Aliciae Per Speculum Transitus

Aliciae Per Speculum Transitus (Quaeque Ibi Invenit), by Ludovici Carroll (Lewis Carroll).

Librum picturis ornavit Sir John Tenniel.

Translated by Clive Harcourt Carruthers.

Published by Macmillan, 1966 (same year as me). Hardback first edition with dustjacket.

I also own a latin Alice in Wonderland from the same translator: both of them are nice quality books, pleasant to hold and flick through, and it’s interesting trying to work out bits of the language (I did two years of Latin at school back in the 1980s, so don’t remember much…)

Available on Amazon: Aliciae per speculum transitus

alice through the looking glass: 1872 edition

Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

50 illustrations by John Tenniel. Red hardcover with gilt trim and all page edges gilt. Published by Macmillan & Co. 1872. Twenty first thousand. (First edition but later printing). Publisher’s advertisements at the back.

It’s surprising how reasonably you can pick up early Looking Glass printings. There are several of these on abebooks for around the 25-30 quid mark. You wouldn’t get a Wonderland for that…

Having said that, this is very precious to me- it’s my oldest book and was given as an anonymous Christmas present. Although I have a shrewd idea who from…

Alicia in Terra Mirabili

Alicia in Terra Mirabili by Lewis Carroll, illustrations by Tenniel. Translated by Clive Harcourt Carruthers. Published by Macmillan, 1964.
Hardback with dustjacket. 8vo. First Edition.

Not much i can say about this one, really. It’s Alice. In Latin. Have an excerpt.

‘NECOPINATIUS, etiam necopinatius!’ inquit Alicia. (Tantum stupebat ut ad praesens facultas recte loquendi eam omnino desereret.)

‘Distendor nunc velut maximum omnium telescopium! Pedes, valete!’
(Cum enim pedes suos despiceret, tam procul esse videbantur ut vix in conspectu essent.)
‘Ei! Pedes miselli, quisnam vobis dehinc induet soleas et tibialia, deliciae? Certum est me non posse! Procul ero multo magis quam ut vos curem. Res vobis gerendae erunt quam bene poteritis.’
‘Sed benevola eis esse debeo,’ secum reputabat Alicia, ‘aut forte non in cedent quo modo ego ire volam! Quid enim? Soleas novas semper Saturnalibus eis dabo.’

Et usque cogitabat quomodo id efficeret.

‘Soleas oportet a gerulo apportari; et quam mirum mihi erit dona ad meos ipsius pedes mittere! Quamque inusitate inscribetur fasciculus!

‘Alicia Pedi Suo Dextro S. P. D.,
In Stragulo,
Prope Focum.’

Available on amazon: Alicia in Terra Mirabili , but I think mine was bought on ebay. Generally not too expensive.

There’s a Looking Glass as well: I don’t have that…yet….

alice through the needle’s eye

Alice Through the Needle’s Eye: A Third Adventure for Lewis Carroll’s Alice by Gilbert Adair. Published by Macmillan, 1984. Hardback first edition.

22 illustrations by Jenny Thorne.

Alice is trying to thread a needle by the fire on a snowy afternoon, when she finds herself in an alphabetical land populated by Siamese-Twin Cats (joined at the tail), the Welsh Rabbit (with his toasted cheese), the Kangaroo, the spelling bees, the Italian Hairdresser who uses a small crocodile as a pair of scissors, Jack and Jill, and best of all- the Grampus. It’s fun trying to find all the letters in the right order: this is one of my favourites of the sequels/ rewrites. The pictures are perfect too: I’ll try and get organised and scan some in.

ISBN: 0 333 37361 8

Bought in Hay for £15 to replace a copy given to me by my father, and lost.

Alice Through the Needle’s Eye: A Third Adventure for Lewis Carroll’s Alice

My Old Macmillan Alice

Through the Looking Glass: Carroll and Tenniel.

Published by Macmillan, 1971. Hardback, no dustjacket.

ISBN: 0333078225

Given to me by my Aunt and Uncle in 1973, so it’s been with me quite a while. I know I’d read both Alices before I got this, but it’s the first copy I remember owning. It was two of my bookplates inside: the one I used as a little girl (coincidentally with a picture of Alice on it) and the one I used as a teenager. I obviously wasn’t planning on losing this one.

I’ve coloured in all the illustrations, but rather beautifully, if I do say so myself. I’m unsure as to why I have retraced the dedication in brown felt-tip though. Maybe I was trying to understand how someone else wrote. Understandable, with my blagh handwriting.

Macmillan Alice

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Carroll and Tenniel

Published by Macmillan, 1973 impression.

Hardback with dustjacket: which shows that the book originally cost 80p. For a hardback?! Blimey…

ISBN: 0333066650

Available on Amazon: Alice in Wonderland

Alice’s Pop-up Theatre Book

Alice’s Pop-up Theatre Book, illustrations by Alex Vining, paper engineering by Nick Denchfield. Tenniel pictures on the cover. Text adapted from the original.

Published by Ted Smart/ Macmillan Children’s Books, 2002. First edition hardback pop-up book. Damaged, but repearable.

ISBN: 0333961374

This book contains a pop-up theatre with a book of six pop-up scenes from Alice. The characters are moved about the stage on sticks, like the old penny plain, tuppence coloured Pollocks theatres. But, to be honest, it’s not as beautiful, despite being tied up with a neat little ribbon.

Amazon: Alice’s Pop-up Theatre Book

Alice’s Pop-up Wonderland

Alice’s Pop-up Wonderland.

Published by Ted Smart: Macmillan Childrens Books, 2000.

Illustrations by Tenniel and Alex Vining. Laminated pictorial covers.

There are six pop-up scenes and a heavily abridged text. The covers can be tied open with the attached ribbon to make a 360 degree scene, and a central pop-up also doubles as “the queen’s croquet game”.

ISBN: 0333901134

Mine is a very tatty copy, with some bits missing, but it was 79p in Oxfam, so I can’t complain.

Amazon: Alice’s Pop-up Wonderland

The Wasp in a Wig

The Wasp in a Wig by Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by Ken Leeder after Tenniel. Includes preface, introduction and notes by Martin Gardner.

First edition, published by Macmillan 1977. Hardback with dustjacket.

ISBN: 0 333 23727 7

The ‘lost chapter’ from Looking Glass: probably fits just after the White Knight.

On June 1, 1870, Tenniel wrote to Carroll:

“My Dear Dodgson:
I think that when the jump occurs in the railway scene you might very well make Alice lay hold of the goat’s beard as being the object nearest to her hand – instead of the old lady’s hair. The jerk would actually throw them together.
Don’t think me brutal, but I am bound to say that the ‘wasp’ chapter does not interest me in the least, and I can’t see my way to a picture. If you want to shorten the book, I can’t help thinking – with all submission – that this is your opportunity.
In an agony of haste,
Yours sincerely,
J. Tenniel”

The advice was accepted and the wasp was cut, and not seen again until 1974 when Sotheby’s sold six ‘slips’, or galleys, with revisions in Dodgson’s own hand, and the note, also in his hand, asking the printer to remove the episode from the book.

Available on amazon: The Wasp in a Wig: A ‘Suppressed’ Episode of Through the Looking-Glass

Bought in Cecil Court.

The Nursery “Alice” (Facsimile Classics Series)

The Nursery “Alice” by Lewis Carroll.

Published by Macmillan Children’s Books

ISBN: 0333273869

The Nursery “Alice” is a shortened version of Alice, specially adapted by the author for children “from nought to five”, and with twenty of Tenniel’s illustrations which have been coloured to give a more picture-booky feel.

It was first published in 1890 by Macmillan, 25 years after the original and featured a new cover illustrated by E. Gertrude Thomson, which this copy does have, unlike my other Nursery Alice.

You can read the whole text here.

“Oh dear,  oh dear!”  said the Rabbit.  “I shall be too late !”   What would it be too late for,  I wonder ?   Well,  you see,  it had to go and visit the Duchess (you’ll see a picture of the Duchess,  soon,  sitting in her kitchen):  and the Duchess was a very cross old lady:  and the Rabbit knew she’d be very angry indeed if he kept her waiting.   So the poor thing was as frightened as frightened could be (Don’t you see how he’s trembling ?   Just shake the book a little,  from side to side,  and you’ll soon see him tremble),  because he thought the Duchess would have his head cut off,  for a punishment.   That was what the Queen of Hearts used to do,  when she was angry with people (you’ll see a picture of her,  soon):  at least she used to order their heads to be cut off,  and she always thought it was done,  though they never really did it.

On amazon here:The Nursery Alice (Facsimile Classics Series)