The Nursery Alice

“I wrote to Macmillan to suggest a new idea: a ‘Nursery Edition’ of Alice with pictures printed in.” Lewis Carroll’s diary, 15th February, 1881 The Nursery Alice, originally published by Macmillan & Co. in 1890, was the very first colour edition of Alice. It was intended, wrote Carroll, “to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five. To be read? Nay, not so! Say rather to be thumbed, to be cooed over, to be dogs’-eared, to be rumpled, to be kissed …” With this new, younger readership in mind, Carroll rewrote Alice, simplifying and abridging the original text, while Tenniel redrew, enlarged and coloured twenty of his iconic illustrations. The resulting book is a delightfully engaging experience, readers prompted to interact not only with the story but also with the images and even the physical book itself, in a way that is thoroughly modern. Gloriously reproduced for the anniversary year, the present edition retains the every word of the original and restores the exquisite delicacy of Tenniel’s artwork – lost in reproductions across the decades – along with the delightful cover artwork by Emily Gertrude Thomson. This gem of a book is the perfect introduction to Alice, a delight for readers of every age.