Elucidating Alice

This textual commentary looks at 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' quite simply, as a children’s novel, investigating the book’s narrative structure, analysing how Carroll successfully constructed a pioneer­ing book for children that was to stand the test of time, remaining remarkably relevant to the present day. There are many depths and subtleties in this book that can only be properly appreciated by examining the text line by line. The writing is supremely skilful, and will stand the closest scrutiny-even virtually to every line of the narrative. Most books would crumble under such close analysis. It is testimony to the strength, depth, and quality of 'Alice' that the book comes through such intense examination and survives triumphantly. ---- Selwyn Goodacre has a large Lewis Carroll collection includ­ing over 2000 copies of the 'Alice' books. He is a past chair­man of the Lewis Carroll Society, and edited the Society journal from 1974-1997. For years he has pursued a special interest in the text of the 'Alice' books, which has led to his current commentary on, and analysis of, the way they were written. 3