Manuscript: Alice's Adventures Under Ground Carroll, an amateur photographer by the late 1850s, produced many photographic portraits of the Liddell children-but none more than Alice, of whom 20 survive. "Pleasance" means pleasure and the name "Alice" appeared in contemporary works including the poem "Alice Gray" by William Mee, of which Carroll wrote a parody and Alice is a character in "Dream-Children: A Reverie", a prose piece by Charles Lamb. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, who wrote a literary biography of Carroll, suggests that Carroll favoured Alice Pleasance Liddell in particular because her name was ripe for allusion. In June 1856, he took the children out on the river. Ĭarroll had known the Liddell children since around March 1856, when he befriended Harry Liddell. Scholars debate whether Carroll in fact came up with Alice during the "golden afternoon" or whether the story was developed over a longer period. In fact, the weather around Oxford on 4 July was "cool and rather wet", although at least one scholar has disputed this claim. Ĥ July was known as the " golden afternoon", prefaced in the novel as a poem. She finally got the manuscript more than two years later. Alice Liddell recalled that she asked Carroll to write it down: unlike other stories he had told her, this one she wanted to preserve. During the trip Carroll told the girls a story that he described in his diary as "Alice's Adventures Under Ground" and which his journal says he "undertook to write out for Alice". The journey began at Folly Bridge, Oxford, and ended 5 miles (8.0 km) away in Godstow, Oxfordshire. The three girls were the daughters of scholar Henry Liddell: Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13 "Prima" in the book's prefatory verse) Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10 "Secunda" in the verse) and Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8 "Tertia" in the verse).
It received positive reviews upon release and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have had widespread influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood engraved illustrations for the book. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at WikisourceĪlice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll.