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Alice's Adventures under Ground: The Original Story

Name: Alice's Adventures under Ground: The Original Story
Author: Lewis Carroll
ISBN: 9781453798409

by Lewis Carroll

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Synopsis

Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" is the original version of the story that became "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Written in 1864, the tale recounts a story that Charles Dodgson (pen-name Lewis Carroll) told to entertain some children, during an outing, in the summer of 1862. In this story, we are introduced to Alice, along with many of her acquaintances already familiar to us (such as the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, and the Queen of Hearts), as she journeys into that magical world she discovered through a rabbit-hole. Carroll later enlarged this story, as it became the foundational work for his well-known stories about Wonderland."Alice's Adventures Under Ground" and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" are different in a number of respects, most notably in the length of the stories. "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" contains approximately 12,715 words, where the expanded version, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," consists of over 26,000 words. Also of note, are the differences between the artwork included with the two stories. The original manuscript, "Alice's Adventures Under Ground," was completely illustrated by Carroll, whereas the artwork for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," was provided by Sir John Tenniel.This edition from Scriptoria Books, sets in type, the original 1864 handwritten manuscript, "Alice's Adventures Under Ground," by Lewis Carroll, and includes 37 illustrations by the author. The text was transcribed from the 1886 Macmillan & Co. facsimile, and proofed from images of the original Lewis Carroll manuscript at the British Library, Add. MS 46700.

About the Author, Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

It's possible that if Lewis Carroll had never met Alice Liddell, he might have enjoyed a more peaceful lifetime and an obscure legacy. But his whimsical inventiveness touched everything he did, and a story he made up one afternoon for a little girl became one of literature's great classics, Alice in Wonderland.

Biography

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, was a man of diverse interests -- in mathematics, logic, photgraphy, art, theater, religion, medicine, and science. He was happiest in the company of children for whom he created puzzles, clever games, and charming letters.

As all Carroll admirers know, his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), became an immediate success and has since been translated into more than eighty languages. The equally popular sequel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, was published in 1872.

The Alice books are but one example of his wide ranging authorship. The Hunting of the Snark, a classic nonsense epic (1876) and Euclid and His Modern Rivals, a rare example of humorous work concerning mathematics, still entice and intrigue today's students. Sylvie and Bruno, published toward the end of his life contains startling ideas including an 1889 description of weightlessness.

The humor, sparkling wit and genius of this Victorian Englishman have lasted for more than a century. His books are among the most quoted works in the English language, and his influence (with that of his illustrator, Sir John Tenniel) can be seen everywhere, from the world of advertising to that of atomic physics.

Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).