≡The Boat Ride that Brought Alice
The classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland emerged unexpectedly on a summer day, July 4, 1862. On that date, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll—invited three sisters for a boat trip along the River Thames: Lorina, Edith, and Alice Liddell, daughters of Henry Liddell, dean of Christ Church, Oxford. During the journey, to drive away boredom and enchant the girls, Carroll began narrating a fantastic adventure filled with eccentric characters and absurd situations. Young Alice, only 10 years old, was so fascinated by the story that she asked the author to write it down.
Fulfilling her request, Carroll first drafted the manuscript Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which, after revisions and new ideas, would be published in 1865 under its definitive title Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The boat episode is considered one of the most important moments in English literature, as it gave birth to one of the most celebrated children’s tales in the world.
More than 160 years later, the trip along the Thames is still remembered as the creative spark that turned an ordinary afternoon among friends into one of the most enduring and influential narratives in world culture.
Did you know??
