Alices In Wonderland: Part 50 (The End)

The court transforms into a pack of cards which fly up towards Alice who wakes up to find the leaves of the tree falling onto her face. Realising that she has been dreaming she runs off home, leaving her sister sitting under the tree.


This illustration, by Justin Todd, unusually, takes the real life Alice Liddell as a model. The full page illustrations throughout the book are excellently done, with bright colours, though for my taste, Alice's facial expressions all seem a little flat and the layouts sometimes have a look more typical of 3D-computer renderings.
The edition is from Gollacz, 1984.

And that is the end of the book.

Sometime later I may attempt a similar exercise for Looking Glass but there are considerably fewer editions of that to work with and most of those are double editions whose art I have already shown here.

I hope you've found it entertaining but, if truth be told, we've barely scratched the surface of the available editions. There are so many more that I have, and so many more that I want, and so many more that I have never discovered. This collection won't be complete if I live to be a thousand. It will, I predict, keep on growing until it takes over the house.

Alices In Wondeland: Part 49

As she continues to grow, Alice upsets the jury box spilling all the animal jurors out onto the floor of the courtroom.

This illustration is from award-winning artist Helen Oxenbury. The edition is from Candlewick Press 1999. A moment's perusal of any of the excellent art will show just why Helen Oxenbury is one of the most renowned children's illustrators around today. The pictures, with their use of mostly pastel shades are an absolute delight.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 48

When the time comes for Alice to give evidence she finds herself growing larger and larger until she towers over the court.

This illustration is from the Ladybird Children's Classic edition (1986) illustrated by Debbie Boon-Jenkins, about whom I have been able to find little beyond the fact that she seems to be rather prolific, particularly in the area of Ladybird editions. She has a nice, rather blocky, water-colour style that admirably suits the book. The text is presented in a much abridged version by Joan Collins.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 47

Another witness is the cook.

Again, this illustration comes from a Japanese edition where I am unable to translate the edition details. The artist, once again according to the helpful shop assistant in the bookshop in Kuala Lumpur, is called Zeng Ming Xiang. I spent quite some time in the shop, Isetan (Kinokuniye Japanese Books), assisted by a Mister Teng, looking for eastern editions and managed to find several. The challenge of buying Alice editions in countries where I don't speak the language is actually rather an enjoyable one.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 46

Among the witnesses, there is the Mad Hatter...

This illustration is from a "Best Loved Stories" edition from World International Publishing Limited. (1984). The text is abridged for young readers but the art is uncredited.

Alices In Wonderland:Part 45

The defendant in the trial is, of course, the Knave of Hearts.

As an interesting (or perhaps not) aside, this is the role that I took, aged six or seven, in my infants school play. I had, as I recall, two lines. "It wasn't me." and "Do I look like it?"

This illustration is from another of those editions where I would like to give some information but can't. It's a Japanese edition and because I can't read a single word of Japanese I don't know the publisher or any other details. What I can say is that it, in spite of the picture below, quite typical Manga art by, according to the shop where I bought it (in Malaysia) Sakumo Shigeko.

As ever, if anyone can provide more details of the edition, I'd be grateful.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 44

After quite a long delay, I'm picking up the threads of this sequence, so...

The trial, in which the court is trying to determine who stole the tarts, continues.

One of the lesser illustrators of Alice is, of course, Lewis Carroll who did his own illustrations for the first edition, which had the original title "Alice's Adventures Underground". There are a number of facsimile editions of this work that include the illustrations but, if truth be told, hiring a professional (Tenniel) for the first proper publication of the book was a wise decision. Carroll's illustrations are far too naive to appear in a professional work.

Alices in Wonderland: Part 7

I picked up the rather nicely A A Nash illustrated edition thanks to a friend who noticed it in a second hand book shop and reported back to me. (He didn't buy it because no one, not even me, knows the current state of my collection at any given time.) I have drawn a blank on the internet in my efforts to find information about Nash, even to the extent of gender, nationality or age. Again you may consider this a general appeal for information.

Anyway, in the story Alice has tried all the doors and found them locked. There is, however, a single unlocked door which is very small through which she glimpses a beautiful garden that she is far too tall to enter.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 5

I have two Spanish editions, one is a full text translation but uses the classic Tenniel illustrations. The other is altogether curiouser. It contains an extremely abridged version of the story with some very jolly cartoon like illustrations for younger children. It also contains a lot of children's activities: costume making, card making,collages, papercrafts and so on. For anyone who reads Spanish and wants it the details are "Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas" published by Paramon,1997. ISBN 84-342-2131-4.

The illustrator is Lluis Filella and here he shows Alice arriving at the bottom of her long fall and landing on a conveniently placed pile of leaves.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 4

I often buy editions of Alice that are in languages that I cannot read. Frequently these editions use well know illustrations from British or American editions and just translate the text. Sometimes they use home-grown talent. It can be quite hard to find the names of the illustrators if everything on the cover is, say, in Japanese and the help of a native speaker needs to be sought.
The Russian edition that I have is, judging from the artist's name, one of the ones that uses Russian talent. He's called Boris Pushkarev, information obtained from the publisher when I bought it. Beyond that I can find nothing and again information about the artist would be greatly appreciated if anybody has any.

What I can say is that the illustrations are quirky and colourful and that I really like them. This one follows on from the previous one. Alice, crawling down the rabbit hole, suddenly finds herself falling vertically down a tunnel lined with all kinds of peculiar things.

Alices In Wonderland: Part 2

Alice of course, having seen the rabbit (or kangaroo!) immediately jumps up and follows it. This illustration is from Margaret Tarrant. She was born in 1888 and died in 1959, illustrating Alice In Wonderland for a 1916 edition.
The edition I have is, sadly, rather more modern, being the Bounty Books 1990 edition, which reproduces the Tarrant illustrations but, as far as I can see, fails to credit her beyond noting that their series of children's books are "illustrated with colour artworks by Edwardian artists".

Alices In Wonderland: Part 1

For someone who is obsessed with the books as I am, I don't write nearly enough entries about Alice In Wonderland. It's occurred to me that there may be people who don't realise just how many different artists have taken a crack at this timeless children's tale and so I intend, in the coming months, to give anyone reading this a chance to reacquaint themselves with the story and see some of the art by showing, in story sequence, some of the many illustrations from my own collection. Pretty much every word of the book has been illustrated by someone so it could take some time. Still, we have all the time in the world, don't we?

Those familiar with the book, or with the Disney film version, will recall that as the story opens Alice is sitting on the bank feeling very bored, while her sister is reading a book with no pictures or conversations. As they sit there a white rabbit runs by and Alice follows.

In the translation into the aboriginal language Pitjantjatjara (Alitjinya Ngura Tjukrmankuntjala) the riverbank is a creek bed, the rabbit is a Kangaroo and Alice and her sister are playing a story-telling game… and the marvelous illustrations are by Donna Leslie.

The edition I have is by Ten Speed Press of California and contains a simultaneous back translation into English. You should get it. It's excellent!