a bank, and nothing to do
a bank, and nothing to do
the boat, mid-talefour voices on the water — three of them will not let the tale run straight
catch the drifting words — one finger is enough
the boat, now named
a river above Oxford, toward Godstow · the diary and catalogue account give 4 july 1862, with doubt about the exact date
turn the leaf — drag it across, or tap it
leaf i · the telling
Nothing is written down. The tale exists only in the boat, and only for as long as the afternoon lasts.
[ abstraction of a hand-written page — not a facsimile ]
leaf ii · the hand
Thirty-seven of his own pen drawings are worked in among the words.
[ pen drawing, abstracted ]
leaf iii · the shape of it
On the last leaf he pastes in a photograph of Alice, laid over his own drawing of her.
[ abstraction — the object itself is Add MS 46700 ]
leaf iv · the interval
Roughly twenty-eight months after the river, the small green book is sent to Alice Liddell.
[ a gift, not yet a publication ]
the presentation wording
A Christmas Gift
to a Dear Child
in Memory of
a Summer Day
[ set here in type; in the book it is written by hand ]
leaf 1 of 4
the making interval
4 July 1862November 1864
told in one afternoon · written out, illustrated and bound by hand across roughly twenty-eight months · then given away as a private gift
what publication did to it
impression i · structure
four chapters, untitled→twelve, each named
impression ii · length
12,715 words→26,211 words
The same summer afternoon, told at more than twice the length. New episodes are added; the private jokes for three sisters thin out. These are the corrected totals given in the British Library catalogue, which sets aside the older accepted figures of 18,000 and 35,000 words as inaccurate.
impression iii · pictures
37 pen drawings, his own hand→42 illustrations by John Tenniel
Drawn, cut into wood, set, inked, folded and bound by engravers, compositors, pressmen and binders whom the book itself does not name.
impression iv · the failed pull
the first printing, 1865withdrawn
Tenniel objected to the quality of the printed illustrations. That printing was withdrawn, and the book most readers have met since is a later impression.
told on the water, 4 july 1862 · written and drawn by hand · sent november 1864 · british library, add ms 46700
scroll — the human traces and the evidence