Alice in The Wonderland Book Pdf
- Book Name: Alice in The Wonderland
- Authors: Lewis Carroll
- Pages: 105
- Publish Date: 26 November 1865
- Language: English
- Genre: Children's literature, Literary nonsense, Fantasy Fiction, Adventure fiction, Absurdist fiction, Fantastique
Alice in The Wonderland by the English writer Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was first published in 1865, and it is a hugely popular and influential fantasy novel.
But let’s begin by talking about the novel’s author, Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson and who was born in the town of Daresbury in Cheshire, England in 1832. Dodgson was an Anglican deacon.
He is best known by his pen name Lewis Carroll as a writer of children’s literature, most notably Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass.
You might be a bit surprised to hear me talk about a children’s book because I don’t usually talk about books for children here on my channel. And the reason for that is that I don’t usually read books addressed to children.
But it is possible to read Alice in Wonderland from an adult perspective. The young reader's approach to this novel would be to read it for its plot. Just focusing on what happens to the character of Alice. And the adult approach, which is the one I am going to discuss, is the one that focuses on deeper layers in the narrative.
Because apart from being a popular children’s novel, Alice in Wonderland is also a prime example of nonsense literature. And that is what interested me in this novel. Lewis Carroll or, rather, Charles Dodgson was interested in logic.
Apart from being a man of the Church of England, he was also a mathematician. Dodgson taught at the prestigious Christ Church College, which belongs to Oxford University.
So, Dodgson is interesting because he is on the one hand a professor of logic and math and on the other hand the author of popular books for children.
The inspiration for the character of Alice seems to have come from the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church College, therefore, Dodgson’s superior, but also his friend, Henry Liddle. The Liddle girls were Lorina, Edith, and Alice. And Alice seems to be the most likely inspiration since the fictional character even bears her name.
Apparently, before he wrote it, Dodgson had told the story of Alice in Wonderland to the three girls during a boat trip. And that seems to be the origin of the novel. The icky side to all of this is the suggestion of paedophilia, which I can’t get away from discussing.
That he was a paedophile seems almost certain. But, luckily, there is nothing about that in the actual Alice books. So, even if you are triggered by that you could go ahead and read the books because there is nothing to suggest paedophilia in the books.
Nothing at all. What I wanted to say about this whole thing is that we must be careful when looking at the past because children were not always seen as we see them today. The concept of childhood that we have is historically very recent.
Remember that people used to get married a lot younger in the past. If Dodgson lived now, he would be considered a paedophile for sure. But in a 19th-century context, I don’t think his behaviour would have been socially castigated.
Our concept of childhood was forged gradually during the Victorian era. Before that, childhood was not clearly defined or seen as a development stage. Younger people were people just of smaller size. That can be hard for us to wrap our heads around.
But take Romeo and Juliet. Juliet Capulet is only 13 years old in Shakespeare’s tragedy. To us, that is barely a teenager, but in the late 16th century, she would have been considered a woman. And that mentality didn’t change in Europe until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
But going back to the time when Alice in Wonderland was written, which is the Victorian era, the age of sexual consent was 12 years of age. And that was the legal slash moral reality of the time.
It may be different from what we have now, and you and I might think it’s wrong, but that’s the historical fact. Okay, having now dealt with the most controversial aspect about Lewis Carroll and his famous Alice books, let’s now talk about Alice in Wonderland.
Children can read the book and enjoy it because of the adventures that Alice goes on to have, but adults can also enjoy it and perhaps be reminded of what was like for them to be children. Alice in Wonderland must be one of the first books addressed to children.
And no doubt children’s literature owes a great debt to Lewis Carroll. Because the concept of childhood did not exist before the Victorian era, the first children’s books are from that time. To me, and I know many people won’t agree, children’s literature is not a genre, it is rather a category for readers.
But let me challenge myself and try to talk about it as it were a genre. So, if children’s literature is a genre, what would its main characteristics be? What would we expect from children’s literature?
I think adventure would be a key element and also a nonsensical approach to reality because the adult world often does not make sense to children. I do remember being baffled by the adult world as a kid and never having the desire to fully grow up.
And this is something that Alice in Wonderland can foster in adult readers. The novel can remind you of what it was like to be baffled by the adult world and not fully understand why things were the way they were.
Also, if you are interested in Victorian literature, and I know a lot of readers are, then Alice in Wonderland is a must-read. I would even say that Alice in Wonderland is one of the key books in Victorian literature.
Like many children, Alice, who is seven years old, is a curious child and curiosity gets the best of her in the novel. Early on, she goes down a rabbit hole and the novel follows her adventures in a subterranean world.
The characters Alice meets in the underground world, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire cat, the Queen of Hearts, etc. are so famous that even people who have never read the novel know many of them.
The parallel world Alice visits is not altogether that different from the real world. And that is where adult readers might derive the biggest pleasure in reading this novel; in seeing how Carroll highlights how nonsensical people often are.
This reminds me of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, which I have also reviewed. I’ve added a link to that review in the description box for this video, in case you are interested.
I think that although Gulliver’s Travels and Alice in Wonderland were written more than one hundred years apart, it’s not a bad idea to read them together. At least, that’s my suggestion.
But, going back to Alice in Wonderland, I also wanted to talk about time and space, two concepts that govern our lives and without which nothing would make sense to us.
They lose all importance in the underground world Alice goes to in the novel. It is not as time and space do not exist in that world, but they have a completely different meaning down there.
Other important themes of the novel are growth (literally and figuratively) and personal identity. In that world, Alice loses her identity or, at least, begins to question it. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a fascinating and, sometimes, maddening read.
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