[.ca] Annotated Alice The Definitive Edition (ISBN 0393048470)

From Amazon.com:
"What is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations!" Readers who share Alice's taste in books will be more than satisfied with The Annotated Alice, a volume that includes not only pictures and conversations, but a thorough gloss on the text as well. There may be some, like G.K. Chesterton, who abhor the notion of putting Lewis Carroll's masterpiece under a microscope and analyzing it within an inch of its whimsical life. But as Martin Gardner points out in his introduction, so much of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is composed of private jokes and details of Victorian manners and mores that modern audiences are not likely to catch. Yes, Alice can be enjoyed on its own merits, but The Annotated Alice appeals to the nosy parker in all of us. Thus we learn, for example, that the source of the mouse's tale may have been Alfred Lord Tennyson who "once told Carroll that he had dreamed a lengthy poem about fairies, which began with very long lines, then the lines got shorter and shorter until the poem ended with fifty or sixty lines of two syllables each." And that, contrary to popular belief, the Mad Hatter character was not a parody of then Prime Minister Gladstone, but rather was based on an Oxford furniture dealer named Theophilus Carter. Gardner's annotations run the gamut from the factual and historical to the speculative and are, in their own way, quite as fascinating as the text they refer to. Occasionally, he even comments on himself, as when he quotes a fellow annotator of Alice, James Kincaid: "The historical context does not call for a gloss but the passage provides an opportunity to point out the ambivalence that may attend the central figure and her desire to grow up." And then follows with a charming riposte: "I thank Mr. Kincaid for supporting my own rambling." There's a lot of information in the margins (indeed, the page is pretty evenly divided between Carroll's text and Gardner's), but the ramblings turn out to be well worth the time. So hand over your old copy of Lewis Carroll's classic to the kids--this Alice in Wonderland is intended entirely for adults. --Alix Wilber

scholarly Jabberwocky:
The title of this book says it all--more annotations than a Richard Posner book, and as definitive an edition as one can expect. It is a bit peculiar to imagine a simple children's story dissected to pieces, but the researchers and editors behind this volume from Norton (purveyors of some of the best academic editions) bring new light to the hidden humor and brilliance behind Lewis Carroll's works. Featuring original artwork from the first edition, as well as some abandoned passages, you will not find a more complete version of Carroll's Alice tales anywhere else. A must-have for the children's lit bookshelf in your home library.

Strickly for real Carroll fans:
In the case of Alice, we are dealing with a very curious, complicated form of nonsense, which explores the possibilities of the uses and abuse of language and is actually based on a profound knowledge of the rules of logic. In fact, most of Carroll's apercus and all his joked are inversions of the rules of logic or plays on words. Reason is here in service to imagination and not vice-versa. The wealth of material which Carroll presents for the illumination of his philosophy is almost without end. The more I read Alice, the more I realize the books are dense enough to defy complete exegesis. Carroll's genius lies in the ability to disguise charmingly the seriousness of his concerns and to make the most playful quality of his work at the same time its didactic crux. This annotation version helps by telling us about some aspects of the era and setting that Alice and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson lived in, about Christ Church, and Duckworth etc. but it misses the details about the main points of logic that are being made by Carroll. So far I haven't found a satisfactory text that does that. Perhaps I will have to write one myself.

Like Having Cliff Clavin Reading over Your Shoulder:
You're right: I have no one to blame but myself. (Fool me twice, shame on me.) I'd read another book annotated by Gardner before, so I knew something about what his notes were like. Still, I thought, who better to explicate the puns, colloquialisms, and mathematical, logical, and philosophical references in _Alice_ than one of the great polymaths of our time, a connoisseur of puzzles, and an aficionado of Victorian literature? Plus, it's hard to deny that _The Definitive Edition_ is a handsome one. Well, Gardner has really outdone himself this time. The notes go on and on and on, eclipsing the actual text in length. While Clavin might interrupt a conversation on the Bermuda Triangle to point out the little-known fact that it's really shaped like a tetrazidrhomboid, Gardner thinks that when a character uses an idiomatic expression involving ferrets it would be relevant to mention a get-together that ferret owners recently held in New York City's Central Park. Much of the inside information Gardner does provide is along the lines of telling us that this character is based on Alice Liddell's third cousin, once removed, or that that character is named after Dodgson's pet gerbil. I think Gardner may have finally succeeded in turning me off of annotated editions for good.

Finally a "translation" of Alice for the masses:
I remember my frustrations with reading "Alice" when I was young. Apparently it was an interesting story about animals and weird things and so on, but very quickly my reading stumbled onto nonsense verses and things so strange I don't know what to make of them. As a child I quickly lost interest and put down my book, that is until I encountered this wonderful annotated version by Martin Gardiner. Having enjoyed Gardiner's countless mathematical books and Scientific American columns, I was intrigued by this book. This is a book that actually delivers what it promises. The large format of the book makes it easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The original drawings for the book by Tenniel are included, making it quite interesting. In the wide margins, Gardiner makes clear the countless curiosities, verses, puns, and mathematical oddities. Some of those things were meant to be understood only by a select group of people living in Oxford at the time Lewis Carroll wrote his work. Gardiner therefore draws upon a wealth of research by Alice fans all over the world to come to an understanding of all these oddities. The result is a much more enriching experience and much more pleasurable reading of the story. At any rate, I don't take the Alice story as seriously as some of the fans do, but I was pleased I read this annotated edition once. I plan to find again my old childhood copy and re-read the story without annotation for enjoyment. Note that the annotated Alice went through various editions, this ("Definitive annotated Alice" being the third, most up-to-date and most complete, including the original illustrations by Tenniel and both sets of annotations in the original "Annotated Alice" and in the "More Annotated Alice". This is the edition to buy.

Can't be too definitive:
Not knowing what you do not know it tells you everything. This book appears to be stand alone logic and fun on the surface. Some may even think it is a children's book. If so why all the courses and scholarly writings on the story? Some things are self evident as being so short that you can touch your toes. Others may take some time as the reason hatters are mad is the process includes mercury so even if it was directed at a particular person or not hatters are mad. Still when was the last time you used a bathing machine? Knowing some of information can enhance the enjoyment of reading the story. You get the original illustrations to boot. So when you are finished perusing this book it can be used as a coffee table conversation book.