The Story
Once upon a time during the Victorian era, a mathematician and three little girls were on a boat trip in Oxford. The mathematician told them a ground-breaking story which would transform children literature years later. It begins with a little girl who had an outing with her sister on the river bank. She was tired. Suddenly, she saw a rabbit passing by in a hurry, murmuring and taking a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket. Out of curiosity, she chased the rabbit, and fell down a very deep hole. She then entered into a queer world.
In this strange underground world, the little girl had changed her size whenever she ate or drank anything. She also met different types of creatures and visited the paper card kingdom. The adventures of this little girl were counter-logic. Word play, riddles and nonsense filled the internal dialogue of the little girl and the conversation she had with the creatures she had met along the way. The little girl was fearless, bad-tempered and often challenged the authority and order of the world that she was situated in.
When the story was published...
The story of the adventures of the little girl was exceptional. Ever since the mathematician published it, it has become an all-time favourite in children's literature. Perhaps what fascinate the readers lie not just in the rhetoric and the sense of amusement, but also the accurate description of children's psyche and the mental play that engage with throughout the story. The little girl's adventures also succeeded in breaking the conventions of children literature in moralising their behaviour and the appreciation of absurdity to question established meanings.
Now, let’s travel back in history to learn about the origin of the adventures of the little girl Alice and reimagine the story...
#AlicesAdventuresinWonderland #VictorianBritain #ChildrensLiterature #BritishLibrary #Librorum #ArtsandCulture
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