THE ANNOTATED ALICE, THE DEFINITIVE EDITION, W.W. Norton, 312 pages, $29.95.
"Alice in Wonderland" is a literary icon.Cliches, mathematical twists, linguistic jokes and hidden meanings are found in Lewis Carroll's fantasy about a child's adventure after a fall down a rabbit hole.
In 1932, at the hundred-year anniversary of Carroll's birth, G.K. Chesterton voiced his concern that Alice and her story were becoming "cold and monumental like a classic tomb . . ." His plea was aimed at the heavy-handedness of scholars, who sought interpretations to the Mock Turtle, the chess game and myriad other events in the story.
He understood that researchers sought psychoanalytic answers to things like the Mad Tea Party or the looking-glass archetypes. Chesterton probably realized that there would be those who would apply social and political meanings to the croquet game, the Lobster Quadrille or Alice's many changes in physical size. He probably would have enjoyed the way Tweedledum and Tweedledee have been used as commercial symbolism.
"There is much to be said for Chesterton's plea not to take Alice too seriously," wrote Martin Gardner in the 1960 edition of "The Annotated Alice."
"But no joke is funny unless you see the point of it, and sometimes a point has to be explained. In the case of Alice we are dealing with a very curious, complicated kind of nonsense, written for British readers of another century and we need to know a great many things that are not part of the text if we wish to capture its full wit and flavor," Gardner wrote.
To help readers understand the curious and complicated kind of nonsense, "The Annotated Alice" was published by Clarkson Potter using the original artwork by John Tenniel. It was a popular volume with notes, letters and explanations of Carroll's jokes and allegorical nuances. It went through many printings and was translated into Italian, Japanese, Russian and Hebrew.
Gardner, a longtime Scientific American columnist and scholar of Carroll's work, collected letters from readers with corrections and additional insights and was, in the mid-1980s, ready to update the first edition. But Clarkson Potter Publishers had been purchased by Random House, and Peter Newell published "More Annotated Alice," which included a few additions and explanations. He left out the original Tenniel artwork.
Recently, Random House agreed to return the rights to Gardner, and the Definitive Edition is the result. Not only does this volume combine all the notes from the other two, but it includes recent additions from Gardner and other experts on Carroll. Also inserted is "The Wasp in a Wig," an episode written by Carroll for the first edition of "Alice in Wonderland," additional appendixes and a section called "Alice on the Screen," a list of all the film and TV productions based on Alice. The original Tenniel artwork and recently discovered pencil sketches are also included.
"The Definitive Edition" is a masterful volume. Readers who wonder about the delightful stories can find explanations that enrich the classic. Gardner explains one such textual expansion: "When Victorians were forced to shake hands with people they saw as inferiors, they would extend only two fingers instead of their whole hand. Humpty, prideful as he is, goes this one better, offering Alice one finger."
Norton has printed "The Definitive Edition" with elegance and grace, including dark binding and parchment-like paper. It's a credit to a wonderful classic and well worth the study and enjoyment for all ages.