Complete Alice in Wonderland - L. Carroll [52]
May 4, 1859 (Noon): The Queen of Hearts sends out invitations for the day’s game of croquet.
May 4, 1859 (Early Afternoon): Alice meets the Duchess, the Cook, the Pig-Baby and the Cheshire-Cat.
May 4, 1859 (Mid-Afternoon): Alice meets the March Hare, Dormouse and Hatter at the Mad Tea-Party. (Technically, there was a “time warp” holding this repeating event eternally at 6:00 PM, as the tea-party had been going on since March. But from Alice’s perspective, the party took place in the afternoon.)
May 4, 1859 (Late Afternoon): Alice enters the royal gardens and plays croquet. She then goes to the seashore, and meets the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.
May 4, 1859 (Early Evening): Alice attends the trial in the royal court.
May 4, 1859 (6:00 PM): Alice wakes, leaving Wonderland and returning to the shores of the River Isis, just in time for tea. (In regards to Victorian convention, this may have been 5:00 or 6:00 PM. 6:00 PM is more likely, considering the Hatter’s comments during the Mad Tea-Party. The intervention of a mischievous Father Time, restarting time at 6:00 PM just where he last froze it, is likely!)
October?, 1859: The Hatter and the March Hare flee into Looking-Glass Land, and become Anglo-Saxon Messengers for the White King. (The month is guessed at, based on allusions in Through the Looking-Glass, where we are about to continue our journey.)
PART III
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE
Introduction
CONSIDERING the wild success enjoyed by the release of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland beginning in 1865, it may (to the outside observer) be something of a wonder in itself that the sequel did not appear until 1871. The practical reason for the delay, of course, was that Carroll maintained his position at Oxford, and this (compounded by several other hobbies, such as photography, invention and logical theory) gave him precious little “free” time in which to write the sequel. Making matters even more difficult, there were problems with his illustrator Tenniel’s schedule, printing mishaps, and various other considerations as well.
The true heart of the matter, however, is deeper still. Carroll had a falling out with the Liddell family (the reasons for which are still unclear, but seem to center on his relationship with the maturing Alice and Lorina), and it must have pained him to know that the world was pining for an “Alice” whose company he himself was no longer able to enjoy. Fate has a way of arranging the inevitable, however, and events were conspiring to bring Alice’s adventures to the fore once again.
In 1867, Carroll had an intriguing meeting with an entirely different Alice, a young girl named Alice Raikes. The themes of this conversation certainly informed the writing of Through the Looking-Glass. Ms. Raikes later recalled this encounter as follows:
“One day, hearing my name, he [Lewis Carroll] called me to him saying, ‘So you are another Alice. I’m very fond of Alices. Would you like to come and see something which is rather puzzling?’ We followed him into the house which opened, as ours did, into a room full of furniture with a tall mirror standing across one corner.
“‘Now,’ he said, giving me an orange, ‘First tell me which hand you have got that in.’ ‘The right,’ I said. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘go and stand before that glass, and tell me which hand the little girl you see there has got it in.’ After some perplexed contemplation, I said, ‘The left hand.’ ‘Exactly,’ he said, ‘and how do you explain that?’ I couldn’t explain it, but seeing that some solution was expected, I ventured, ‘If I was on the other side of the glass, wouldn’t the orange still be in my right hand?’ I remember his laugh. ‘Well done, little Alice,’ he said. ‘The best answer I’ve had yet.’”
A fuller account of the creative forces driving the creation of Through the Looking-Glass can be found in the Chronology at the end of this work, and in the Reflections following the text.