Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world (Wonderland) populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children.It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre, and its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential[3] in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.
SYNOPSIS
Chapter 1 – Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is feeling bored while sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she notices a talking, clothed White Rabbit
with a pocket watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when
suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors
of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit
through, but through it she sees an attractive garden. She then
discovers a bottle on a table labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which
cause her to shrink too small to reach the key which she has left on
the table. A cake with "EAT ME" on it causes her to grow to such a
tremendous size her head hits the ceiling.
Chapter 2 – The Pool of Tears: Alice is unhappy and cries as
her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she
had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse,
who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him in
elementary French (thinking he may be a French mouse) but her opening
gambit "Où est ma chatte?" (that is "Where is my cat?") offends the
mouse.
Chapter 3 – The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears
becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away
by the rising waters. Alice and the other animals convene on the bank
and the question among them is how to get dry again. The mouse gives
them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror. A Dodo
decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race,
which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner.
Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking
about her (moderately ferocious) cat.
Chapter 4 – The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit
appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. Mistaking her
for his maidservant, Mary Ann, he orders Alice to go into the house and
retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing. The
horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard,
to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the
voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd
hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes. Alice eats them,
and they reduce her again in size.
Chapter 5 – Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah.
The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity
crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before crawling
away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will
make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off
two pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than
ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a
pigeon mistakes her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings
herself back to her usual height. She stumbles upon a small estate and
uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.
Chapter 6 – Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess
of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this
transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets
herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making
a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess, and
her baby (but not the cook or grinning Cheshire Cat)
to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her
surprise, the baby turns into a pig. The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree,
directing her to the March Hare's
house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in
the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without
a grin but never a grin without a cat.
Chapter 7 – A Mad Tea-Party: Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the March Hare, the Hatter, and a very tired Dormouse who falls asleep frequently, only to be violently woken up moments later by the March Hare and the Hatter. The characters give Alice many riddles and stories, including the famous 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?'.
The Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because Time has punished
him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea time). Alice becomes
insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves
claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Chapter 8 – The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea
party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing
cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts
hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens and
even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and
Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark
phrase "Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest
dissatisfaction with a subject. Alice is invited (or some might say
ordered) to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her
subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are
used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the
Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded,
only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the
head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the
Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to
resolve the matter.
Chapter 9 – The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to
the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals
in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the
threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle.
The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to
tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which
the Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter 10 – Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter 11 – Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts.
During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing
larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow
at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls
the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she
can't help it. Meanwhile, witnesses at the trial include the Hatter, who
displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the
questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter 12 – Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a
witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals
inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their
seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be
gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the
court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She
argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous
proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts
her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them
out as just a pack of cards; just as they start to swarm over her.
Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some
leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves
her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for
herself.
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