Alice in Wonderland. Alice in the Wonderland. Sonya in the realm of BML diva

It is unlikely that the name of the English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was so popular in our time, if it were not for his two stories, composed by him for three girls - the daughters of the Oxford dean Henry Liddell. History has preserved the date from which Alice's adventures in Wonderland began - July 4, 1862. On this sultry day, during a boat trip on the Thames, Dodgson's little companions asked him to tell them a fairy tale, and Charles began to improvise. The girls liked the beginning of the story so much that ten-year-old Alice asked her to write it down. Exactly three years later, in 1865, the tale was published by the Oxford printing house. On the cover was Dodgson's pseudonym, Lewis Carroll. Although Dodgson himself was dissatisfied with the quality of the printing of this first edition, the text of his story immediately attracted the attention of the public. A captivating fantasy-style plot that few people heard about in the 19th century, fantastic characters, unusual transformations - everything in this story was new and unusual. The impression of the book was enhanced by the magnificent illustrations of the graphic artist John Tenniel. Despite the numerous reprints of Alice in Wonderland, these illustrations are still considered unsurpassed classics, although already in the 20th century, pictures for this fantastic story were drawn by Salvador Dali, Tove Janson and other talented draftsmen. This edition is illustrated by Tenniel's works.

Like many other talented literary works, "Alice" gave rise to many questions and comments. Who were the prototypes of Carroll's heroes? How did Alice reflect the purely scientific questions that worried Dodgson? A lot of research has been published on these topics, but they fade into the background when you read Alice to children. They always love this story.

The undoubted success of the story prompted Carroll to write a sequel. Alice Through the Looking Glass was completed in 1871. This story, no less curious and paradoxical, was also illustrated by Tenniel. Eight years later, the first translation of Alice in Wonderland into Russian appeared. The story was called "Sonya in the kingdom of a diva." It was printed in Moscow without indicating the author or translator. This rare text is included in this collection, as is Carroll's lesser-known work, The Hunting of the Snark. In the 20th century, other translations of "Alice" into Russian began to appear. This collection contains the translation of Alexandra Nikolaevna Rozhdestvenskaya. "Alice Through the Looking Glass" is given in the translation of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ashkinazi, which was published under the pseudonym V. A. Azov