Alice in Wonderland the book is very much like a very large onion. Each reading peels off a new layer, bringing up something that you missed in the previous reading. Few children would have crossed the meadow of childhood without having read Alice… or being told to read Alice ….As a child if you had been consumed by the creatures getting “curiouser” and “curiouser” as the plot progressed, as an adult you are struck by the stinging satire and the underlying profundity of the ‘nonsense’ novel.
The iconic work, by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson who wrote it under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, turns 150 this year. Adapted, abridged, illustrated and translated numerous times, the book has survived time and still goes on to inspire inquisitive minds.
Poet Jeena Chacko calls it “the most whimsical, enchanting and intelligent book ever”. As a child, the story amused her like no other. “As an adult I could appreciate Caroll’s brilliance—the exemplary word-play, the astounding imagination, the richness of the imagery he used, the funniest, saddest and darlingest characters ever. I could read into the darker undertones of the story and the amazing poetry. The book is euphorically, delightfully and outrageously absurd. I don’t think there is anything like it,” she says.
The book is one of Europe’s best literary contributions to the world, says artist and writer Bara Bhaskaran. “Just how the world accepted and beheld Don Quixote with a twinge of awe, it took in Alice’s adventures too. The appeal of the book transcends time. It was written for the generations that came after the author’s and its magical quality is unparalleled.”
History has it that Carroll thought up the book while on a boat with a Rev. Robinson Duckworth and the three young daughters of Henry Liddell, the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University and the Dean of Christ Church. What began as a story on a bored little girl named Alice got the three girls hooked and one of them, Alice Liddell, wanted Carroll to write it down for her. Carroll published it in 1865. The character was also rumoured to have been modelled on Alice Liddell.
“While he was writing it, Carroll would have found the potential in it for a great novel,” says academician and author Khyrunnisa A. “He really showed the way for fantasy-fiction. Alice in Wonderland can be read at all levels. Kids enjoy it, those just learning to read can enjoy it and even as a grown up, one can take delight in the contemporariness of the work,” she says.
While the plot is rather simple—Alice falling down a rabbit hole and waking up to realise it was all but just a dream—Caroll’s craft shines through in the verse and the fantastical creatures and situations he created. The Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock-Turtle, the Gnat and the likes that people the plot were not like anything readers had encountered thus far.
Poet Binu Karunakaran believes the visual quality of the work was one of the reasons for its popularity. “The key question the book addresses is ‘what’s the point of a book without pictures and conversation?’. The book is so visually rich that it is almost like watching a film,” he says. Also, Carroll’s use of post modern devices such as parody and pastiche makes it relevant even today, he adds. “Few works have influenced pop culture as much as Alice … has. Characters such as the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat are often used today. The appeal of the book will live on,” he says.
There is also a hint of nostalgia, a lingering poignancy in the book, says Jeena. “Carroll beautifully captures the glowing, ephemeral beauty of childhood and the inevitability of growing up. I must have read this book more than 15 times, I own 3 copies—one I got when I was 9, in which all the interesting words are heavily underlined in sketch-pen, one that I purchased 7 years ago that I have marked and footnoted in pencil (the copy that I keep referring to) and an old, hard-bound copy that I keep to just turn the yellowing pages and breathe,” Jeena says.
IT professional Jijin Gopal was fascinated by the book as a child. “Even though I cannot recollect the story line, I remember being enthralled by it. It is a book for kids to open up their world to colours, creatures and characters from a parallel world. You can relate to few of them, but you can truly believe in them,” Jijin adds. He also says reading too much Alice… as a boy earned him a bit of ridicule as boys were expected to read more ‘boyish’ stuff.
Carroll brought out the equally popular sequel Through the Looking Glass in 1871. But Alice …, as its fans will agree, will
“ Lay where childhood’s dreams are twined
In memory’s mystic band,
Like pilgrim’s wither’d wreath of flowers
Pluck’d in a far-off land ”.
