Charles Lutwidge Dodgson started using a pen name in 1856 when he published a romantic poem. He came up with “Lewis Carroll” by translating his first two names “Charles Lutwidge” into Latin as “Carolus Lodovicus”, then anglicising and reversing their order. [1]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (known as Alice in Wonderland) is a fantasy novel written by English author Charles Dodgson, under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The first edition, published on 18 November 1865 was illustrated by John Tenniel who provided 42 engravings. In the story, a young girl named Alice falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of talking animals and humanlike creatures.
The book received positive reviews and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature. It is credited as launching a new era in writing for children which aimed to entertain them and is seen as an example of the “literary nonsense” genre. The book’s narrative plays with logic, making the story popular with both adults and children, and its structure, characters and imagery have had widespread influence on popular culture and literature.
Fictional Alice shares her name with Alice Liddell, the daughter of Henry Liddell, dean of Christ Church College at Oxford, and Dodgson’s boss. The tale was first told by Dodgson in July 1862, on a river boat trip he took with the three Liddell sisters. The children, especially Alice, adored the story and begged him to write it down. So, in November that year he began writing the manuscript, elaborating the plot, and expanding the story. He researched natural history for the animals in the tale and had his story reviewed by children.
On 26 November 1864, Dodgson gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of ‘Alice’s Adventures Under Ground’, with illustrations by Dodgson himself, dedicating it as “A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer’s Day.” The story’s name was changed and, exactly 3 years after that boat trip, completed on 4 July 1865. It was published on 18 November 1865 (but dated 1866).
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has never been out of print and has been translated into 174 languages. Its legacy covers adaptations for screen, radio, art, ballet, opera, musicals, theme parks, board games and video games.
Lewis Carroll published a sequel in 1871 entitled Through the Looking-Glass and a shortened version for young children, The Nursery Alice, in 1890.
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Susannah Fullerton: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is born
Susannah Fullerton: Lewis Carroll first appeared
Susannah Fullerton: A Simple Story that Became a Timeless Adventure
Susannah Fullerton: Lewis Carroll tells the Alice story for the first time
Susannah Fullerton: Sir John Tenniel is born
Susannah Fullerton: Lewis Carroll’s Ridiculous Poems
British Library: ‘Alice’s Adventures Under Ground’, the original manuscript version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll Society of North America
Alice in Wonderland fan page
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll read by Sir John Geilgud