Master of "Nonsense"
Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) was a mathematics don who has long been much better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The story behind his first Alice book is a famous one: On July 4, 1862 he and his friend Robinson Duckworth, a Fellow at Trinity College, accompanied the daughters of the dean of Christ Church on a pleasant boat trip on the river Isis.
This particular excursion was to be an especially memorable one, for Reverend Dodgson entertained his fellow travelers with the story that was to be originally called Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which he wrote down and illustrated by himself in a book that he presented to Alice Liddell, the "protagonist" of his story. Fortunately for us, he was encouraged to have his book commercially published. After revising and renaming the story (and enlisting John Tenniel to illustrate it), he did so in in 1865--at his own expense. His genius was recognized from then on--although he often denied (to strangers) that he was indeed the author of the Alice books, The Hunting of the Snark, and his other immortal works.
I've included the great illustrations by Sir John Tenniel-- a non-illustrated Alice is very much lacking--as Mr. Carroll obviously preferred to have his works illustrated (note his own illustration of the croquet game).
To decrease downloading time the illustrations have been somewhat reduced, but just click on them to see them closer to their original sizes.
Special Note: Listen as you read! On the bottom of this page I've included a link to the Wired for Books page that contains the audio version of this great book. You will need a Realplayer, which can be downloaded for free here. (Free basic version link is on left towards bottom of page.) In order to read along, I suggest that you minimize the Wired for Books page and the Realplayer.
