The Complete Alice in Wonderland - Wonderland Imprints PDF
Preview The Complete Alice in Wonderland - Wonderland Imprints
THE COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND Kindle Master Editions Volume I Comprising the Unabridged Texts of: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There Alice’s Adventures Under Ground The Nursery “Alice” The Hunting of the Snark By Lewis Carroll With Kent David Kelly A collection of the works of Lewis Carroll, uniquely annotated. This collection and all essays are copyright 2010 by Kent David Kelly. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. Printed in the United States of America Distributed by Wonderland Imprints Attn: Kent David Kelly [email protected] http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000867874518 TABLE OF CONTENTS Return to the Beginning of the Book Table of Contents Introduction to the Master Edition PART I: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland PART II: Reflections on Alice in Wonderland PART III: Through the Looking-Glass PART IV: The Wasp in a Wig PART V: Reflections on the Looking-Glass PART VI: Alice's Adventures Under Ground PART VII: Reflections on the Under Ground PART VIII: The Nursery “Alice” PART IX: Reflections on the Nursery “Alice” PART X: The Hunting of the Snark PART XI: Reflections on the Snark PART XII: Beyond Wonderland Afterword INTRODUCTION TO THE MASTER EDITION By Kent David Kelly ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND is—deservedly—one of the best-loved books in all the world. It is a triumph not only of the imagination, but also of wit, humor, logical paradox, and the ageless appeal of Victorian charm. Excellent editions of this most excellent book are to be discovered everywhere. Finding a quality electronic version of Alice is, however, a confounding exercise in futility. Many of the electronic editions are hastily produced, poorly formatted, unedited, or even incomplete. Worse, the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland can refer to both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking- Glass, and What Alice Found There; or, only the first book; or, incomplete excerpts of each (and often without any publisher clarification on the matter). Due to these well-intentioned yet oddly universal mistakes in the world of electronic publishing, a need was seen for one definitive Kindle Master Edition of the Alice works, created and formatted specifically for the Kindle. As a Kindle owner and devotee myself, I am very sympathetic to the peculiar woes which readers suffer as a result of over-exposure to amateurish electronic documents. The problems in such works often include (but are by no means limited to): spelling errors; font size issues; character identification issues (such as “w” appearing as “vv,” or the word “corner” as “comer”); forced hyphenation breaks; indentation and spacing issues; spurious pagination; nonexistent tables of contents; a lack of uniquely-created backing matter (glossaries, research essays, endnotes, etc.); incomplete front matter; footnote errors; illustration errors (or no illustrations at all); missing poetry or paragraphs; absent or profligate italics, and much, much more. “Curiouser and curiouser” indeed! In the interests of reader sanity, I have endeavored to make The Complete Alice in Wonderland as correct, complete, user friendly, and simply enjoyable as possible. Beyond such assuaged frustrations, of course, good readers also demand Master Editions of the texts themselves! In this regard, I have offered not only Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but also Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Further, this edition includes Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (the first draft of Wonderland), The Wasp in a Wig (a long-lost chapter of Through the Looking-Glass), The Nursery “Alice” (an abridged but enlightening supplementary text of the original story), and The Hunting of the Snark (with explanatory notes from Lewis Carroll, revealing its relevance to Wonderland). I trust that the inclusion of these rarer works will provide the Alice devotee with a fascinating and far more inclusive understanding of Wonderland, Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell herself, which the two common “core” books alone cannot hope to satisfy. Of course, these works in and of themselves do not tell the entire story. I have also specially written many essays and background articles to support and illuminate Carroll’s masterpieces. These essays include chronologies, biographies, explanatory notes, and a complete glossary of unfamiliar Carrolliana and Victoriana. Additional relevant materials, such as diary entries, letters, period articles and quotations (from Carroll, Alice and others) are included as well. I can certainly guarantee that any Alice fan or Carrollian scholar reading this edition—regardless of their age or their own adventures— will find a muchness of treasures they have never seen before! Considering the magnitude of this research, writing and editing project, mistakes are certain to creep in. (Perfection, Carroll himself might say, is our unreachable destination; but error is our ongoing journey.) If you, the reader, have any corrections, recommended additions, or simply a comment concerning this work and its supporting materials, your feedback is always welcome! I will be more than happy to attribute those who assist in this “perfecting” endeavor (by name or username, as you prefer) in a future edition of this work. In this regard, please feel free to visit me at my author page on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004AO4O36), my Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000867874518), or the page specifically crafted for The Complete Alice in Wonderland. I am also the author of the Carrollian-Lovecraftian “mash-up,” Cthulhu in Wonderland: The Madness of Alice, for those who are interested in further exploration of the darkly humorous nature of insanity (http://www.amazon.com/Cthulhu-Wonderland- Dreadful-Mash-Ups-ebook/dp/B0049H8WSC/). You can of course also reach me personally at any time via e-mail, at [email protected]. An electronic text, of course, will always have its own advantages and disadvantages—all of them considerable. For those Alice fanatics (like me!) who would prefer to own the finest hardcopy versions as well, I can unreservedly recommend The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, and The Annotated Hunting of the Snark, both written by Martin Gardner. Mister Gardner’s insights into Carroll’s texts are meticulous, brilliant and fascinating. Even better, he has a tremendous respect for Carroll’s favored illustrators, John Tenniel and Henry Holiday. These annotated editions are beautiful and are wonderful additions to any library. Proper editions of The Nursery “Alice” and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, however, are much harder to come by, but can occasionally be discovered in quality used bookstores. Another good (but not excellent) book, The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll, is of use, but it is far from perfect, and misleading in its title. To my knowledge, The Complete Alice in Wonderland you are now reading is the only work in existence which compiles, supports and annotates all of the “Alice” stories in a single source. With all that said, I have only one more e-text peeve to confide to you: that of long introductions! And so, without further ado, I welcome you to The Complete Alice in Wonderland. Enjoy your adventures alongside Alice, and do remember: “Of course you’re mad. Or else you wouldn’t have come here.” Onward and downward, into Wonderland! PART I ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND Introduction: The Creation of Alice By Kent David Kelly ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND is a beloved and ageless classic. Indeed, it is one of the most popular, enduring and fondly-quoted books in all the world. Its beginnings, however, were exceedingly humble. If not for the stubborn insistence of a very intelligent and endearing little girl—one Alice Pleasance Liddell—we would not possess this treasury of Victorian wit and humor at all! The story of Alice was first improvised as it was spoken, in 1862, by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (who we know today by his pen name, Lewis Carroll). One summer day, Carroll was out on a boating jaunt with his good friend Robinson Duckworth, and three “Liddell” girls: Lorina, Edith and Alice Pleasance. On July 4, Carroll made the following entry in his diary: “Duckworth and I made an expedition up the river to Godstow with the 3 Liddells: we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Christ Church again till 1/2 past 8, when we took them on to my rooms to see my collection of micro- photographs, and restored them to the Deanery [their home], just before 9.” Robinson Duckworth’s own reminiscences of that fateful day were as follows: “I was very closely associated with him [Lewis Carroll] in the production and publication of Alice in Wonderland. I rowed stroke and he rowed bow in the famous Long Vacation voyage to Godstow, when the three Miss Liddells were our passengers, and the story was actually composed and spoken over my shoulder for the benefit of Alice Liddell, who was acting as ‘cox’ of our gig. I remember turning round and saying, ‘Dodgson, is this an extempore romance of yours?’ And he replied, ‘Yes, I’m inventing as we go along.’ I also well remember how, when we had conducted the three children back to the Deanery,
The list of books you might like
