Alice's adventures in wonderland/Les aventures d'Alice au pays des merveilles (1865) by Charles Dodgson was written under his pen-name, Lewis Carroll.
This week-end I cosied up with this classic favourite. There is such comfort in this book and the characters feel so familiar. Bring me back to early memories of childhood. I think that the animated version of the story may have played a big role in this!
Over the years, I collected a number of different versions of the book. My favourite version so far is the Penguin Classic published in 1988. The prints are clearer, the paper great and so many additional notes. The book is now in the public domain and I also have digital copies (links to free download available at the end of the page) of the book but holding the story and feeling the pages is another reason I like them...Am I getting nostalgic again?!
Growing up in Mauritius, we always learnt about the dodo. This extinct flightless bird that was endemic to our island. When I found the Dodo in Carroll's Alice' adventures in wonderland, I felt quite proud and interested in the story even more. I was so amazed and so surprised... How did he get there? Why the Dodo?
In The Diaries of Lewis Carroll, the entry for the 17th of June 1862, he recalls a boating expedition where Carroll, the Reverend Duckworth and the Liddell sisters- Lorina, Edith and Alice, got drenched after a heavy rainfall returning from their boat trip. The retelling of their misadventure was reimagined by Carroll in Alice' adventures in wonderland…
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures.
Il était grand temps de partir, la mare se trouvant à présent fort encombrée par les oiseaux et les animaux qui y étaient tombés : il y avait un Canard, un Dodo, un Lori, un Aiglon, et plusieurs autres créatures bizarres.
In the story, Duckworth is the duck, Lorina is the Lory, Edith is the Eaglet and Alice is Alice. The Dodo is Carroll himself who had a stutter and would often pronounce his name (Charles Dodgson) 'Do-do-Dodgson'... The Dodo.
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