Alice for all...

Abstract

Fantasy, memorable, thought provoking, and many other descriptions have been attributed to the story generally called A lice in Wonderland. 150 years since publication, it continues to charm younger readers who hear it for the first time, and also those who recall it from their lost childhood days. Like you and me, actually! It all began with a boat trip that started at Folly Bridge near the centre of Oxford, England, and finished five miles away at Gods tow. Two Church of England Reverends rowed the boat taking the three daughters of the University Vice-Chancellor out for the afternoon. During the trip, believed to have been on Friday 4th July 1862, the Reverend Charles Dodgson told the girls a story he devised concerning a girl called Alice who was looking for an adventure. They loved it, especially 10 year old Alice Pleasance Liddell, who asked Dodgson to write it down for her. He began the very next day, although that earliest version no longer exists. During the next two years he undertook a great deal of research to add realism concerning the animals in the story, and in late November 1864 he gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of A lice s Adventures Under Ground. [excerpt]