Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: 150th Anniversary Edition - Hardcover

Carroll, Lewis; Dalí, Salvador; Burstein, Mark; Banchoff, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691170029 ISBN 13: 9780691170022

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2015

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of one of the most beloved classics of children's literature, this illustrated edition presents Alice like you've never seen her before. In 1865, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician and Anglican deacon, published a story about a little girl who tumbles down a rabbit hole. Thus was the world first introduced to Alice and her pseudonymous creator, Lewis Carroll. This beautiful new edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland features rarely seen illustrations by Salvador Dali that illuminate the surreal yet curiously logical and mathematical realm into which Alice famously falls. In an informative and wide-ranging introduction, Carroll expert Mark Burstein discusses Dali's connections with Carroll, his treatment of the symbolic figure of Alice, and the mathematical nature of Wonderland. In addition, mathematician Thomas Banchoff reflects on the friendship he shared with Dali and explores the mathematical undercurrents in Dali's work.

Review:

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has continuously delighted readers, young and old, for more than a century. A classic tale that has been interpreted by many an outstanding artist over the years, this remarkable story of one little girl who embarks on possibly one of the most amazing, fantastical adventures in literary history has more than stood the test of time.

Here, in this stunning special edition, Helen Oxenbury, one of the most exceptional contemporary children's illustrators, turns her hand to what is certainly no small project and has succeeded in surpassing expectation. More abundantly illustrated than other editions of the same work, this unabridged version is packed with contemporary and accessible interpretations of the kaleidoscope of characters--the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts--who have each captured the imaginations of generations of children.

Alice herself is portrayed as a thoroughly modern miss--casually dressed, personable, and spirited--and her surroundings are brought to effervescent life with a warmth, depth and distinctive sense of humour that perfectly complements the shenanigans of the topsy-turvy world of Wonderland.

Only 1,000 copies of this limited edition have been published and each one has been numbered and signed by Helen Oxenbury. The perfect life-time gift for any child, this stylish version of Carroll's unforgettable fantasy is ideal for children and adults to treasure forever. (Age 7 and over) --Susan Harrison

Review:

"[The drawings were] originally printed alongside the rise of 1960s psychedelia, we can return to examine the curious collaboration between one of the most prolific 20th-century dreamers and one of the 19th-century's most influential fantasies."---Allison Meier, Hyperallergic

"The hardcover book as a physical object has much to recommend it. Beautifully designed with high-quality paper, it is nonetheless inexpensive enough that parents shouldn't panic at the prospect of thumbprints and spills if they read or give it to their children. A great gift for children, children-at-heart, and lovers of timeless culture, it will earn a proud place by the bedside, on the bookshelf, or on the coffee table right beside the tiny golden key to the garden of your imagination."---Jon Sobel, Blogcritics.org,

"Dali's illustrations have a colourful force of their own. Carroll's Alice anticipated the Surrealist wonderland: dreams and paradoxes, puns and psychoanalysis, distortions of space and time."---Dominic Green, Standpoint

"[This] is the copy of Alice's Adventures you keep after having given all the other celebratory variants away . . . it comes with two very astute and well-illustrated introductions. . . . It is, as the introductions state, as both creators would like to see it--two weird and/or wonderful minds with much in common, harmonizing across the centuries to result in this very handsome modern edition."---John Lloyd, The Bookbag

"An elegant edition."--Art Quarterly

"[S]tunning."---Bill Condie, Cosmos

"Older students, especially those studying art and graphics, might well find much to research in this extraordinary collaboration."---Jane Doonan, School Librarian

"Engaging the text side by side with the artwork yields a myriad of interesting tonal effects in both the words and the pictures. It's an entirely different approach to the notion of illustration. . . . This book succeeds in scratching the itch many admirers of Carroll and Dalí have felt for too long."---Megan Volpert, PopMatters,

"The introduction by Burstein . . . and Thomas Banchoff provides a valuable grounding in [Dalí's] interests and obsessions at the time the gouaches were created."--Library Journal

"[A] stunning 150th-anniversary edition of the classic novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. . . . Dalí's illustrations afford us a glimpse of Wonderland as he sees it, allowing us to better grasp the implications, tropes and symbols the work is pregnant with."---Wan Lixin, Shanghai Daily

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0691170029
• ISBN 13: 9780691170022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 136