Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll, Jennifer Bassett Narrated by Multiple Narrators

Overview

There, on top of the mushroom, was a large caterpillar, smoking a pipe. After a while the Caterpillar took the pipe out of its mouth and said to Alice in a slow, sleepy voice, 'Who are you?' What strange things happen when Alice falls down the rabbit-hole and into Wonderland! She has conversations with the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, goes to the Mad Hatter's tea party, plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts ...

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This year, that curious, hallucinating heroine Alice, friend of Cheshire cats and untimely rabbits, is turning 150 years old…And what a perfect match, in tone and whimsy, found in Rifle Paper Co.’s Anna Bond.”—Vanity Fair
 
“Publishers are having a creative field day with stunningly beautiful new covers—and lovely insides, too, in the case of Puffin’s whimsical Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by Rifle Paper Co.’s Anna Bond.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Chic…The pretty face of Anna Bond’s Alice looks continually astonished, and even in the scene where her neck grows freakishly serpentine, the heroine remains comely. Elegant and unthreatening, Ms. Bond’s pictures abound with so many flowers and curling vines that Wonderland seems a much nicer place than perhaps we remembered.”—Wall Street Journal
 
“150 years after Alice in Wonderland was published, Anna Bond, the creative director of stationer Rifle Paper Co., draws a whole new tea party in this deluxe hardcover edition.”—New York Magazine’s The Cut
 
“In this beautiful, oversized, hardcover anniversary edition—with the complete, unabridged text—readers will fall in love all over again with the classic tale of the girl who fell down the rabbit hole. Illustrator Anna Bond, of gift and stationery brand Rifle Paper Co., applies her stylish, whimsical touch and distinctive color palette to Alice and her friends, from the inviting jacket and the case-cover art beneath it to the original endpapers and the superb full-color interior illustrations, large and small.” —Shelf Awareness
 
“This year marks the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s beloved classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Commemorate the occasion with a deluxe hardcover edition of the tale from Puffin Books, available Oct. 27. The new book is re-illustrated with vibrant, whimsical designs by Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co., for a one-of-a-kind look at Alice’s imaginative journey.”—American Profile

Sue Monk Kidd

Alice in Wonderland was probably my favorite character. She’s a girl on a quest, meeting dangerous and wondrous creatures, alternately shrinking and growing. I reveled in her braveries.”

AudioFile

What a delight to hear Michael York’s rendition of this classic…[He] humanizes a character who has become a near stereotype over the decades…York’s elegant accents highlight Carroll’s wordplay and the tangles it makes of Alice’s distorted reality…As Alice explores Wonderland, York is a superb guide.”

Booklist

York’s portrayal of Alice and the many strange characters she meets is a real treat. Reading in his native British accent and in sonorous tones, he is a terrific storyteller. York gives all characters, from the Queen of Hearts to the Cheshire Cat, distinctive voices and personalities, never resorting to cartoonlike portrayals. He personifies Mice in bright tones, calling to mind her enthusiasm and inquisitiveness. The audio is a great way for youngsters to experience and appreciate Carroll’s fantasy, even if some of the phrasing is a bit antiquated for modern listeners. Adults might also enjoy revisiting this multi-layered children’s classic. An entertaining and lively performance.”

Virginia Woolf

Only Lewis Carroll has shown us the world upside down as a child sees it, and has made us laugh as children laugh.”

Masterpieces of World Literature

At once a biting social and political satire sufficiently complex to satisfy the most sophisticated adult and a delightfully whimsical fairy tale to capture the fancy of the imaginative child.”

Art Quarterly

An elegant edition.

ForeWord Magazine - Patty Comeau

For A Is for Alice:

'Each image offered here provides evidence of its creation; there is a reminder, with each turn of the page, of the hand and thought that guided each groove. Walker's ability to impress such great detail (as in the grain of both the fur of the Cheshire Cat, and the branch upon which he is perched) in a print made with woodblocks is remarkable.... At the heart of this book is the art of the book, pages kissed by poetic samples of Carroll's writing and bound using artisan techniques onsite at The Porcupine's Quill headquarters. It is a high-quality, collectible edition in which fans of the Alice stories, bibliophiles, and young readers will delight.

White Rabbit Tales [Newsletter of the Lewis Carrol

[Steadman's drawings] are still remarkably fresh and unique.

Toronto Star

Ferocious Steadman spin.

Victoria Times-Colonist - Liz Pogue

Sophisticated humor

Waterbury Republican-American - Betsy Daley

Alice as you've rarely seen her... fun for all ages... full of the wit and wisdom Carroll originally gave us.

dingbatmag.com

Don't count on a bookful of sweet, charming etchings of the shrinking golden girl; this is a somewhat less flattering Alice than the one we've come to know and expect. In over 40 pen and ink illustrations, this Wonderland is more tempestuous; of greater, grittier (and funnier) distortion... when dangerous satirists like Steadman exercise their imaginations and lyric, delirious pens in the slivers and shards of a distorted world — look out.

San Diego Union-Tribune - David Elliott

Explosive ink drawings... acidic whimsies splash across pages, bringing dear Alice a newly stimulating cup of tea.

Seattle Times - Mary Ann Gwinn

Carroll's hall-of-mirrors children's tale and Steadman's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" style make for an eerily perfect fit.

Denver Post - Clair Martin

Pair[s] a perpetually suspicious Alice with peculiar creatures that well warrant her chariness.

ForeWord Magazine

For A Is for Alice:

'Each image offered here provides evidence of its creation; there is a reminder, with each turn of the page, of the hand and thought that guided each groove. Walker's ability to impress such great detail (as in the grain of both the fur of the Cheshire Cat, and the branch upon which he is perched) in a print made with woodblocks is remarkable.... At the heart of this book is the art of the book, pages kissed by poetic samples of Carroll's writing and bound using artisan techniques onsite at The Porcupine's Quill headquarters. It is a high-quality, collectible edition in which fans of the Alice stories, bibliophiles, and young readers will delight.

— Patty Comeau

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169462975
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/13/2007
Series:	Oxford Bookworms Library
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER I

DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE

ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it - "And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! oh dear! I shall be too late!" (When she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural.) But when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket, and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat pocket or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down - so suddenly, that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything. Then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and bookshelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but to her great disappointment it was empty. She did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.) Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think." (For, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over.) "Yes, that's about the right distance. But then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?" (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but she thought they were nice, grand words to say.)

Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think" - (she was rather glad there was no one listening this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) - "but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know - please, ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?" (and she tried to curtsy as she spoke - fancy curtsying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) "And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere."

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!" (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. - Dinah, my dear, I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. - But do cats eat bats, I wonder?" And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, "Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?" and sometimes, "Do bats eat cats?" for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and was saying to her very earnestly, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?" when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment. She looked up, but it was all dark overhead. Before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost. Away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

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