by Rebecca Reed, CRM Executive.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865 by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll. Three years before this date Charles rowed a boat up the Isis on the 4th July 1862 with Reverend Robinson Duckworth, Lorina Charlotte Liddell, Alice Pleasance Liddell and Edith Mary Liddell. During this trip, Dodgson told the girls a story that featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure. All the girls loved it and Alice asked Charles to write it down for her. He began writing the manuscript for the story the very next day although the earliest draft no longer exists.

To add to the finishing touches of the story, Charles Dodgson researched natural history for the animals presented in the book. He added his own illustrations but approached John Tenniel to illustrate the book for publication.

On November 1864, Lewis Carroll gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground with illustrations by himself and dedicating it as “A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer’s Day”.  Before Alice received her copy, he was already preparing it for publication and expanded the 15500-word original to 27500 words, most notably adding in the chapters about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party.

The characters all reference people in Charles Dodgson’s life.

• Alice was Alice Liddell.
• Carroll himself is caricatured as the Dodo.
• The Lory and Eaglet refer to Alice Liddell’s sisters Lorina and Edith.

We love Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland. do you have a favourite character in this story? Tell us below.