Edition
I’m not sure what edition this is from. The poetry in the later chapters is different from the poetry in my version. But since I liked it better, I left it. The most notable difference is I passed by his garden, which, in my version (The Dolphin Master), goes simply:
- “I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
- How the owl and the oyster were sharing a pie—”
Whereas this one is quite longer, and much more gruesome. (See The Lobster Quadrille.)
The Introduction
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- All in the golden afternoon
- Full leisurely we glide;
- For both our oars, with little skill,
- By little arms are plied,
- While little hands make vain pretence
- Our wanderings to guide.
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- Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour
- Beneath such dreamy weather,
- To beg a tale of breath too weak
- To stir the tiniest feather!
- Yet what can one poor voice avail
- Against three tongues together?
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- Imperious Prima flashes forth
- Her edict to begin it
- In gentler tone Secunda hopes
- “There will be nonsense in it!”
- While Tertia interrupts the tale
- Not more than once a minute.
-
- Anon, to sudden silence won,
- In fancy they pursue
- The dream-child moving through a land
- Of wonders wild and new,
- In friendly chat with bird or beast
- And half believe it true.
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- And ever, as the story drained
- And faintly strove that weary one
- The rest next time—It is next time!
- The happy voices cry.
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- Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
- Thus slowly, one by one,
- Its quaint events were hammered out—
- And now the tale is done,
- And home we steer, a merry crew,
- Beneath the setting sun.
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- Alice! a childish story take,
- And with a gentle hand
- Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined
- In Memory’s mystic band,
- Like pilgrim’s wither’d wreath of flowers
- Pluck’d in a far-off land.
- Down The Rabbit-Hole
- Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”
- The Pool of Tears
- “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice!
- A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
- They were indeed a queer-looking party that I assembled on the bank—the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable.
- The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill
- It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself, “The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?”
- Advice from a Caterpillar
- The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid sleepy voice.
- Pig and Pepper
- For a minute or two she stood looking at the house, and wondering what to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood—(she considered him to be a footman because he was in livery: otherwise, judging by his face only she would have called him a fish)—and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles.
- A Mad Tea-Party
- Here was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head.
- The Queen’s Croquet-Ground
- A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, “Look out now, Five! Don’t go splashing paint over me like that!”
- The Mock Turtle’s Story
- “You can’t think how glad I am to see you again you dear old thing!” said the Duchess, as she tucked her arm affectionately into Alice’s, and they walked off together.
- The Lobster Quadrille
- The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across his eyes. He looked at Alice, and tried to speak, but, for a minute or two, sobs choked his voice.
- Who Stole the Tarts?
- The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them—all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other.
- Alice’s Evidence
- “Here!” cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt, upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and there they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much of a globe of gold-fish she had accidentally upset the week before.
More Information
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass• (paperback)
- This book has both pictures and conversations, and it’s a nice size to keep handy if you fall down any holes. (Lewis Carroll)
