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Alice Eternal

An index of my Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass collection, including books, DVDs, audio versions, memorabilia, my own work and interesting web links.

Saturday 29 May 2010

Alice in the Country of Hearts Volume 1

Japanese Manga Variation
Art by Soumei Hoshino
Story by Quinrose
Published by Tokyopop

Thursday 27 May 2010

Alice In Wonderland

Soundtrack Album for TV version (Nick Willing)
Music by Richard Hartley
Hallmark , 1998

Wednesday 26 May 2010

The Magic Token

Variation in which Alice is accompanied on her trip to Wonderland by a modern girl, Emma.
Written by Eugene Orlando
Illustrated by Tenniel
Published by iUniverse (2004)

Sunday 23 May 2010

Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass

Made for TV version
TV version of both books. (180 m)
Starring Natalie Gregory, Scott Biao, Red Buttons, Sid Caeser, Sammy Davis Jr, Roddy McDowell, Robert Morley, Donald O'Connor, Telly Savalas, Ringo Starr, Shelley Winters
Produced by Irwin Allen
Directed by Harry Harris
1985

Friday 21 May 2010

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland

Novelisation of screenplay
Novelisation by T.T. Sutherland
Screenplay by Linda Woolverton
Published by Puffin

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Alice In Wonderland

Full reading of Alice In Wonderland
4 cassettes
Read by Christopher Plummer
Published by Caedmon Soundbooks

Sunday 16 May 2010

Jack The Ripper

One of the odder theories about Jack The Ripper.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Alice In Rainforest Land

Ecologically themed sequel.
Written by Nadine Amadio.
Illustrated by Charles Blackman.
Published by Slawson Communications, 1988.

Friday 14 May 2010

Alice's Journey Beyond The Moon

Sequel.
Written by R.J. Carter.
Illustrated by Lucy Wright.
Published by Telos, 2004


Review:

Sequels by other hands are often tricky beasts and never more so than when, as here, presented with the central conceit that they are a "lost manuscript" by the original author. This, like other pretenders, is of course no such thing. It is a new story. The problem with it is that the pretence that it is a lost Carroll manuscript extends to a series of long footnotes explaining how the various jokes and whimsies fit into the lives and events surrounding both Dodgson and Alice Liddell. These footnotes are done in the style of "The Annotated Alice" side by side with the text. For example the footnotes to one of the poems (giving the recipe for a rather unusual pie) explain that the ingredient "wet collodian" was a photographic chemical with which Dodgson would have been familiar and the nonsense word "queechy" refers to a novel by Elizabeth Wetherell that he gave to his sister Henrietta on her twelfth birthday. The depth of research into Dodgson's life is impressive but as a literary device it all rapidly becomes rather tiresome and it's a good idea to read the book through and ignore the footnotes altogether until you have finished.
What, then, of the story itself? At ninety pages it's quite a thin tale but pastiches the style of Carroll quite well. Some of the puns and jokes are good and there are quite a lot of amusing touches. The artwork while not in the Tenniel style complements the story nicely and I suspect that there are many references and subtleties that a single reading has failed to reveal to me. The main problem is that at times it tries rather too hard to be clever. References to Descartes and an exposition of Zeno's paradox are deftly handled but seem a little out of place. The insistence on explaining some of them in those annoying Gardneresque footnotes doesn't help. As soon as you need to explain a joke it ceases to be funny.
The story has Alice journeying to the moon through the eyepiece of a telescope and while there having the kind of adventures that she had in Wonderland and through the looking glass. The style doesn't quite hit the mark but comes much closer than Jeff Noon's Automated Alice* (though not as close as Gilbert Adair's Alice Through The Needle's Eye *). This is "explained" by suggesting that the work was written some years after the original stories, again an explanation that is necessary only because the author insists on maintaining the fiction that this is a lost story.
What of the poems and songs? Once again they are in the correct style and character and with a nice whimsy but they lack the surety of Dodgson's metre and caused me to stumble in trying to get the rhythms right.
Final verdict? A slight but diverting dreamlike tale which would have been all the better if more attention had been given to crafting a longer story and less to the learned and mock-erudite footnotes.

Thursday 13 May 2010

Book Plates

Alice In Wonderland Book Plates

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Алиса в страната на чудесата (Alice in Wonderland/Bulgarian)

Алиса в страната на чудесата
Bulgarian Translation of Alice In Wonderland.

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland: Soundtrack

Music by Danny Elfman for 2010 Tim Burton production.
Walt Disney Records

Monday 10 May 2010

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A New Musical

Original Cast Recording
Written by Paul Boyd
Paul Boyd Music
Green Dolphin Studios
1998

Balletmet Columbus ticket.

Balletmet Columbus ticket.
Sunday Feb 12, 2006

Sunday 9 May 2010

Little Tales: Alice In Wonderland

Miniature adaptation.
Retold by Stephanie Laslett.
Illustrated by Jenny Press.
Published by Paragon, 2001.

Friday 7 May 2010

Alice In Wonderland: A Dance Fantasy

Ballet Adaptation of Alice In WOnderland
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Music by Viktor Kalabis
Published by V.I.E.W. Children's Cultural Collection
Bonus features, synopsis, documentary.

Little Treasury of Alice In Wonderland

Six cardboard mini-volume adaptation.
Retold by Jane Caruth.
Illustrated by Rene Cloke


Published by Award Publications, 1990

Thursday 6 May 2010

Alice At The Palace

"Music Hall" adaptation of Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.
Starring Meryl Streep, Betty Aberlin, Debbie Allen, Michael Jeter
Broadway Theater Archive
82 minutes

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Alice In Wonderland

Real Audio reading of Alice in Wonderland.
Published by WOUB Centre for public media
(c) Ohio University.

Saturday 1 May 2010

Alice illustatrors

An old website linking to various other pages.
Caution site has not been updated since 1999. Links may be broken.