The Nursery "Alice"

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Title from The Nursery "Alice"

The Nursery "Alice" ( English nursery : Kinderzimmer) is a children's book by Lewis Carroll , which was published in 1890 by Macmillan Publishers . It is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland for children up to the age of five.

Emergence

As early as 1881, over 15 years after the publication of Alice in Wonderland , Carroll came up with the idea of ​​an Alice version for young children. He asked John Tenniel , the illustrator of the original edition, to colorize twenty of the images . In collaboration with the printer Edmund Evans , Tenniel finally completed the pictures in 1885. From late 1888 to February 1889, Carroll wrote the text for the new version. Carroll was not satisfied with the quality of the original prints, so he initially had a small edition printed uncolored, which he gave away to friends, including Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone . In 1890 the book was finally published by Macmillan as a large-format book with a cover by Gertrude Thomson . It was the first color edition of Alice's story.

content

A page from the colored edition from 1890

In terms of content, the book Alice in Wonderland follows and tells the story for toddlers in 14 chapters. Some episodes are greatly shortened, while others are expanded. Carroll often speaks directly to the reader or listener. He pays special attention to the pictures, Carroll often goes into small details in the design.

Like many other works by Carroll, the book is preceded by a poem in the form of a mesostitch , in which the second letters of each line give the name of one of his young friends, Marie Van der Gucht . This is followed by a preface in which Carroll primarily addresses the mothers. The appendix An Easter Greating and the poem Christmas Greetings , also in many other Alice can be found -Expenditure.

reception

The book received only a few reviewers, probably also because many saw it only as a new version of Alice in Wonderland . The existing reviews, however, praise the work throughout.

Economically, the book was not a great success. The original price was 4 shillings , but in the end Carroll had to be content with only one shilling to sell the book. Still, 14,000 copies were sold in the first six years.

In his annotated Alice editions, Martin Gardner uses The Nursery “Alice” several times for some explanations .

The work has been translated into several languages, including German and French.

expenditure

  • Lewis Carroll: The Nursery “Alice”. Macmillan 1890. ( digitized , full text ).
  • Lewis Carroll, Walter E. Richartz (Afterword): Little Alice. With the pictures of John Tenniel. Diogenes, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-257-25003-7 ; 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-01132-6 .
    • Lewis Carroll: Little Alice . Ed .: Roger Willemsen. 1st edition. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-80224-5 (audio book, unabridged reading).
  • Lewis Carroll: "Alice" for the little ones. In: Günther Flemming (Ed.): Alice. Volume 3: The Hunt for the Snark, Aliceana & essays on life and work. epubli, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8442-6493-7 . ( limited preview in Google Book search).

swell

  • Morton N. Cohen: Another Wonderland: Lewis Carroll's The Nursery “Alice”. In: The Lion and the Unicorn. Volume 7/8, 1983/1984, pp. 120-126, doi: 10.1353 / uni.0.0181 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Nursery Alice. on bl.uk (with pictures of the illustrations)
  2. ^ The Morgan Library & Museum: Tenniel's color version for The Nursery “Alice”. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  3. ^ A b c Morton N. Cohen: Another Wonderland: Lewis Carroll's The Nursery “Alice”.
  4. ↑ The Nursery Alice at panmacmillan.com
  5. ^ Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There . Preface to 1896 edition. ( Text archive - Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel, Bernard Noël: Alice racontée aux petits (=  Lutin poche . No. 36 ). l'École des loisirs, Paris 1980, ISBN 2-211-07161-9 .

Web links

Commons : The Nursery Alice (1890)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files