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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780393048476
ISBN: 0393048470
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 312
Publication Date: 1999-11
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company

"What is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations!"

Readers who share Alice's taste in books will be more than satisfied with The Annotated Alice, a volume that includes not only pictures and conversations, but a thorough gloss on the text as well. There may be some, like G.K. Chesterton, who abhor the notion of putting Lewis Carroll's masterpiece under a microscope and analyzing it within an inch of its whimsical life. But as Martin Gardner points out in his introduction, so much of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is composed of private jokes and details of Victorian manners and mores that modern audiences are not likely to catch. Yes, Alice can be enjoyed on its own merits, but The Annotated Alice appeals to the nosy parker in all of us. Thus we learn, for example, that the source of the mouse's tale may have been Alfred Lord Tennyson who "once told Carroll that he had dreamed a lengthy poem about fairies, which began with very long lines, then the lines got shorter and shorter until the poem ended with fifty or sixty lines of two syllables each." And that, contrary to popular belief, the Mad Hatter character was not a parody of then Prime Minister Gladstone, but rather was based on an Oxford furniture dealer named Theophilus Carter.

Gardner's annotations run the gamut from the factual and historical to the speculative and are, in their own way, quite as fascinating as the text they refer to. Occasionally, he even comments on himself, as when he quotes a fellow annotator of Alice, James Kincaid: "The historical context does not call for a gloss but the passage provides an opportunity to point out the ambivalence that may attend the central figure and her desire to grow up." And then follows with a charming riposte: "I thank Mr. Kincaid for supporting my own rambling." There's a lot of information in the margins (indeed, the page is pretty evenly divided between Carroll's text and Gardner's), but the ramblings turn out to be well worth the time. So hand over your old copy of Lewis Carroll's classic to the kids--this Alice in Wonderland is intended entirely for adults. --Alix Wilber

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Genius takes on genius
Review: I grew up reading Martin Gardner in Scientific American, and although I didn't get interested in Lewis Carroll until I saw the original "Alice" manuscript in a display at the British Library, I've been a fan of children's stories all my life. Having Gardner expound Carroll is (dare I say it?) pure genius. I have a number of annotated works, but I think this is the only one where the notations come close to outweighing the actual text being explained. That goes to show not only how deep the rabbit hole goes, but how much deeper someone like Gardner can dig, and how many rewards can be granted by the author who invites his readers to dig deeper. As I've noted in my other reviews of these annotated works, this one is very attractive on the shelf, easy on the eyes, and thoroughly enjoyable. Pick this up and start throwing out expressions, like, "If you don't jabberwock, I'l smack you in the lobster quadrille!"

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Beneath the Rabbit Hole
Review: If you really want to go beyond the "children's story" side of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There", this is an excellent resource. With the help of the notes, the "nonsense" of this tale makes more sense. And you get all that along with reproductions of John Tenniel's fantastic illustrations, including a section in the back with his preparatory pencil sketches. Buy it, and smile like the Cheshire Cat.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson... the master of sublime nonsense.
Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, along with its sequel, Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there, where done by a person ahead of his time. His name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, pen name, Lewis Carroll.
Both are in this modified annotated version combined with the original illustrations by John Tenniel, but not only that, also have the suppressed episode "The Wasp in a wig" in Through the looking glass. Intended for children, this particular book will delight adults as well because it has annotations and information making this even more enjoyable. The information and comments given mostly by Carroll's biographers/scholars/researchers help you understand the meanings behind the puns, word plays, poems, conversation and situations going on behind Carroll's mind (though nobody knows in fact the purpose of the author's intentions, but the annotations or comments were made by hard research or extracted from the author's original manuscript, so they are quite accurate). Mind that this is very useful because most of AAIW and TTLG were made from private jokes, puns, word plays and Victorian manners that not all people knows about. Some were made for England native people, and even further, only friends and collegues of Carroll can understand them. This books are the essence of imagination and fantasy, opening doors to a LOT of authors that in some way or the other included in their works some of Carroll's ideas/themes... so having explanations alongside the story will definately help you to have a better grasp of such masterpiece that had transcended over the centuries.
This book is the one to go, unless another updated version comes along. It has everything you want... both books included with explanations and Tenniel's illustrations... it can't get better than that! :-).
Oh!... btw... handle with care. The book is a bit fragile, specially the dust cover jacket.

~ Life, what is it but a dream~

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Down the Rabbit Hole with (a) Gardner
Review: Ever wondered what the originals for the song parodies in the "Alice" books are? Or what famous person the rabbit, dutchess, or lion are supposed to look like in Tenniel's famous illustrations? Or why the dormouse is stuffed down the tea kettle? This--and much, much more--is answered in Gardner's wonderful book.

Gardner gives us the context--usually the Victorian proverb, song, person or mannerism needed to undestand the joke (or the illustration), or else the chess, boating, Latin, or logical term needed for the same purpose. (Victorian children kept a dormice in old tea kettle as pets.) He also gives us rough drafts of particularly striking or famous poems and illustrations from "Alice" (i.e., "Jabberwocky"), the lost "Wasp in the Wig" chapter cut out of "Through the Looking Glass", and much interesting biographical information about Carroll and Tenniel.

Gardner doesn't promote some lit-crit theory concerning Alice's alleged feminism, or pretends to write a history of Victorian England or a biography of Carroll. His goal is simply to make the reader enjoy "Alice" more by explaining the numerous jokes and references they previously (almost) certainly missed, or telling the reader more about the men who create "Alice" and how they came to do so.

In this he succeeds beyond all expectations. Though you've been reading and re-reading "Alice" for years, Gardner will show you there is a *lot* in it you never imagined existed. He achieves the annotator's supreme goal of making the book new again.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Wonderful
Review: I bought this to read with my 7yr old daughter, figuring it would entertain us both, and it has. Even if you've only a passing interest in why hatters would be mad in Victorian England (mercury poisoning), or answers to the many riddles Carroll poses, this book will have you reading footnote after footnote, and give new pleasure and insight into the books.

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