The Complete Alice in Wonderland (65 page)

November 23, 1874:
By this time, Carroll has Henry Holiday completing illustrations for
The Hunting of the Snark
.

November 7, 1875:
Carroll writes a letter to Mrs. Chataway, explaining the relation of
The Hunting of the Snark
to the island of the Jabberwock.

Christmas, 1875:
Carroll publishes
The Hunting of the Snark
.

February to April, 1876:
Macmillan publishes Carroll’s epic nonsense poem,
The Hunting of the Snark
.

April, 1876:
The Hunting of the Snark
causes confusion and much speculation, and receives mixed reviews.

1878:
The forty-fifth thousand of
Through the Looking-Glass
is published.

1879:
The last edition of
Through the Looking-Glass
to be published in Carroll’s lifetime is released, reflecting his final revisions.

August 18, 1884:
Carroll writes a letter explaining some of the meaning (or lack thereof!) in
The Hunting of the Snark
.

March 1, 1885:
Carroll writes to Alice Hargreaves, requesting her permission to borrow, review and publish the manuscript of
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
.

March 29, 1885:
Carroll mentions in his diary that John Tenniel is busy coloring his own illustrations, for use in the future
Nursery “Alice”.
(Due to some text released by Macmillan, it is more likely that another person performs the coloration, overseen by Tenniel.)

December, 1886:
Carroll writes the preface for
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
, and the book is published (December 22).

December 23, 1886:
The stage version of Henry Savile Clarke’s “Dream Play,” “Alice in Wonderland,” premieres at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Christmas, 1886:
Carroll writes the Preface to the Seventy-Ninth Thousand of
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
. (In other words, the book by this time has sold 79,000 copies)

Early 1887:
Henry Savile Clarke’s play version of “Alice in Wonderland” is published (dated 1886).

April, 1887:
Carroll publishes his article “‘Alice’ on the Stage,” which includes a number of insights into the stories and their creation.

1887:
Carroll writes a letter explaining the initial idea for
The Hunting of the Snark
.

December 28, 1888:
Carroll begins revising
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
to create
The Nursery “Alice.”

February 20, 1889:
Carroll completes the manuscript of
The Nursery “Alice”
and sends it on to Macmillan for consideration.

1889:
Printing difficulties delay the release of
The Nursery “Alice”
in England. (Those copies which Carroll deems inferior are sent to America for sale. Other copies are likely donated to children’s hospitals.)

Easter, 1890:
Carroll writes the preface to
The Nursery “Alice,”
and the book is published by Macmillan.

December 29, 1893:
A Boojum is briefly mentioned in Carroll’s oft-forgotten book,
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
.

Christmas, 1896:
Carroll writes the Preface to the Eighty-Sixth Thousand of
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
.

January 14, 1898:
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Lewis Carroll, dies of pneumonia.

April 3, 1928:
The original manuscript of
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
is sold in a Sotheby’s auction for the unheard-of sum of ₤15,400.

1932:
At the age of 80, Alice publishes her “memoirs” by way of her son, Caryl Hargreaves.

November 15, 1934:
Alice Pleasance Liddell dies.

1960:
Martin Gardner publishes
The Annotated Alice
, a landmark in the field of Alice and Carrollian studies.

July, 1974:
A Sotheby’s auction results in the sale of several galley proofs of
Through the Looking-Glass
, which include the long-lost Wasp in a Wig chapter.

1977:
The Wasp in a Wig chapter of
Through the Looking-Glass
is published for the first time.

Christmas, 2010:
The Complete Alice in Wonderland
is published.

(NOTE: The following two brief pieces may be of further interest to the devoted Alice reader.)

NOVEMBER 1888

Skene brought, as his guest, Mr. Hargreaves, the husband of “Alice,” who was a stranger to me, though we had met, years ago, as pupil and lecturer. It was not easy to link in one’s mind’s eye the new face with the once-so-intimately-known and loved “Alice,” whom I shall always remember best as an entirely fascinating little seven-year-old maiden.

CHRIST CHURCH, Oxford

December 8, 1891

My Dear Mrs. Hargreaves,

I should be so glad if you could, quite conveniently to yourself, look in for tea any day. You would probably prefer to bring a companion: but I must leave the choice to you, only remarking that if your husband is here he would be (most) very welcome. (I crossed out “most” because it’s ambiguous; most words are, I fear.) I met him in our Common Room not long ago. It was hard to realise that he was the husband of one I can scarcely picture to myself, even now, as more than 7 years old!

Always sincerely yours,

C. L. Dodgson

(P.S.)
 
Your adventures have had a marvellous success. I have now sold well over 100,000 copies.

(Sadly, Alice was not able to meet with Lewis Carroll for tea this one last time. But she did visit the elderly gentleman, along with her sister Rhoda. What they spoke of will never be known. It was the last time they ever met.)

THROUGHOUT THE “Alice” stories, Carroll pokes fun at various poems, songs and nursery rhymes that were popular in the 1800s. Unfortunately, 150 years after the fact, some of these jokes are so obscure that they no longer have any meaning. It is for this reason (and for the interest of the studious reader) that the original, parodies works are included here in their entirety.

The works (and excerpts of works) which appear here are as follows:

“Against Idleness and Mischief,” by Isaac Watts:
Parodied as “How Doth the Little Crocodile.”

“Alice Gray,” by William Mee:
Parodied as “Alice’s Evidence,” or, “She’s All My Fancy Painted Him.”

“Bonnie Dundee,” by Sir Walter Scott:
Parodied as “To the Looking-Glass World.”

“The Dream of Eugene Aram,” by Thomas Hood:
Parodied as “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”

“Humpty Dumpty,” attributed to Mother Goose:
Alluded to in
Through the Looking-Glass
.

“Hush-a-by Baby,” or, “Rock-a-by Baby,” attributed to Mother Goose:
Parodied as “Hush-a-by Lady.”

“The Lion and the Unicorn,” attributed to Mother Goose:
Alluded to in
Through the Looking-Glass
.

“My Heart and Lute,” by Thomas Moore:
Parodied as “Upon the Lonely Moor,” or, “The Aged, Aged Man.”

“The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them,”
by Robert Southey: Parodies as “You Are Old, Father William.”

“Resolution and Independence,” by Wordsworth:
Parodied as “Upon the Lonely Moor,” or, “The Aged, Aged Man.”

“Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” Anonymous:
Alluded to in the closing poem of
Through the Looking-Glass
.

“Sally Come Up,” Anonymous:
Parodied as “Salmon Come Up.”

“The Sluggard,” by Isaac Watts:
Parodied as “’Tis the Voice of the Lobster.”

“Speak Gently,” by G. W. Langford:
Parodied as “Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy.”

“The Spider and the Fly,” by Mary Howitt:
Parodied as “The Lobster Quadrille,” or, “Will You Walk a Little Faster.”

“The Star,” by Jane Taylor:
Parodied as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat.”

“Star of the Evening,” by James M. Sayle:
Parodied as “Turtle Soup,” or, “Beautiful Soup.”

“Summer Days,” by Marks Wilks Call:
Parodied as “In Winter, When the Fields Are White,” or “Humpty Dumpty’s Poem.”

“The Tarts,” attributed to Mother Goose:
Parodied as “The Tarts,” or, “The Queen of Hearts.”

“Tweedledum and Tweedledee,” attributed to Mother Goose:
Alluded to in
Through the Looking-Glass
.

by Isaac Watts

How doth the little busy bee

Improve each shining hour,

And gather honey all the day

From every opening flower!

How skillfully she builds her cell!

How neat she spreads the wax!

And labours hard to store it well

With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill,

I would be busy too;

For Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,

Let my first years be passed,

That I may give for every day

Some good account at last.

by William Mee

She’s all my fancy painted her, she’s lovely, she’s divine,

But her heart it is another’s, she never can be mine.

Yet loved I as man never loved, a love without decay,

Oh, my heart, my heart is breaking for the love of Alice Gray.

Her dark brown hair is braided o’er a brow of spotless white,

Her soft blue eye now languishes, now flashes with delight;

Her hair is braided not for me, the eye is turned away,

Yet my heart, my heart is breaking for the love of Alice Gray.

I’ve sunk beneath the summer’s sun, and trembled in the blast.

But my pilgrimage is nearly done, the weary conflict’s past;

And when the green sod wraps my grave, may pity haply say,

Oh, his heart, his heart is broken for the love of Alice Gray!

by Sir Walter Scott

To the Lords of Convention ’twas Claver’se who spoke,

“Ere the King’s crown shall fall there are crowns to be broke;