Lewis Carroll
England
‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’ is a fairy tale novel popular in England that was written by British author Lewis Carroll. The story focuses on a girl named Alice who fell into a rabbit burrow, which is a gateway to a fantasy world where human-like and peculiar creatures lived.
The novel is more famous for its abbreviated title ‘Alice in Wonderland’. This title was used as a substitute to the original title and was popularised on television, film and stage adaptations. Some versions, however, have jumbled the characters that resulted to confusion about the story.
Lewis Carroll is the pen name used by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He is famous for his imaginative thinking in the field of literature. Some of his fantastic works are ‘Jabberwocky’, ‘The Hunting of the Snark’, and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’, which is the sequel of Alice.
The novel has a captivating story that appeals to many readers, either young or adult. It is narrative in structure and applies the rules in logic. It is made under a literary genre that has been extremely influential to various fantasy and fairy tale movies. There are lot of book, television and movie adaptations that have been influenced by Caroll’s novel. Since 1903, around 22 films were completely and directly adapted from the original tale, including the 2010 upcoming version. The fairy tale is composed of 19 characters, including the principal character, Alice. The supporting characters include Bill the Lizard, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Dodo, Dormouse, Duchess, Duck, Eaglet, Gryphon, King of Hearts, Knave of Hearts, Lory, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Mock Turtle, Mouse, Queen of Hearts, and White Rabbit. The first hard challenge for Alice in the storey is on how to deal with her flamingo, the web-footed wading bird.
The book was first published in 1865. The sequel was made in 1871 and the first Japanese translation was in 1908. In 1960, the special edition entitled ‘The Annotated Alice’ was published by Martin Gardner, an American author. This edition was a blend of the original fairytale and the sequel. Four years after, the Latin version was published entitled ‘Alicia in Terra Mirabili’. In 1998, one of the copies from the first edition was sold for US$1.5 million. It became the most expensive book for children that were sold during that time.
Due to its wide popularity, many lines and word expressions from the tale are famous and ha already been part of the world lingo. For instance, the phrase ‘down the rabbit-hole’ from Chapter 1 is used as a slang term in getting on a strange adventure. Also, ‘rabbit hole’ in computer games refers to the factor that initiates the player to get into the game. On the other hand, ‘going down the rabbit hole’ is a figure of speech for taking hallucinogenic drugs, according to drug terms. Based from the given facts, the fairytale indeed has made a great contribution to the work of art and has provided rich nourishment to the entertainment world.
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