Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: A Publishing History

Zoe Jaques · Eugene Giddens

May 2016 · Routledge

About this ebook

Emerging in several different versions during the author's lifetime, Lewis Carroll's Alice novels have a publishing history almost as magical and mysterious as the stories themselves. Zoe Jaques and Eugene Giddens offer a detailed and nuanced account of the initial publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and investigate how their subsequent transformations through print, illustration, film, song, music videos, and even stamp-cases and biscuit tins affected the reception of these childhood favourites. The authors consider issues related to the orality of the original tale and its impact on subsequent transmission, the differences between the manuscripts and printed editions, and the politics of writing and publishing for children in the 1860s. In addition, they take account of Carroll's own responses to the books' popularity, including his writing of major adaptations and a significant body of meta-textual commentary, and his reactions to the staging of Alice in Wonderland. Attentive to the child reader, how changing notions of childhood identity and needs affected shifting narratives of the story, and the representation of the child's body by various illustrators, the authors also make a significant contribution to childhood studies.

Ratings and reviews

Alice in wonderland video

About the author

Zoe Jaques is a Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, UK, and Eugene Giddens is the Director of Research in Arts, Law, and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, UK.