A New Alice in the Old Wonderland

Last updated
A New Alice in the Old Wonderland
New-alice-lippincott-1895.jpg
Cover of the first edition
Author Anna M. Richards
Illustrator Anna M. Richards, Jr.
CountryUnited States
Genre Fantasy novel
Publisher J. B. Lippincott
Publication date
October 1895
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages309
OCLC 531268
LC Class PZ8.R363 Ne [1]

A New Alice in the Old Wonderland is a fantasy novel written by Anna M. Richards, illustrated by Anna M. Richards Jr., and published in 1895 by J. B. Lippincott of Philadelphia. According to Carolyn Sigler, it is one of the more important "Alice imitations", or novels inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice books. [2]

Contents

A New Alice features Alice Lee, an American girl with a coincidental name, visiting Wonderland and meeting all the characters she knows from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). It is illustrated with 67 drawings by the writer's daughter, closely "after" the originals by John Tenniel.

The Preface, pp. 5–6 in the first edition, is illustrated by a drawing of three children and signed "A. M. R., Sr." A rhyming poem in four stanzas, it indicates that the story originated years ago when "unreasonable children three" would accept nothing but the Wonderland of Alice. Evidently Anna M. Richards was the mother, who gave them more of what they knew and loved. Now grown up, one of them made the pictures. With apology to Tenniel and Carroll ("We're not original, nor wise, nor witty"), they plead for mercy from the Critic. [3]

Cover of a recent edition (Evertype Publishing, 2009) New-alice.png
Cover of a recent edition (Evertype Publishing, 2009)

The 2009 Evertype edition credits mother and daughter under their full names Alice Matlack Richards (1835–1900) and Anna Richards Brewster. Brewster, whose given middle name was Mary, not Matlack, became a renowned artist under her married name.

According to Carolyn Sigler, Anna Matlack was already known as a poet and playwright before she married William Trost Richards in 1856, age 20 or 21. They had eight children. In the 1890s she wrote comic poems that were published in American children's magazines. A New Alice was "an expanded version of the stories she had invented for her young children, to whom the novel is dedicated, about their favorite storybook world." A second edition was published in 1896. Sigler interpolates, "Alice Lee—Richards's protagonist as well as her daughter, who is fictionalized in the text". (Sigler, 1996, pp. 56–57).

Bibliography

Publication history

There are multiple new editions since 2009.

About A New Alice

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Tenniel</span> British illustrator and cartoonist (1820–1914)

Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knighted for artistic achievements in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jabberwocky</span> 1855 and 1871 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The book tells of Alice's adventures within the back-to-front world of Looking-glass world.

The Annotated Alice is a 1960 book by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel. It has extensive annotations explaining the contemporary references, mathematical concepts, word play, and Victorian traditions featured in the two books.

<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i> 1865 childrens novel by Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at Oxford University. It details the story of a young 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 book.

Alice (<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i>) Character from childrens novel

Alice is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A child in the mid-Victorian era, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into an alternative world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Liddell</span> Basis of the character in "Alice in Wonderland"

Alice Pleasance Hargreaves was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip became the classic 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She shared her name with "Alice", the story's heroine, but scholars disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her.

Hatter (<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i>) Fictional character in Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll. The phrase "mad as a hatter" pre-dates Carroll's works. The Hatter and the March Hare are referred to as "both mad" by the Cheshire Cat, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the sixth chapter titled "Pig and Pepper".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bandersnatch</span> Fictional creature from Lewis Carrolls “Through the Looking-Glass”

A bandersnatch is a fictional creature in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass and his 1874 poem The Hunting of the Snark. Although neither work describes the appearance of a bandersnatch in great detail, in The Hunting of the Snark, it has a long neck and snapping jaws, and both works describe it as ferocious and extraordinarily fast. Through the Looking-Glass implies that bandersnatches may be found in the world behind the looking-glass, and in The Hunting of the Snark, a bandersnatch is found by a party of adventurers after crossing an ocean. Bandersnatches have appeared in various adaptations of Carroll's works; they have also been used in other authors' works and in other forms of media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Hood</span> 19th-century English humorist and playwright

Thomas Hood was an English humorist, playwright and author. He was the son of the poet and author Thomas Hood. Pen and Pencil Pictures (1857) was the first of his illustrated books. His most successful novel was Captain Master's Children (1865).

Works based on <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>

Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) have been highly popular in their original forms, and have served as the basis for many subsequent works since they were published. They have been adapted directly into other media, their characters and situations have been appropriated into other works, and these elements have been referenced innumerable times as familiar elements of shared culture. Simple references to the two books are too numerous to list; this list of works based on Alice in Wonderland focuses on works based specifically and substantially on Carroll's two books about the character of Alice.

"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is recited by Alice in Chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar". Alice informs the Caterpillar that she has previously tried to repeat "How Doth the Little Busy Bee" and has had it all come wrong as "How Doth the Little Crocodile". The Caterpillar asks her to repeat "You Are Old, Father William", and she recites it.

<i>The Wallypug of Why</i>

The Wallypug of Why is an 1895 children's novel by G. E. Farrow. The book is an exercise in humorous nonsense, rich in wordplay and absurd situations, in the tradition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A popular success, it inaugurated a series of Wallypug sequels.

<i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland Retold in Words of One Syllable</i> 1905 novel by A. L. Burt

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable is a retelling by Mrs. J. C. Gorham of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, written in 1905 and published by A. L. Burt of New York. It is part of Burt's Series of One Syllable Books, which was "selected specially for young people's reading, and told in simple language for youngest readers". The series included such works as Aesop's Fables, Anderson's Fairy Tales, Bible Heroes, Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Life of Christ, Lives of the Presidents, Pilgrim's Progress, Reynard the Fox, Robinson Crusoe, Sanford and Merton, and Swiss Family Robinson.

<i>John Bulls Adventures in the Fiscal Wonderland</i> 1904 novel by Charles Geake and Francis Carruthers Gould

John Bull's Adventures in the Fiscal Wonderland is a novel by Charles Geake and Francis Carruthers Gould, written in 1904 and published by Methuen & Co. of London. It is a political parody of Lewis Carroll's two books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

<i>New Adventures of Alice</i> 1917 novel by John Rae

New Adventures of Alice is a novel by John Rae, written in 1917 and published by P. F. Volland of Chicago. It is, according to Carolyn Sigler, one of the more important "Alice imitations", or novels inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice books.

<i>Gladys in Grammarland</i> 1897 novel by Audrey Mayhew Allen

Gladys in Grammarland is a novel by Audrey Mayhew Allen, written c. 1897 and published by the Roxburghe Press of Westminster. It is an educational imitation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Illustrators of <i>Alices Adventures in Wonderland</i>

There are more than 100 illustrators of English-language editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), with many other artists for non-English language editions. The illustrator for the original editions was John Tenniel, whose illustrations for Alice and Looking Glass are among the best known illustrations ever published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Richards Brewster</span> American painter

Anna Richards Brewster was an American painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Matlack Richards</span> American writer (1834–1900)

Anna Matlack Richards (1834–1900) was a 19th-century American children's author, poet and translator best known for her fantasy novel, A New Alice in the Old Wonderland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Louise Kirk</span> American illustrator

Maria Louise Kirk, usually credited as M. L. Kirk or Maria L. Kirk, was an American painter and illustrator of more than fifty books, most of them for children.

References

  1. "A new Alice in the old Wonderland". LC Online Catalog. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  2. Sigler, Carolyn, ed. (October 1997). Alternative Alices: Visions and Revisions of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" Books: An Anthology. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN   0-8131-2028-4. LCCN   97-2205
  3. Richards, Anna M. (1895). "Preface". First edition, e-copy at the Internet Archive. Retrieved 2016-08-03.