Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and its sequel “Through the Looking-Glass” were written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll), who was an English author in the Victorian era.
The protagonist of the novel is Alice, a girl who falls down a rabbit hole and experiences a marvellous world underneath the trivial one. She gets involved in plenty of adventures and meets several fantastical creatures, the most famous of which is the grinning ‘Cheshire Cat’.
The tale was published in 1865 with illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. The commercial success of the novel was stupendous. It was admired by children, adolescents and adults alike. Among its readers were also Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde.
Contemporary references are included as well in the novel, for instance the ‘Queen of Hearts’ could actually be a parody of Queen Victoria, who was known for her stout stature and bad temper. The ‘Queen of Hearts’ is a ruthless ruler in the magical world whose solution to every problem is the beheading of people. She is an aggressive woman who tries to dominate and overpower everything around her. Subjects are frightened of her.
The tale “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Carroll used nonsense and absurdity to comment on reality of the time.
Today tourists can see small figures of Alice and other characters which Carroll had invented in the dining room of Christ Church, where the author also worked as a mathematician. This is an act of homage to this man and his great novel.
Sources:
Schwab, Gabriele (1996) "Chapter 2: Nonsense and Metacommunication: Alice in Wonderland" The mirror and the killer-queen: otherness in literary language. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, pp. 49-102
Carroll, Lewis (1986) "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Reclam, Ditzingen