CHAPTER 1
The identified works of nine historical artists and two contemporary artists are featured.
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Alice In Wonderland The Making of Alice In Wonderland Table of Contents: |
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Alice's Adventures
In Wonderland |
 Image: Lewis Carroll |
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?' |
 Image: Bessie Pease Gutmann, 1907 |
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her. There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural). |
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But when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF
ITS WAISTCOAT- POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice
started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had
never before see a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch
to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the
field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down
a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. |
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The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel
for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had
not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling
down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly,
for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder
what was going to happen next.
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First, she tried to look down and make out what
she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she
looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled
with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and
pictures hung upon pegs.
`Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.) |
.Down,
_______down,
_____________down.
Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen
by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near
the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down,
I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort
in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity
for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still
it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but
then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no
idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice
grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
| Down, _____down, _________down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?'
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And here Alice began to get rather sleepy,
and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat
bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?' for,
you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which
way she put it.
She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to
dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very
earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when
suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves,
and the fall was over.
| Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. |  Image: Sir John Tenniel - 1865 |
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There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned to corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. |
 Image: Sir John Tenniel - 1865 |
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.
 Image: Lewis Carroll |
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. |
 Image: Sir John Tenniel - 1865 |
However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! |
Alice opened the door and found that it led
into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and
looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she
longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of
bright flowers and those cool fountains, but
she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if my head
would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of very little
use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope!
I think I could, if I only know how to begin.' For, you see, so many
out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think
that very few things indeed were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting
by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she
might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting
people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on
it, (`which certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round
the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words 
beautifully printed on it in large letters. |
 Image: Sir John Tenniel - 1865 1890 Nursery Version |
It was all very well to say `Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. `No, I'll look first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if your hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked `poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
However, this bottle was NOT marked `poison,' so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.
`What a curious feeling!' said Alice; `I must be shutting up like a telescope.'
And so it was indeed: she was now only ten
inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now
the right size for going though the little door into that lovely garden.
First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to
shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; `for it might
end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my going out altogether,
like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?' And she tried to
fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out,
for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.
 Image: Lewis Carroll |
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found he had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried. |
`Come, there's no use in crying like that!'
said Alice to herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this
minute!' She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very
seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to
bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered
trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet
she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of
pretending to be two people. `But it's no use now,' thought poor
Alice, `to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me
left to make ONE respectable
person!'
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that
was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake,
on which the words 
were
beautifully marked in currants. `Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice,
`and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes
me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into
the garden, and I don't care which happens!'
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously
to herself, `Which way? Which way?', holding her hand on the top
of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised
to find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this generally happens
when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the
way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed
quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
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