First published in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland began as a story told to Alice Liddell and her two sisters on a boating trip in July of 1862. The novel follows Alice down a rabbit-hole and into a surreal world of strange and wonderful characters who constantly turn everything upside-down with their mind-boggling logic and word play, and their fantastic parodies. Carroll's fable illustrates his masterful ability to weave logic with nonsense in a tale that continues to delight all ages.While this great classic is widely available, the Broadview edition is unique. Richard Kelly combines Alice's Adventures in Wonderland not with the later (and largely distinct) work Through the Looking Glass but rather with Alice's Adventures Under Ground, Lewis Carroll's first version of the story. Readers are thus able to trace the literary revisions, and to compare Caroll's own illustrations in the original with the famous John Tenniel illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Among the many other materials included in the Broadview Literary Texts edition are a substantial selection of early reviews, selections from Carroll's diaries and correspondence, Carroll's early nonsense poems, and the originals of the poems parodied in his text.

Reviews

Gr 3 Up-A clever concept that doesn't quite work. This version of Carroll's classic is illustrated with a patchwork compilation of artwork from late 19th and early 20th-century editions of the book. The original tale is decorated with the artistic renderings of John Tenniel, Arthur Rackham, Margaret Tarrant, Charles Robinson, Gertrude Kay, Maria Kirk, and Millicent Sowerby. Unfortunately, the artist is not always identified along with the featured illustration. Also, it is difficult to determine a targeted audience for this edition. While it is certainly interesting to see the wide-ranging portrayals of Alice and her cohorts over the decades, true scholars will want to compare the entire works, not selected samplings. Contemporary children, accustomed to visual interpretations, will find the multiple depictions of Alice jarring and confusing. Why does she have bouncy, brown curls on one page and long, blonde locks several pages later? This "anthology Alice" creates more of a visual hodgepodge than the intended artistic mosaic. Alice fans will be better off sticking with their favorite editions or purchasing one of the many recent offerings such as Helen Oxenbury's rendition (Candlewick, 1999).- Heide Piehler, Shorewood Public Library, WI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

DeLoss McGraw's illustrations bring the magic of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to a younger audience, with abstract splashes of color that render the Caterpillar a bit less eerie and the Queen less terrifying than Sir John Tenniel's interpretation. One hallucinogenic image captures Alice awash in deep blue watercolor, her long legs rising in an ethereal haze as her head reaches the ceiling. A small green window and miniaturized chair accentuate her rapid growth. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland appeals to all new generations, and Richard Kelly's edition is a fresh and fitting jamboree for our time. For the first time, it gives us in a single book both Lewis Carroll's early version of Alice Under Ground and the full version of the story. It encapsulates the major theories of what the book means, and it provides photographs that Carroll took and excerpts from his diaries and letters; it also offers examples of early reviews, imitations, parodies, and recollections of the author. Altogether it is a splendid cornucopia that is bound to become the ultimate Alice for us and for generations to come." - Morton N. Cohen, Professor Emeritus, City University of New York, author of Lewis Carroll: A Biography, and editor of The Selected Letters of Lewis Carroll