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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began as a tale told by Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to three young girlsl (Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell) as the group took a rowing expedition up the Thames River. Enthralled by the story, Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write the story down for her, and he eventually did. In 1865, three years after their initial boat trip, Dodgson published Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Like its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, Alice is a story filled with imagery, symbolism, and unforgettable characters. As the critics in this volume attest, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland had sparked the imagination of countless children and adults alike, and has served as an influence to storyteller the world over. Alice herself is Carroll’s most remarkable creation and is certainly the most memorable seven-year-old girl in all literature. Carroll desires her to remain seven forever, though he cannot control her dynamism or her will to live. But as an artist, Carroll triumphed over the obsessions of Dodgson the man. Wonderland and the Looking-Glass world have immolated time. The two slender volumes of Alice by Lewis Carroll hold a special place in world literatue. The number of critical appreciations of them alone bears witness to this. VIVA MODERN CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS presents the best current criticism on the most widely read and studied poems, novels and dramas of the Western world, from Oedipus Rex and the Iliad to such modern and contemporary works as William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Don Delillo's White Noise. Table Of Contents Introduction A Note on Humpty Dumpty Escape into the Garden Alice in Wonderland: the Child as Swain The Balance of Brillig Through the Looking-glass From "The Character of Dodgson as Revealed in the Writings of Carroll" Poetry Love and Death in Carroll’s Alices Toward a Definition of Alice’s Genre: The Folktale and Fairy-Tale Connections The Unreal Alice Alice’s Identity Introducing Alice Afterthought Chronology Contributors