Alternative Alices: Visions and Revisions of Lewis Carroll's Alice Books

Abstract

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) are among the most enduring works in the English language. In the decades following their publication, writers on both sides of the Atlantic produced no fewer than two hundred imitations, revisions, and parodies of Carroll’s fantasies for children. Carolyn Sigler has gathered the most interesting and original of these responses to the Alice books, many of them long out of print. Produced between 1869 and 1930, these works trace the extraordinarily creative, and often critical, response of diverse writers. These writers—male and female, radical and conservative—appropriated Carroll’s structures, motifs, and themes in their Alice-inspired works in order to engage in larger cultural debates. Their stories range from Christina Rossetti’s angry subversion of Alice’s adventures, Speaking Likenesses (1874), to G.E. Farrow's witty fantasy adventure, The Wallypug of Why (1895), to Edward Hope’s hilarious parody of social and political foibles, Alice in the Delighted States (1928). Anyone who has ever followed Alice down the rabbit hole will enjoy the adventures of her literary siblings in the wide Wonderland of the human imagination. A peculiar and intriguing assembly of material that demonstrates the diversity of responses to Lewis Carroll's books. -- AB Bookman's Weekly Sigler collects some jewels of literature by writers as diverse as Christina Rossetti, Frances Hodgson Burnett, E. Nesbit, Saki, and Edward Hope. Some of the pieces smack of Carrollian fantasy more than others, but all belong in this long-needed gathering of rare and sometimes difficult to locate texts. -- Choice A must for all Carrollians who like to have everything and for those of us who do not have all the continuations. This book could be used to start a good debate on Alice imitations. -- Lewis Carroll Review Sigler has collected a group of stories and excerpts that use the ALICE books of Lewis Carroll as a starting point. Some are imitations, some are parodies, some are satires, but all follow the basic 'Alice' model of the fantasy-dream, episodic structure, nonsense language, sudden shifts in identity, appearance and location . . . this is an interesting collection of pieces to have within the covers of one book. -- Library Journal Visions and revisions of Lewis Carroll's Alice books are presented in a study which is recommended for any college-level student of Carroll's influences -- Midwest Book Review This well-conceived anthology reprints generous extracts from notable revisions of Carroll's 'Alice' stories, together with the illustrations accompanying these works. -- Nineteenth-Century Literature Among the 20 selections, written between 1869 and 1930, Sigler finds several gems: delightful homages, determined imitations and devotional sequels to Carroll's works. -- Publishers Weekly This collection demonstrates the chord that Alice struck for Victorian and later writers and the symbolic place it has assumed in popular culture. -- Studies in English Literature

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