Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There
Price: $200.00
Tenniel, John. Hard Cover. London: Macmillan and Co., 1922. Very Good.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1922 [originally published in 1872]. With fifty illustrations by John Tenniel. Later printing ("Sixty-Seventh Thousand"). Publisher's red cloth, borders of front and rear boards triple-ruled in gilt, boards illustrated with the Queens in gilt, spine lettered in gilt, and all edges gilt. Near fine, with light toning to spine and right side of front board, light offsetting and spotting to endpapers, small tear to surface of front pastedown, and contemporary gift inscription to front free endpaper. Overall, a tight and lovely copy. Through the Looking-Glass is Lewis Carroll's sequel to his popular children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). In this story, which represents the child protagonist's journey from adolescence to adulthood, Alice ventures into a fantasy world through the mirror above her fireplace. Throughout the novel, Carroll includes nonsense poetry, including the playful and popular "Jabberwocky." Like Alice, Through the Looking-Glass is illustrated by John Tenniel. Carroll originally intended to write this sequel as early as 1866, but had trouble persuading Tenniel to illustrate it. Writer and artist had a somewhat volatile relationship because of their mutual perfectionism: just as the true first edition of Alice was suppressed because of unsatisfactory illustrations, Through the Looking-Glass's illustrations were heavily edited. Tenniel demanded the removal of a character that was too difficult to illustrate, whereas Carroll replaced Tenniel's "Jabberwock" plate with an image of the White Knight, which was less frightening, as a frontispiece. Item #LC134
