so, you've come here to my page! and you may be thinking, 'what exactly is wonderland?' or 'now, who is alice?' though i find that hard to believe, fret not, for i will tell you all about the focus and inspiration behind this website!
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland... first published in 1865 of November, it is of the literary nonsense genre. the author is none other than Lewis Carroll, which is actually the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematician who tutored at the University of Oxford. receiving majorly positive reviews at release, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has remained one of the most popular works of Victorian literature with a widespread influence on several modern media, most typically in fantasy genres.
Alice is the titular character of the book, as you could already tell. she shares her name with her real-life counterpart Alice Liddell, an acquaintance and photography subject of Carroll. scholars tend to disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her. unlike Alice, with blonde, long hair, Liddell had darkish and fringed hair!
Wonderland is the setting of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. you also probably could already tell that by the title. surreal, whimsical, and quite bizarre, Wonderland is a place with no sense of logic or conventional geography. Alice ended up in this world through a rabbit hole that had her fall aaalll the way down to a hallway with many, many doors! apparently located beneath OXfordshire, Carroll has not specified how exactly far down it is in the earth.
on the fourth of July, 1862, Lewis Carroll and Robinson Duckworth rowed up the River Isis with the three daughters of Carroll's friend, Henry Liddell. Lorina Charlotte, the oldest one, then Alice Pleasance, the middle child, and finally, Edith Mary, the youngest of the three. during the trip, Carroll told the girls a story which he titled "Alice's Adventures Under Ground." he recalled that Alice Liddell wanted him to write it down, and unlike other stories he had conceived for her, she wanted this one to be preserved.
the next day, Carroll began work on the manuscript (this earliest version is lost) and took another boat trip with the girls a month later, discussing the plot of the story to Alice. though he made his own illustrations originally, he was advised to find a more professional illustrator so that the book's artwork was more appealing to his intended audience. he approached John Tenniel and partnered up with him to have his depictions of the characters come to life on paper. in 1863, Carroll began planning out a print edition of the story, suggested to be published by George MacDonald's family (of which whose children had previously examined his manuscripts). on 26th of November, 1864, Alice Liddell was gifted the manuscript by Lewis Carroll, dedicating it as "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day".
the published version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is actually twice as long as Alice's Adventures Under Ground, featuring episodes and characters that do not appear in the original manuscript. the only known manuscript copy of Alice's Adventures Under Ground is currently located in the British Library.
on the 19th of October, 1863, Carroll met Alexander Macmillan, a very high-powered London publisher. The firm he owned, Macmillan Publishers, agreed to publish Alice's Adventures in Wonderland originally in 1864. a specimen copy was presented in May 1865. 2,000 copies were supposed to be printed by July, however, Tenniel did not like their quality, and Macmillan was instructed by Carroll to stop publication so they could be reprinted. in August of the same year, Carroll contacted Richard Clay as an alternative printer for a new run of 2,000 books. in November of 1865, Macmillan published their new edition. quickly, a newer edition was released in December 1865 was printed as well.
the entire run of the print was sold out fast. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a sensation to all. the book has never been out of print, and has currently been translated into 174 different languages!
now, something that not much non-alice fans know nowadays is that there is actually a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! titled "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" it was published in the 27th of December, 1871. Alice once again would enter a whimsical world through a mirror, in which she finds everything is reversed.
in the six years since he wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll was teaching Alice and her sisters how to play chess. stories were made of illustrations of chess piece movements and the rules of the game, which inspired and were tied into the second story soon to come. the two main themes were chess and mirror images.
on August 24th of 1866, Carroll contemplated writing another 'Alice' book. on February 6th of 1867, he had gathered more concrete ideas for the story. only in January of 1868 did he actually start progress on the actual writing. He finished the text in January 4th of 1871. Procuring an illustrator was very tiresome, but Carroll managed to once again contract John Tenniel to create pictures for the book.
printing began in October of 1871, with Carroll receiving five proof sheets a month later. finally, in December, 9,000 copies of “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there” were published. the second print run consisted of 6,000 copies, with 15,000 copies having been sold by January 27th of 1872. Macmillan actually had a hard time keeping up with the demand for this book!
as explained previously, 'Lewis Carroll' is an pseudonym, and the real name of the author is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Dodgson was born on 27th of January, 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire. his father was Reverend Charles Dodgson, and his mother was Frances Jane Lutwidge. he had three brothers and seven sisters.
Dodgson hailed from a family of high-church Anglicans and pursued clerical training at Christ Church, a constituent college of University of Oxford. he lived most of his life there as a scholar and teacher. in 1856, Dean Henry Liddell had arrived to Christ Church with his family, all of which would greatly influence his writing career. he became close friends with Liddell's wife, Lorina, and their children, mostly the three sisters which were named Lorina, Alice, and Edith.
Dodgson's friendship with the Liddell family was definitely an important part of his life in the late 1850s, and he'd often take the children on rowing trips. On one particular golden afternoon, Dodgson created the outline of the story that would eventually become his first and grandest commercial success, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.'
Dodgson died of pneumonia following influenza on the 14th of January, 1898, just two weeks away from turning 66 years old. his funeral was held at the nearby St Mary's Church, and his body was buried at the Mount Cemetary in Guildford.