Concept
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Overview
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (also known as Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a little girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the original edition.
The novel received positive reviews upon release. It has become one of the best-known works of Victorian literature; its narrative, structure, characters, and imagery have had a wide influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. It is credited as helping end an era of didacticism in children's literature, inaugurating an era in which writing for children aimed to "delight or entertain". The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. The titular character, Alice, shares her name with Alice Liddell, a girl Carroll knew; scholars disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her.
The novel has never been out of print and has been translated into 174 languages. Its legacy includes adaptations to screen, radio, visual art, ballet, opera, and musical theatre as well as theme parks, board games, and video games. Carroll published a sequel in 1871 entitled Through the Looking-Glass and a shortened version for young children, The Nursery "Alice", in 1890.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
In real play, amusement is the governing purpose. When the objection to “disordered imagination” is carried over into genuine play, it seems to me to go too far. The same thing applies to the objection to telling children about fairies and giants and witches and magic carpets and so on. I cannot sympathize with the ascetics of truth, any more than with ascetics of other kinds.
Bertrand Russell, Education and the good life
States what Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is.
They have a beginning, middle, and end. In games, rules of order run through various minor acts and bind them into a connected whole. The rhythm, the competition, and cooeperation involved in most plays and games also introduce organization.
John Dewey, How We Think
States what Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is.
The same is true of Kleist's contemporary, Ludwig Tieck, of the amiable Theodor Storm, and of the prolific Paul Heyse. The character, in its peculiar makeup and its peculiar circumstances, presents a problem, and the most significant evidence that its experiences furnish is its reaction upon the outside world. An author who treats this character will, then, dwell fondly upon psychological analysis and upon the…
Theodor Fontane, German Fiction
Close in meaning to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Related ideas
- The Independent
- Macmillan Publishers
- BBC News
- Harvard University Press
- Princeton University Press
- Le Monde
- James Joyce
- Scientism
- Life (magazine)
- The Guardian
- University of Chicago Press
- Martin Gardner
- Nihilism
- Opera
- Victorian literature
- Oscar Wilde
- Indiana University
- Fantasy
- Lewis Carroll
- Vintage Books
- The Beatles
- The New York Times
- Time (magazine)
- University of Texas at Austin
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.
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