Through the Hollow Oak

Through the Hollow Oak: A Book of Nonsense for Children and Older Children: A Fairy Story without any Fairies by Frank Egan.

Illustrated by J.P. Sayer

Published by Denis Archer, 1932.

First edition hardback (green cloth), no dust jacket.

Signed by author and illustrator.

 

Dedicated:

“with profound respect to the memory of Lewis Carroll” 

 

There seems to be a second book: Mary in Beastie Island- published 1933.

Nice use of ‘Herstory’ a long time before RuPaul! 

“‘She,’ said the man, ‘is Queen Anne, and this is her story. So it’s a Herstory book.

Bought in Marchpane, but also available on Amazon.

 

 

Alice’s Adventures Under Water

Alice’s Adventures Under Water by Lenny de Rooy. Illustrated by Robert Louis Black.

Published by Millennyum Publications; 1st edition (23 April 2021)

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9090346155

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9090346151

From the cover notes:

If you enjoyed Lewis Carroll’s books “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There”, this is the book for you! Finally, there is a third story in the ‘Alice’ series – written in Carroll’s familiar style, but packed with a great number of completely new puns, parodies, and poetry.

This time, Alice explores an under-water world, in which she meets new characters who again make her wonder about their strange logic and behaviour.

The story can be enjoyed by everyone, even those who have never read Carroll’s books. However, the more familiar you are with them, the more references you will recognise in this exceptionally clever tale…

Lenny de Rooy is the webmaster of alice-in-wonderland.net and you can buy the book via there or on Amazon.

The book features many new characters for Alice to meet- from goldfish to Goby, Swordfish to Sand fleas and Red Herrings to Haddock. (The latter pair bear a resemblance to two rather more familiar friends…)

All the pictures are great- detailed black and white integrated into the text in a very Tennielish fashion.

Trumpty Dumpty 2: From Mother Goose to Wonderland…

Trumpty Dumpty 2: From Mother Goose to Wonderland… by Michael S. Luzzi

Self published collection of parody poems on an anti-Trumpian theme. Seems a suitable book to add to the site today after the news from the States last night.

ISBN: 1732128316 / 9781732128316

The bumpf: 

The second book in the Trumpty Dumpty series is a rollicking political parody in verse using “Alice In Wonderland” characters to represent Trump and his associates as they go down the rabbit hole masquerading as competent officials who believe they know how to run a country. Meet Jared Kushner as the “compulsive” White Knight with compassion for Alice (Ivanka); Mnuchin’s Cheshire Cat, grins mischievously from a tree because he knows that the not-so-secret of Wonderland is “madness.” Roger Stone acts as the perfect Mad Hatter well-known for being provocative. “Trumpty Dumpty 2: From Mother Goose to Wonderland” works as a primer to help readers understand the bigger picture through Trumpty Dumpty nursery rhymes, limericks, parodies of well-known poems and popular songs, haiku, tributes to late night satirists. A do-it-yourself interactive section is included to complete limericks and poem parodies. Droll and witty rhymes deliver a hard-hitting chronicle of the chaos, which is designed to help the reader navigate the murky waters of the Trump administration and nudge Trumpty off his wall.

The cover shows various Trump allies as Wonderland figures, including:

Putin as the Caterpillar

Ivanka as Alice

Devos as the Duchess

Giuliani as the Carpenter

Pence as the White Rabbit

Eric and Donald Jr as Dum and Dee

The kindest things I can say are that it means well, I agree with the sentiment and I admire anyone who puts in the effort to write.

Available on Amazon, if you really feel you must.

Alitji in the Dreamtime

Alitji in the Dreamtime: a re-telling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland story by Nancy Sheppard using Australian Aborigine language and imagery: the white rabbit has become a kangaroo and the dormouse is now a koala.

The story is told in the Pitjantjatjara language of Central Australia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitjantjatjara) and is back-translated into English alongside.

The illustrations by Byron Sewell are rather beautifully printed in brown ink: far more elegant than black, especially on the grey-brown of the paper.

Published in 1975 by the University of Adelaide, and available from various sellers on Amazon: Alitji on Amazon

More equivalences:

• the fan becomes a woomera
• the caterpillar becomes a witchety grub
• the Duchess becomes the Spirit of the North Wind
• the Mad Hatter and the March Hare become a Stockman and a Horse
• Croquet is played with storks and echindnas

I think this is one of my favourite alternative Alice stories: the tale is well told, the rhymes and verses stand up well and the illustrations are beautiful. It works well as a book on its own merits, and it adds dimensions to the original story. Recommended.

Janice in Tomorrow-Land

Janice in Tomorrow-Land by Emory Holloway.

Published by American Book Company, 1936.

First Edition hardback, no dustjacket.

I’m not sure who the illustrations are by, but they’re wonderful- real 1930s style idea of the future. The first picture in the book includes a stained glass window with a depiction of Alice and the White Rabbit. It’s through this window that she meets ‘Mr Merlin’, who takes her on a number of adventures…

Emory Holloway (1885 -1977) was best known for books and studies of Walt Whitman.

You can find this on Amazon: Janice in Tomorrow-Land, but it’s generally pretty scarce and certainly rather expensive.

I couldn’t resist scanning in several of the illustrations:

Oedipus in Disneyland

Oedipus in Disneyland: Queen Victoria’s reincarnation as Superman by Hercules Molloy.

Published by Paranoid Press, 1972.

Paperback.

I can’t pretend I’ve read this- I only bought it yesterday after all- but on skimming it seems to be a (badly written) cross between a Freudian nightmare and a Foucault’s Pendulum conspiracy theory horror story.

I’ve found a couple of reviews on-line- one from Angtime:

But nothing, nothing, nothing in the world will mess your head up more than “Oedipus in Disneyland” by Hercules Molloy. I have a first edition, for the simple fact that it never made it to a second. The title, snappy as it is, gives one only a small glimpse as to its range. The subtitle: “Queen Victoria’s reincarnation as Superman”, while also intriguing, is likewise only part of the tale. What will melt your mind is Clark Kent, unaware of his destiny, sitting alone in a Mexican jail cell, reading “Alice in Wonderland” and providing a subtextual play-by-play. Copies are hard to come by, not surprisingly, but a google search turned up one review that began with the words “It is positively disgusting….” And one webpage that just had some keywords: Classics-Alice-Wonderland-Kent-Clark-Dirty-Sex-Superman-Bad-Words which I think surmises it pretty well.

…and one from the International Journal of Social Psychiatry:

There’s also an amusing review/article here.

I think I’ll stick to skimming it!

Available via Amazon: Oedipus in Disneyland

Alice and the Space Telescope

Alice and the Space Telescope by Malcolm Longair, with forward by Nobel Prizewinner Riccardo Giacconi. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

4to hardcover with dustjacket. First edition.

ISBN: 0-8018-2831-7

The book explains and discusses some of the things going on in astrophysics from the time of the launch of the Hubble telescope, and yet still manages to be funny at the same time.

It makes me think of The Big Bang Theory. I wonder what Sheldon would make of it?

There’s also a rewrite of Jabberwocky, which is always good value… even if the scansion is a little off…

Twas brillig and the slithy toves/Brought plans of telescopes fair to see./ The Jabberwock, he clapped his hands/And said, ‘That’s just for me.

Loads of pictures- some of Tenniel’s, various graphs and scientific diagrams, and photos.

Available via amazon: Alice and the Space Telescope, but mine was a present. Thanks Iain!

Theresa Maybe in Brexitland

Theresa Maybe in Brexitland by Madeleina Kay.

With illustrations by the author.

Published by Alba White Wolf (24 Mar. 2017).

Financed by a Crowdfunder campaign with the tag…

To print copies of ‘Theresa Maybe’s Adventures in Brexitland’ an illustrated work of political satire, to send out to backers and to MPs.

…the writer managed to raise £2,076 in 42 days, and published the book shortly after.

Production description:

This beautifully illustrated book been successfully crowdfunded by Remain campaigners and sent to MPs. A satirical parody of Alice in Wonderland that paints the nonsense of Brexit Britain in all its shades of absurdity. On 23rd June Theresa Maybe was bored of lying on her bench on the Commons and looking at dull immigration policy documents without any pictures in! So she decided to let Dave the pet rabbit out of his hutch and followed him down the Brexit hole into Brexitland. They play an absurd game with no rules called the EU Referendum and Theresa Maybe wins “the Brexit” which she carries around Brexitland trying to work out what it is. She encounters all sorts of bizarre characters, including; The Corbynpillar, Tweedle Boris and Tweedle Johnson, The Hallamshire Cat, Dumpty Trumpty, Farage the Mad Hatter and the Nutty March Hare. Will she be able to decide, once and for all, what the Brexit actually is? And will she find anyone who is talking any sense? There is only one way to find out….

Interesting to compare this one with Alice in Brexitland: many of the politician/character choices are the same: Corbyn as Caterpillar, Cameron as White Rabbit, Boris as either one or both of the Tweedle twins, Trumpty Dumpty- but Farage is here the Hatter rather than the Cheshire Twat, instead we find the Hallamshire cat sporting a fetching yellow tie…

Available from Amazon.

Dame Alice’s Adventure in Nowonderland

Dame Alice’s Adventure in Nowonderland:  Some Notes for a Nightmare by Meander. 

With ten illustrations by George Campbell.

Hardback: 35 pages, marbled boards with pink paper label to front cover.

Published 1946, Diemer and Reynolds, Bedford. First (and only) edition.

Satirical journey around the town of Bedford, featuring three of Bedford’s most famous sons: Sir William Harpur (and his wife Alice), John Bunyan, and John Howard.

 

 

Alice in Brexitland

Alice in Brexitland by Leavis Carroll (or Lucien Young).

Illustrated by Ollie Mann.

Published by Ebury Press;  hardback first edition (1 Jun. 2017).

• ISBN-10: 1785036963
• ISBN-13: 978-1785036965

Lucien Young is an actor and writer, known for Fried and Murder in Successville. On this book, he has said:

“It’s been a delight getting the chance to balance the absurdity of modern British politics with the relative sanity of Lewis Carroll. I’m excited for people to read the book and, if its release should happen to bring down the government, this will all have been worthwhile.”

From the publisher’s blurb:

Lying on a riverbank on a lazy summer’s afternoon – 23rd June 2016, to be precise – Alice spots a flustered-looking white rabbit called Dave calling for a referendum. Following him down a rabbit-hole, she emerges into a strange new land, where up is down, black is white, experts are fools and fools are experts…

She meets such characters as the Corbynpillar, who sits on a toadstool smoking his hookah and being no help to anyone; Humpty Trumpty, perched on a wall he wants the Mexicans to pay for; the Cheshire Twat, who likes to disappear leaving only his grin, a pint, and the smell of scotch eggs remaining; and the terrifying Queen of Heartlessness, who’ll take off your head if you dare question her plan for Brexit. Will Alice ever be able to find anyone who speaks sense?

Political parody, with transformed Carrolian characters such as Dave the Camerarabbit, Farage- the ‘inanely grinning Cheshire Twat’, the Corbynpillar, Theresa May- the ‘Queen of Heartlessness’,  Boris and Michael as “Tweedleboz and Tweedlegove” (‘one has a deranged mop of blond hair; the other looked like a duck who had just won a prize’) and  Trumpty Dumpty. Alice just can’t decide if she agrees with the views expressed in the Daily Murdoch or The Gordian…

Very much in the long tradition of Alice political parodies such as Through a Peerglass and Clara in Blunderland.

Ollie Mann’s illustrations are in the style of the original Tenniels, but are recognisable as the political persons in question.

Available on Amazon in hardback or kindle editions.