ANNOTATED ALICE - Penguin

This special annotated version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass was edited by Martin Gardner, who wrote the following: 'Said Gardner to Carroll: Come, let us not quarrel 'bout Wonderland logic or Looking Glass lore. I'm a man without malice: I'll annotate Alice. Yes, I'll wake up the dormouse and tell it the score. I'll translate the Jabberwock. Show why the turtles mock. Tame the Mad Hatter. And analyze chess. I'll garnish and season your rhyme with reason. And we two'll give Alice a new party dress'. In any case, Carroll's nonsense is not nearly as random and pointless as it seems to a modern American child who tries to read the ALICE books. One says 'tries' because the time is past when a child under fifteen even in England, can read ALICE with the same delight as gained from, say, 'The Wind in the Willows' or 'The Wizard of Oz'. Children today are bewildered and sometimes frightened by the nightmarish atmosphere of ALICE'S dreams. It is only because adults - scientists and mathematicians in particular - continue to relish the ALICE books that they are assured of immorality. It is only to such adults that the notes of this volume are addressed.