroll developed the story of Alice's adventures in Wonderland. Before publishing however he asked other friends, George MacDonald and his family, to read the manuscript: their enthusiastic response convinced Carroll to publish. John Tenniel was persuaded to illustrate the book. His drawings of Alice, the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter and the Duchess are synonomous with the story, and have been emulated but rarely surpassed.

The sequel Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there was published in December 1871, and was again illustrated by Tenniel, although reluctantly, as he had found Carroll difficult to work with. The White Knight is considered to be closely modelled on Tenniel himself. Carroll's final piece of nonsense The Hunting of the Snark was published in 1874. He wrote other pieces under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll but none achieved the success of the Alice stories.

As himself, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, he published a number of mathematical textbooks designed for undergraduates. He also began to prepare himself for Holy Orders, a requirement of his studentship at Christ Church; he was ordained a Deacon in 1861, but lacked the inclination to take the next stage to Priest's Orders. His last major work was Symbolic logic (1896-97) which was an attempt to popularise formal logic. Dodgson contracted a bronchial infection at Christmas 1897 and died several weeks later.

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

Buy a high resolution copy.