Thursday 5 July 2012

150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

It is 150 years since Lewis Carroll first told the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. A quick search on Oxford Reference Online, one of the databases available via the Swansea Met library web pages, reveals that Carroll, real name Charles Dodgson, wrote the tale for young Alice Liddell ("Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"  The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Edited by Dinah Birch. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Swansea Metropolitan University.  5 July 2012  http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t113.e146). There is a Welsh connection to all this as the Liddell family had a holiday home in Llandudno, though Carroll befriended them in Oxford.

Whether you consider Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and her further adventures Through the Looking Glass, as delightful nonsense tales or darker, complex satires of Victorian society, they’ve certainly stood the test of time. We have a number of copies of the Alice books in Townhill Library and in Griffith Library at Dynevor, all beautifully illustrated. If you borrow one this summer, you won’t need to bring it back until the 4th October. Remember, though, we’re not open in the evenings or at weekends during vacation time, so don’t do a White Rabbit and turn up late!

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