Why is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland called one of the top ten masterpieces of children’s literature?

Reason: Impact on society

In 1865, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was published and became a great success. At the same time, it has epoch-making significance in the history of British children's literature. The British "Encyclopedia Britannica" believes that Carroll's fairy tales and "humorous history" have raised the so-called absurd literature to the highest level.

Not only children like to read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", but many adults also regard it as a classic, including the famous writer Oscar Wilde and the then-reigning Queen Victoria. This book has been translated into at least 125 languages ??and reprinted more than 300 times by the mid-20th century. Its popularity is second only to the Bible and Shakespeare's works. Carroll, who was originally a mathematics teacher, became world-famous. The master of fairy tales.

Wiener, the British mathematician and founder of cybernetics, quoted Alice's adventures many times in his famous works "Cybernetics" and "The Usefulness of Man" to compare them with the regular objective world. Mathematical logician Bert Laurent quoted the original text of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in his book "The Logic of Mathematicians". This shows the value and influence of this fairy tale masterpiece.

The works had a great influence on later literature and film creations, especially in the 19th century, when imitations emerged in endlessly. Interestingly, even "Alice's Travels in China" written by Shen Congwen was disguised as a sequel to Alice to reflect the darkness of society at that time. In the movie "The Matrix", the protagonist Neo is warned to "pay close attention to the White Rabbit Hole."

Introduction: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a children's literature work published in 1865 by the British writer Charles Ludwig Dodgson under the pen name Lewis Carroll. The story tells the story of a girl named Alice who enters a magical kingdom through a rabbit hole, encounters many talking creatures and playing cards that move like humans, and finally discovers that it was all a dream.

Since its publication in 1865, this fairy tale has been loved by readers of all ages. I believe it is because the author cleverly used illogical jumps to lay out the story. The book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has been translated into at least 125 languages ??and reprinted more than 300 times by the mid-20th century. Its popularity is second only to the Bible and Shakespeare's works.

Book title

Alice in Wonderland

Also known as

Alice in Wonderland/Alice in Wonderland/Ellie Alice in Wonderland/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Translator

Zhao Yuanren (first translation into Chinese)

Category

Fairy Tales

Publishing House< /p>

Macmillan Publishers

Illustrations

John Tenniel

Language

English

Publication Region

UK

First publication date

November 26, 1865

First edition word count

15500< /p>

Main content

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" tells the story of a little girl named Alice chasing a talking creature with a pocket watch

Alice was caught surrounded by characters.

The white rabbit fell into a rabbit hole and fell into the magical underground world. In this world, if you drink a sip of water, you will shrink to the size of a mouse. If you eat a piece of cake, you will become a giant. If you eat the right side of the same mushroom, you will become shorter. If you eat the left side, you will grow taller. When a dog loses his temper, he will growl and shake. tail, while cats growl and wag their tails because they are happy. In this world, there seems to be something weird about everything we eat.

She also met a lot of people and animals: the Dodo, Bill the Lizard, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon, and the Ugly Duke lady.

She met a whole deck of playing cards in the large garden behind a small door, including the rude Queen of Hearts, the good old King of Hearts, and the lively Jack of Hearts (J), etc. Alice helped the rabbit find the lost fan and gloves. She later helped three gardeners escape the persecution of the Red Queen. She also loudly protested in the absurd court against the king and queen's frame-up of good people. In this fantasy and crazy world, Alice seems to be the only sane person. She keeps exploring, and at the same time, she keeps asking "who am I". While exploring, she keeps getting to know herself, keeps growing, and finally grows into a "big" person. When I was a girl, I suddenly woke up and realized that all this was my dream. [

Character introduction editor

Alice

The protagonist of the novel is based on the 7-year-old daughter of the author's neighbor. She is kind, honest, helpful, and compassionate, and these beautiful qualities in her are shown through various bizarre adventures. At the same time, she also has the common shortcomings of 7-year-old girls: she loves to cry and is very aggressive, and these traits are revealed one by one as the plot progresses.

The Red Queen

Also translated as the "Queen of Hearts", she is domineering and cruel, shouting about cutting off people's heads all day long, and likes the underground world to be under her cruel rule. Later scholars believe that she may symbolize Queen Victoria at the time, or she may be Queen Margaret.

Mr. White Rabbit

Mr. White Rabbit is responsible for finding Alice and bringing her back to the underground world to complete her mission. In the first chapter, he appeared in a suit and hat, shouting " I'm late! I'm late!", trying to lure Alice down the rabbit hole. He appears at Alice's garden party, serving as the Red Queen's waiter. His character is completely opposite to Alice's, sophisticated, timid, and servile in front of the king and queen.

Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat is a short-haired cat that can appear and disappear at any time. He always wore a calm, seductive smile that belied his timid personality. At the beginning of the period, the Cheshire Cat played tricks on Alice in Wonderland, telling her that she was on the wrong track. Later, at the Queen's tea party, he tricked the Red Queen and her executioner into helping Alice. He has an eccentric personality but is kind and honest at heart.

Creative background

Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland", has been very imaginative since he was a child. He is introverted and never married. However, he loves children very much and often has sex with them. Same game. One summer day in 1862, Carroll took his neighbor's three daughters for a boating trip on the Thames River. While taking a nap and drinking tea on the river bank, he made up a story about Wonderland for the children. The protagonist was the smartest and loveliest of the sisters. Seven-year-old Alice is the model. After returning home, Carroll wrote down the story at Alice's request, illustrated it himself, and gave it to little Alice. Soon the novelist Henry Kingsley discovered the manuscript and was amazed. With his encouragement, Carroll further polished it. Titled "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", it was published in Japan on June 6, 1865. In 1871, Carroll published a companion volume to this fairy tale, "Alice's Travels in Loveland".

Appreciation of Works

Appreciation of Characters

Alice in Tatsube’s fairy tales is a striking and individual fairy tale character: this one with a draped shoulder A seven-year-old girl with blond hair, innocent and lively, full of curiosity and thirst for knowledge, honest and compassionate. She helped the rabbit find the lost fan and gloves, she hid the three gardeners who were about to be beheaded by the queen, and she also loudly protested in the absurd court against the king and queen's frame-up of good people. She is full of the spirit of democracy, justice and humanity.

At the same time, the writer also describes all the characteristics of a seven-year-old girl. For example, she loves to cry, is so strong and brave, and likes to show off the knowledge she has learned, but she also From time to time there were mistakes: she would not sit quietly in class and often looked forward to the time jumping from 8 a.m. to lunch time. These are lively and real reflections of children's psychology, making the image of Alice more endearing and endearing.

Artistic techniques

Although this fairy tale is full of absurd and bizarre fantasies, the author profoundly alludes to the social reality of Britain in the mid-19th century. As Alice sees, hears and experiences, she can feel the strict etiquette and pedantic life atmosphere of this era, such as the fearful attitude of the little protagonist who keeps reciting the text, and the mouse who wants to show off his historical knowledge. It turned out that I could only memorize large sections of textbooks. Even I don’t understand. These plots make readers feel about the rigid and outdated educational methods at that time.

Carroll also satirized the rabbit who pretended to be a coquettish gentleman in his fairy tales, the snobbish and vulgar duchess, the arrogant and violent Red Queen, etc., and even mocked the courts of the Victorian era. All of these enable readers to see seriousness from jokes and realize rationality from absurdity.

Carroll's fairy tales are not general descriptions of punishing evil and promoting good, but reveal to readers the complexity and changeability of things in the world and the relativity of multiple concepts. For example, if Alice eats the right side of the same mushroom, she will become shorter, and if she eats the left side, she will grow taller. This is how things change. In the rabbit hole, Alice became smaller and could not reach the keys on the table. When she suddenly grew taller, the large house could not accommodate her body, so she had to stretch one arm out of the window and one foot into the chimney. Small is a relative concept, and it only makes sense in comparison. Another example is the cat telling Alice that dogs growl and wag their tails when they are angry, but cats growl and wag their tails because they are happy. The same action can express completely opposite connotations. How to judge the right and wrong between them? Such "rational interest". It is revealed everywhere in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". The author of the original English preface of this fairy tale calls Carroll a "genius philosopher".

Language features

The artistic charm of "Alice in Wonderland" also lies in its British humor. The author uses a relaxed and humorous style to narrate and describe, full of all kinds of jokes, silly words, witticisms or puns, all of which contain profound meanings. For example, the Red Queen ordered the executioner to chop off the Cheshire Cat's head. And this strange cat that can fade in and out just disappears. Only a cat's head with a wide grin was left hanging on the treetop. The executioner was immediately dumbfounded: beheading is to separate the head from the body, but where does the head without the body come from? This wonderful humorous art has always been praised by people and has endless aftertaste. Today, modern English dictionaries also include "Cheshire cat" as a proper noun, meaning "a toothy grinning person". In addition, Carroll is also good at integrating various knowledge and logic into jokes, humorous word games, and puns, making this fairy tale full of humor and sparkling with wisdom.