The Nursery Alice, containing twenty coloured enlargements from Tenniel's illustrations to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with text adapted to nursery readers by Lewis Carroll.
The book was an immediate critical and popular success. At Dodgson’s death, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland had sold over 86,000 copies and Through the Looking Glass 61,000. Both have remained in print ever since, and have been translated into over 70 languages.
This version of Alice in Wonderland, from 1890, was aimed at under-fives, reflecting the continued expansion of the children’s literature market. Although Dodgson sometimes claimed that he regretted the popularity of the books, and the celebrity that it bought him, he shortened and adapted Alice for this new version himself.
Part of the success of the original was due to the illustrations by Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914). This version included 20 of those originals, coloured and enlarged. Though over 150 artists have illustrated the stories in various editions appearing since copyright expired in 1907, Tenniel’s remain the best-known.
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