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Book review: Alice Through the Looking-Glass: A Companion

An interdisciplinary study of Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there” has just been published! This book consists of many essays by different authors, hoping to shine a light on Carroll’s oft-neglected sequel from their own perspective. I had the privilege to receive a review copy from the publisher, so I will give you my thoughts on this new publication.

After the Through the Looking Glass Sesquicentenary Conference that took place in 2021 in York (UK), a call for papers went out for a ‘companion’ publication to “Through the Looking-Glass”. Just as the conference had covered a broad range of aspects of the ‘Looking-Glass’ story, this companion’s objective would be to reflect the breadth of themes in the story, its cultural and adaptation history, and its ongoing relevance today.

It took several years, but the results of that call for papers have now finally been published in “Alice Through the Looking-Glass: A Companion”, edited by Franziska Kohlt and Justine Houyaux. The book consists of an impressive 516 pages and contains no less than 38 essays by 42 authors!

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Book review: “Alice Through The Smartphone – How Safe Is The Internet Wonderland?”

Author Russell Jeanes was so kind as to send me a digital copy of his new tale “Alice Through The Smartphone”. I’ve written a review for anyone who may be interested in this book, which is mainly aimed at primary school teachers and parents who want to teach their smartphone-craving children how to use them responsible.

Cover of Alice Throug The Smartphone

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Alice’s Day 2024

This year’s Alice’s Day will be held on the 6th of July in Oxford – and I have been invited to give one of the talks for the Lewis Carroll Society!

Each year around the 4th of July (the day the Wonderland story arose), Alice’s Day is held in Oxford, UK. The whole city celebrates all things Alice in Wonderland, with many activities for both children and adults. On Saturday 6 July 2024 there will be another celebration, and this year’s theme is ‘Fabulous Monsters and Curious Creatures’. Dressing up is highly encouraged!

Activities include playing croquet, making a giant Jabberwock sculpture, Wonderland facepainting, performances, exhibitions, walks, and much more.

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Exhibition and sale: prints from the original wood blocks

In the UK there is currently an exhibition of Alice in Wonderland illustrations printed directly from the original wood blocks. They are also for sale.

To be able to print John Tenniel’s illustrations, his illustrations were engraved in wood blocks. To avoid wear of these precious wood blocks, they were not used for the actual printing, but as masters from which electrotype copies would be made. (You can read more about this process on my website). The use of electrotypes does result in a slight loss of definition.

In 1981 the original wood engraved blocks were discovered in deed boxes belonging to Macmillan, the original publishers. Jonathan Stephenson at the Rocket Press subsequently printed 250 sets from these blocks – the first and last time that they were used for actual printing.

These prints, for both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there, are now exhibited in Adam’s Gallery. You can buy individual prints, as well as complete sets of all engravings in their original boxes.

woodblock prints exhibition

Date: 4th April to 26th May 2024
Location: Adam’s Gallery, Reigate, UK
More information
: https://www.adamsgallery.co.uk/alice-in-wonderland

Summer course: Lewis Carroll’s Oxford and the Surprising Histories of Alice’s Wonderland

The University of Oxford offers a course about Lewis Carroll and his ‘Alice’ books this summer.

The course will explore Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”, their origins in Oxford – town and gown, architecture, personalities, hidden histories and controversies. It will also cast a look beyond Oxford, to Alice’s further adventures in art and popular culture, science and politics and, finally, take a fresh look at the question of why, 150 years later, Alice is still so fascinating to us.

The course is part of the University of Oxford’s “Inspiring Oxford” summer school and is taught by dr. Franziska Kohlt, a well-known Lewis Carroll scholar.

Date: 14 to 20 July 2024
Location: Oxford, UK
Costs: from £1970
Registration: between 30 January and 1 May. (Don’t wait too long; this course fills up quickly!)
More information: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/lewis-carrolls-oxford-and-the-surprising-histories-of-alices-wonderland 

New book: “Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The English Language Editions of the Four Alice Books Published Worldwide”

A bibliography of all English language editions of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there”, “Alice’s Adventures under Ground”, and “The Nursery ‘Alice’” has just been published!

In 2015, after years of work and with contributions from many Carrollians (including me), the three volume publication “Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The Translations of Lewis Carroll’s Masterpiece” was published: an overview of all translations of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there” ever published around the world, supplemented with various interesting essays about the works and their translations. A very useful reference work and a wonderful example of what a community can achieve.

Since visitors of my website regularly contact me asking whether I can tell them more about an old edition of an ‘Alice’ book that they have in their possession, I then wondered whether an overview of all English-language editions in the world might also exist. So I asked Jon Lindseth, the project leader of “Alice in a World of Wonderlands”, if he was aware of the existence of such a list. My question apparently stimulated him, because instead of just answering “No, there isn’t one”, he decided to turn this into another project! To make not only an inventory of all English editions of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there”, but also of “Alice’s Adventures under Ground” and “The Nursery ‘Alice’”. And I was assigned the task of cataloging all the English-language editions of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” that had been released in all non-English-speaking countries of the world.

The project took 7 years, but I’m happy and honoured to now be able to present to you: the two volumes of “Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The English Language Editions of the Four Alice Books Published Worldwide”!

The two volumes of "Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The English Language Editions of the Four Alice Books Published Worldwide"

The two volumes of “Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The English Language Editions of the Four Alice Books Published Worldwide”

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