Alice's Adventures in Wonderland [and] Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, Illustrated by John Tenniel, 1898

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. [and] Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Boston: Lorthrop Publishing Company, 1898. Illustrated by John Tenniel. Large octavo. Presented in the publisher’s original pictorial olive cloth boards, front board and spine are titled and stamped in orange and dark green. Illustrated with a full color frontispiece, two full color illustrations, and numerous black and white in-text illustrations. Presented with a new archival slipcase. 

Presented is a beautiful edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and sequel Through the Looking Glass, published together in one volume by Boston publisher, Lorthrop Publishing Company, in 1898. Illustrated by John Tenniel, this printing of Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s books features a full color frontispiece and two full color illustrations not found in the original printings, in addition to numerous black and white in-text illustrations throughout. This edition is presented in the publisher’s original pictorial olive cloth boards, with the front board and spine colorfully titled and stamped in orange and dark green.  

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 1832-1898), better known by his pen name of Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, and mathematician. His famous children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first published in July of 1865. Carroll then wrote Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There as its sequel, published in 1871. Through the Looking-Glass was the first of the Alice stories to gain widespread popularity, and prompted a newfound appreciation for its predecessor when it was published. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass were written as mirrored tales to one another. While Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland begins outside on a warm summer day, uses changes in size as a plot device, and the imagery of playing cards, Through the Looking-Glass begins indoors on a snowy November day, plays with time and spatial directions, and uses the imagery of chess.  

Adept at word play, logic, and fantasy, Carroll’s tales about Alice are prime examples of the literary nonsense genre. Bending logic and emphasizing the peculiar, Carroll often drew parallels between the fictional characters and real people, which created a type of parody of Victorian life and society. The book was beloved by children and adults alike, with readers such as Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde among Carroll’s fan base. "Alice is, in a word, a book of that extremely rare kind which will belong to all the generations to come until the language becomes obsolete " (Carpenter & Prichard, 102). Due to their success, the books have remained in print since their publication.

John Tenniel (1820-1914) began his artistic career by studying fine art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He faithfully copied sculpture, illustrations from books of costume and heraldry, and scenes of live plays. He had a gift for depicting movement, attributed to his father, a fencing and dancing master, but his true talent was his photographic memory that made it easy for him to caricature and replicate familiar faces. He took this talent to Punch Magazine, where he eventually became principal cartoonist. 

It was Tenniel's satirical caricature work for Punch that first caught the eye of author Lewis Carroll. Carroll and Tenniel worked together on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. And despite strong, oftentimes clashing personalities and many differences in opinion about how best to illustrate the fictional characters, Tenniel and Carroll teamed up yet again on Through the Looking Glass. 

Tenniel drew from a vast range of sources for his Alice work, including fine art, medieval heraldry, caricature, and his previous work for Punch. His work established the enduring visual identity for Alice and her companions. It also helped to elevate the status of book illustrators on a whole and inspired many future famous illustrators, like Ernest Shepard and Arthur Rackham. 

CONDITION: 

Very good + condition. Large octavo. Presented in the publisher’s original pictorial olive cloth boards, front board and spine are titled and stamped in orange and dark green. Minimal fading to printed colors on board, light sunning to back board. Wear to cloth along book edges. Bumping on corners. New linings and caps. Interior pages are healthy, mostly clean, with only light and even toning. Numerous black and white in-text illustrations, three full-color full-page illustrations, including frontispiece. 208 pp. Presented with a new archival slipcase. 

Book Dimensions: 9 1/2" H x 7 5/8" W x 1 1/8" D.

Slipcase Dimensions: 9 7/8" H x 7 13/16" W x 1 5/8" W.

Accompanied by our company’s letter of authenticity.