Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Another in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library. 

 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1865, was written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who we know by the pseudonym (or pen-name) Lewis Carroll. The book is commonly referred to by the title Alice in Wonderland and it has become one of the most famous children's books of all time.  The story tells the tale of what happens to a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world which is populated by imaginary creatures and peculiar objects such as, talking playing cards, a grinning cat and a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat who frequently checks his pocket watch and exclaims "I'm late, I'm late...".

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was not originally written for the general public but for a single child: Alice Pleasance Liddell. Apparently Dodgson made the story up to entertain two young girls in 1862 while they were on a boat trip to a picnic site along the river bank. Alice Liddell pleaded with Dodgson to write the story down for her, which he eventually did, it was a revised version that was later published in 1865. Dodgson was encouraged by the success of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and he wrote a sequel, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There which was published in 1872.

The 1951 Disney animated movie version of Alice In Wonderland was based on both books and re-popularized Alice and the rest of Dodson's marvelous creatures. The recent 2010 movie portrays Alice as a 19 year old as she returns to Wonderland.

We have a copy of Alice in Wonderland and a copy of The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland in our fiction section. We also have an abridged copy of Through the Looking-Glass.

Upper Hutt Public Library has 6 copies of Lewis Carroll's books about the adventures of Alice in the Children's section and also 2 audio books.

 Most above information has been adapted from here, here and here, where you can also find out more information about Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and his books.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is also available online through Project Gutenberg:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11