| ISBN-13: |
9789358561135 |
| Publisher: |
Prakash Books |
| Publication date: |
01/07/2023 |
| Pages: |
164 |
| Product dimensions: |
8.50(w) x 5.75(h) x 0.60(d) |
| Age Range: |
8 - 11 Years |
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when it was first
published in 1865, was an immediate success, and its sequel Through
the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, appearing six years
later, only cemented Lewis Carroll’s renown. Carroll’s sense
of the absurd and his amazing gift for games of logic and language have
secured for the Alice books a time-honored spot in the hearts of adults
and children alike.
Alice’s surreal adventures begin when she follows a frantically
late White Rabbit down a hole into the magical world of Wonderland. As
she tries to find her way home, she meets a variety of weird and
wonderful creatures, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the
ever-smiling Cheshire Cat, the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, and The March
Hare, Mad Hatter, and Dormouse, who invite Alice to the strangest
tea-party she has ever attended. Her final obstacle is the brutal and
bellowing Queen of Hearts, who, along with her enchanted deck of playing
cards, tricks Alice into playing a life-and-death game of croquet.
Alice continues her adventures in Through the Looking-Glass,
which is loosely based on a game of chess and includes Carroll’s
famous poem “Jabberwocky.”
Throughout her fantastic journeys, Alice manages to retain her reason,
humor, and sense of justice. She has grown up to become one of the great
characters of imaginative literature—as immortal as Don Quixote,
Huckleberry Finn, Captain Ahab, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy Gale of
Kansas.
An writer, artist, and critic, Tan Lin is the author of two books of
poetry, Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe, and BlipSoak01. He
received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and teaches creative writing
at New Jersey City University.
The questions that Alice asks are not answered by the animals in
Wonderland nor by anyone after she wakens. It is likely that her
questions don’t have answers or that there are no right questions
to ask. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Looking-Glass remain the most prophetic of the nineteenth
century’s anti-narratives, inverted quest romances, circular
mathematical treatises on the illogical logic of forgetting one’s
desires. They display a logic that the child must master in order to grow
up.
—from the Introduction by Tan Lin
Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on January 27,
1832, in Daresbury, Cheshire, England. Young Charles had a sharp
intellect and, tutored by his father, was well ahead of the other
students when he enrolled in grade school. After graduation from Christ
Church college of Oxford University, he taught mathematics and logic at
Christ Church. In 1856, he created the pseudonym “Lewis
Carroll” (versions of his first and middle names in reverse order).
Throughout his career, he signed his mathematical works Charles Dodgson
and his literary works Lewis Carroll. Carroll never married, but led a
charitable, productive life unshaken by the political and social
upheavals of the day. His more than 300 published works comprise poetry,
mathematics, logic, and his beloved children’s stories. Lewis
Carroll died in Guildford, England, on January 14, 1898.
