Alice in the Wonderland. Translation by Yuri Lifshits

Page 1 of 21

Instead of a preface,
or The story of how Alice got onto the Chessboard, became a White Pawn and on the eleventh move turned into a Queen.

1. Alice meets the Black Queen, becomes a White Pawn and starts the game from square e2.
And the Black Queen quickly runs away from square e2 to square h5.

2. Alice in the flying train is transported from square d4 to d2 and meets two plump Brothers.
And the White Queen rushes for the shawl from square c1 to c4.

3. Alice meets the White Queen, who happens to be nearby, on square c4, and gives her the shawl.
And the White Queen suddenly turns into a Sheep and finds herself in a strange shop on cell c5.

4. Alice is transported from the store to the river and back and ends up from cell d4 to d5.
And the White Queen in sheep rings suddenly disappears and is transported far, far away - to square f8.

5. Alice from the amazing store goes straight to visit Yolk-White on cell d6.
And the White Queen jumps out of the forest, escaping from the Knight on the Black Horse, and ends up on cell c8.

6. Alice ends up in the forest on cell d7.
And the Knight on the Black Horse wants to take her prisoner, galloping from square g8 to e7.

7. The Knight on the White Horse from square f5 gallops to Alice’s rescue and defeats the Black Knight.
And, having escorted Alice to the edge of the forest, the White Knight returns back to square f5.

8. Alice jumps over the last stream, and on her head there is a golden crown - here it is, the treasured square d8.
But the Black Queen gives Alice a strict test, running from h5 to e8.

9. Alice passes the exam and becomes a real Queen.
And the Black and White Queens freeze and fall asleep next to Alice on their cages.

10. Alice at a feast with two Queens on her sides.
And the White Queen suddenly finds herself in a tureen on square a6 and shouts: “Here I am!”

11. Alice takes the Black Queen and wins.

A clean brow shines for me
And a clear childish look.
Child, half your life has flown away,
There is no going back.
But a string of ancient days
I will return it with my fairy tale.
It still rings in me
Your silvery laugh
And I'm probably forgotten
Like last year's snow.
Let time separate us
But you're with me again now
And again the boat glides
Inaudibly over the waves,
And the sun shines through the greenery,
A fairy tale is coming to us.
Like a jewel on the shore
That day and us on the shore.
They run and flow like water,
Carefree day after day.
Years will pass and forever
Let's sleep our last sleep.
But we, like children, drive away
A nasty dream and an evil night.
And now it’s day, and outside the window
There are snowdrifts.
In a cozy house with a fireplace
Reliable and warm.
Misfortune, grief and misfortune
I'll take you away with a magic word.
When the shadow suddenly becomes sad
Will touch us with its wing,
We will remember that July day
And we’ll go down into its shadow.
And the fairy tale will flow again,
And new days will begin to count.

Characters,
or Arranging pieces on a chessboard.

White
Figures
TEC
UNICORN
SHEEP
WHITE QUEEN
WHITE KING
OLD MAN
WHITE KNIGHT
TEAK
Pawns
DASY ZIGZAYA OYSTER
SWEETHEART
DEER
OYSTER
CAT-HEIFER
DAISY

Black
Pawns
DASY NO OYSTER
SNAPDRAGON
ROSE
OYSTER
FROG
DAISY
Figures
YOLK-WHITE
A CARPENTER
WALRUS
BLACK QUEEN
BLACK KING
CROW
BLACK KNIGHT
A LION

Translator Yuri Lifshits

ISBN 978-5-4483-2560-1

Created in the intellectual publishing system Ridero

Introduction

Child looking bright
Dreaming of a miracle
Although many years have passed
And we won't be together
But you came in this time too
In the story given to you.
You're not here, I can't hear you
Silver laughter.
Your youth is in full bloom,
And I'm just a nuisance
But if you're at a leisurely hour
Read my fairy tale...
It started in the summer when
Colors glowed in the rays.
The sun and water merged
With the flow of the first fairy tale
Years of merciless spite
I remember the summer warmth.
The time will come someday
Evening, pre-sunset,
And let my girl fall asleep
A clear voice will command
But we are not children to cry,
When it's time for us to go to bed.
It's blizzard and frost outside
And the wind howls fiercely.
And here is the bliss of childhood dreams,
The fireplace is blazing hot
Your baby dreams
Surrounded by fantasy.
Even the ghost of my old age
Slides in this story,
And there are no "happy summer days"
Missing with the summer
But the ominous eye did not penetrate
To my new fairy tale.

Chapter I. The Looking-Glass House

One thing was clear: the white kitten was not to blame. The black one got into trouble. For the last quarter of an hour, the white kitten had been carefully washed by his mother, a cat named Dina, and he could hardly lay a paw on what had happened.

Dina washed the kittens every day. It was a funny sight: with her left paw she pressed the kitten’s head to her, and with her right paw she rubbed his face quite firmly. At the moment, Dina, as already mentioned, was washing the white kitten’s hair. He didn’t even think of trying to escape, purred from time to time and showed with all his appearance that he was aware of the need for daily head washers.

But the black kitten was already washed, and when Alice took a nap in a large comfortable chair, he started fussing with a ball of wool. Alice had wound up a large ball the day before and, as it turned out, it was completely in vain: what was left of it lay unwound and completely tangled, and the kitten, running along the threads, was catching up with its own tail.

- What a lack of hearing you are! - Alice reproached him, and Not kissed me as punishment. “It seems to me, Dina, that you should pay attention to your son.” It should, Dinochka, it should! Don't argue, please! - she scolded the old cat with all the sternness she was capable of.

Alice collected the wool, sat down in a chair, put the kitten on her lap and began to untangle the threads.

Things were going neither shaky nor slow, because she was not so much working as talking: sometimes with the kitten, sometimes with herself. The subdued kitten sat on her lap, supposedly looking at the ball with interest and occasionally touching the threads - he, they say, could help if he was allowed.

– Do you know, Coal, what will happen tomorrow? - asked Alice. - Do not you know? Same thing. You should have looked out the window with me. Although Dina was just at that time putting you in order. The boys were collecting branches for the fire in the yard. The fire will go up to the skies. It was snowing, it was very cold, the boys froze and left. But don’t be upset, Coal, tomorrow there will certainly be a fire. Will you come watch with me?

Alice threw a thread around the kitten's neck - it would be interesting to see how it would look? He began to fight back, the ball fell and, unwinding, rolled across the floor.

“You can’t imagine, Coal, how you upset me today!” – Alice spoke again, sitting down in a chair. - There was nothing to play pranks on. Say thank you, I didn’t put you out in the cold for your pranks. You will make excuses later, but for now sit and listen. “She shook her finger at the kitten. – I remember everything, you know that! In the morning you squeaked displeasedly twice when your mother washed you - this time. Don't mind, I heard it myself. What? – Alice put her palm to her ear, listening (of course, in pretend) to Coal’s supposed objections. “Are you saying that Dina hit you in the eye with her paw?” Blame yourself. They told you to close your eyes, but you didn’t listen. Secondly, you grabbed Squirrel by the tail. She was the first to run to the saucer of milk. She might have wanted to drink more than you. Finally, a ball. Before I even had time to look back, you unwound it - that’s three. Three whole tricks! And mind you, I didn’t punish you for any of them. But on Wednesday you will answer for everything, okay?.. What would happen if I was punished for everything at once? – Alice asked the question not to the kitten, but to herself. - What would happen to me then? was? They would have been sent to prison, no other way! And if I were left without lunch for every offense, then I would lose at least fifty lunches a year. However, this is not so bad. It's better to miss fifty meals once than to eat them all in one sitting.

“Look out the window,” Alice turned to the kitten again. - Snowing. How softly and silently he falls. And it just sticks to the glass! I think if it was winter Cold If she treated trees and fields, she would not have cared about them at all. You see how carefully she wraps them with her snow-white blanket. “It’s time to sleep, my dears,” Winter probably says. “Rest until spring.” The trees will sleep, put on green dresses and dance merrily in the spring wind. How amazing! - Alice exclaimed, clapped her hands and... dropped the ball. – I wish winter would end soon! When trees are without leaves, they are boring to look at...

“Come on, Coal, I’ll teach you to play chess,” Alice continued after a pause. – There’s no need to laugh, I’m serious. Yesterday, for example, you followed the game with all your eyes. I think you're already starting to understand the rules. When I announced “Check!”, you purred with pleasure. You know, I made a great move then, and if it weren’t for that stupid Horse, I would certainly have won. What if you and I...

To tell the truth, a good half of the phrases spoken by Alice began with the words “what if...”. Yesterday, for example, she suggested to her sister: “What if you and I also become figures, for example, the King and Queen? And let's play a game? My sister refused. “There are only two of us,” she said after much arguing, “and we cannot replace all the figures.” She didn't like such fantasies at all. Then Alice suggested playing differently. “Okay,” she said, “let you be one Queen, and I will be the other, and both Kings at the same time.” That's what! One day Alice scared her old nanny half to death. "Nanny! – she shouted right into the old woman’s ear. “What if I’m an angry dog and you’re a cat!”

But we digress.

- What if you, Sooty, become the Black Queen? - said Alice. - Sit on your hind legs. So. And press the front ones to your stomach. Please don't be stubborn...

She took the Black Queen off the board and showed the kitten what she looked like. It did not help. Sooty didn't want to fold his paws correctly. Alice had to take him in her arms and bring him to the mirror - let him look at himself from the outside!

- Why are you so stubborn? – Alice asked the kitten. “If you don’t listen, I’ll send you to the Mirror House.” I don't think you'll like it very much there... Okay, sit still and listen. I'll tell you about Through the Looking Glass. There is exactly the same room as ours. Only things have been rearranged. The fireplace is not visible in Through the Looking Glass. Therefore, you won’t be able to look at it. I wonder if there is a fire in it or not? When our fireplace begins to smoke, smoke also billows into that room. But maybe Mirror Smoke isn't real? Maybe there's smoke in there just, to guide us through, but in fact the fire is never lit in that fireplace? In Through the Looking Glass there are books very similar to ours, only the letters in them face the wrong direction. Honestly! One day I opened the book in front of the Mirror and examined everything properly. Do you, Sooty, like the Looking Glass House? I don't know if there is milk in there or not. And if there is, will it benefit you? You know, there is a corridor there. When we open the doors of our room, a piece of that corridor is visible through the looking glass. It is also similar to ours, but what will it turn out to be next? Oh, if only I could get through the Mirror! It would be great! Maybe try it? I could do it if the Mirror dissipated, like smoke... Wow! It really is covered in some kind of translucent haze... And now it’s not so difficult...

The mirror hung above the mantelpiece. Alice (unexpectedly for herself) instantly climbed onto it. Mirror little by little dissolved and gradually turned into some kind of silvery fog.

Without thinking twice, Alice walked through the liquid glass and jumped into the Mirror Chambers. The first thing she did was look to see if there was a fire in the fireplace or not. Her joy knew no bounds: the fire was burning - as bright and hot as on the other side of the Mirror.

“It’s warm here,” she thought. – Just like home, even warmer. Here no one will forbid me to sit right next to the fire. Well, our people will look funny when they discover me through the Looking Glass! That’s why they’re running!”

Alice looked around. On both sides of the Mirror the room looked approximately the same. Only what was not reflected in him from that side was worthy of surprise. The paintings hanging near the fireplace turned out to be alive, the dial of the mantel clock (at home it was reflected in the Mirror only from behind) turned into the face of an old man who was looking at Alice with a smile.

Noticing several chess pieces among the ashes scattered on the fireplace rug, Alice thought: “What a mess! This doesn’t happen with us.” And at that same second she gasped in surprise: the figures were walking in pairs along the rug!

“This is the Black King,” Alice said in a whisper, kneeling down (for fear of scaring him off). - This is the Black Queen. And the White King and his Queen climbed into the coal scoop. Here are the Rooks. They don't seem to hear me. – Alice leaned lower. - And they don’t see it. Am I invisible now?

Suddenly a piercing squeak was heard behind her. Alice looked back. The White Pawn fell from the chessboard onto the table: the poor thing was crying loudly and kicking its legs helplessly. Alice looked at her with curiosity and expected further events.

- Daughter! – the White Queen cried and rushed off, knocking the White King off his feet. - You are my little darling! You are my royal cat! – the Queen shouted hoarsely, climbing up the fireplace grate.

– Tiny, kitty!– muttered the White King. - Royal nonsense, and nothing more!

He lay in the ash, rubbing his nose, which had been hit hard by the fall, and had every reason to express some displeasure to his Queen: because of her, he hurt himself and fell in the ash.

Alice could not remain indifferent. She grabbed the Queen, instantly carried her to the table and placed her next to the Pawn, who was screaming.

The Queen's legs gave way. Gasping for breath, she sat down on the table. The dizzying flight was not to her liking. For a minute or two she clutched her Baby in her arms, unable to utter a word. When the faintness passed, she loudly warned the King, who was sitting in the ashes with a gloomy look:

– Be careful, volcano!

- What kind of volcano? – the King became worried and looked at the fireplace; obviously, only there, in his opinion, could a volcano be located.

“Who... me... monstered...” the Queen said with difficulty (her breathing had not yet fully recovered). - Go up... another way... Otherwise this volcanic monster will do the same to you.

Watching the King slowly, with stops, climb up the fireplace grate, Alice quickly got bored.

“At this speed, Your Majesty,” she said to the King, “you won’t get to the table in 24 hours.” If you don't mind, I'll help you a little.

The king remained silent. Apparently he was unaware of its existence.

Alice carefully took the King and, so that he would not suffocate like the Queen, began to slowly lift him up. On the way, she decided to put His Majesty in order - he was so dirty with ash.

Well, the King made a grimace when Alice blew on him! According to her, she has never seen anything like it. From surprise, the King’s throat tightened, his mouth opened wider and wider, his eyes grew wider and wider... Alice couldn’t stand it, burst out laughing and... almost dropped him on the floor.

– Please stop grimacing, Your Majesty! - said Alice. “Don’t make me laugh, or I’ll drop you.” And close your mouth - the ash will get into your throat. “Okay, now everything is in order,” she added, straightened the King’s hair and placed it on the table next to the Queen.

The king collapsed as if knocked down and froze, showing no signs of life. Alice ran around the room in alarm, looking for water to give the King first aid. When she returned (without water, but with a bottle of ink), the King had already come to his senses and was excitedly whispering something to the Queen. Alice began to listen intently. And that's what I heard.

“Would you believe it, darling,” said the King, “I literally went cold with fear.” From top to bottom.

- That is, from the crown to the shoes? – the Queen inquired sarcastically.

“This is a terrible event,” continued the King, “I will not forget until the end of my days!”

“You will certainly forget,” the Queen grinned, “long before the end.” this day, if you don’t write it down for memory.

To Alice's surprise, the King pulled out a huge notebook from his pocket, a pencil the size of his hand, and began to write. A funny thought came to Alice's mind. She grabbed the pencil and began to help To the king.

His Majesty's eyes just popped out of his head. After observing the pencil, he made a couple of attempts to pacify it. But Alice prevailed, and the King surrendered.

- Nonsense? – the Queen asked, looked into the notebook and read with interest the entry scribbled by the King (with the participation of Alice): “The White Horse saddled the poker. If he falls, he won’t collect any bones!”- Dear, what does your pencil have to do with it and what does it have to do with you does this entry have?

Meanwhile, Alice discovered a book on the table and began to leaf through it, still continuing to glance at the King - was he going to faint again, and would he have to be brought to consciousness with the help of ink? She tried in vain to read anything on the pages.

“It must be a foreign language,” she decided.

In fact, it was quite difficult to understand what I read. Judge for yourself:

SPORDO FIGHTERS
Supelo. Mop and camel
There were no Dubrags.
The knurlik swung at the lost
An angry rat was growling.

Alice looked at these lines in bewilderment for some time, until it dawned on her.

- This is the Looking Glass Book! And if you bring it to the Mirror, the letters in it will immediately turn in the right direction!

And this is what she read:

SPORDO FIGHTERS
Supelo. Mop and camel
There were no Dubrags.
The knurlik swung at the lost
An angry rat was growling.
“Son, tigerish Spordodrak!
With its brutality,
Like an echimeric Burdosmak
He torments people.”
He took the rapika. Hit the road
Knives on a belt.
Relax under Baobuk
He lay down in the wilderness.
Suddenly, from under forest snags
The freak is screaming
Flammable Spordodrak
Savage dracot!
But he tempered the enemy's agility
The iron of the blade,
And cut off the head of the beast
The hand did not tremble.
“This is the end of the hippomonster!
My brave one, you are a hero!” -
His father screamed
A little alive from happiness
.
Supelo. Mop and camel
There were no Dubrags.
The knurlik swung at the lost
An angry rat was growling.

“Well, poems are like poems,” Alice concluded, “only not entirely understandable (she was lying: the poems were completely incomprehensible to her). “They make you think... though, you don’t know what.” Apparently, someone killed someone, although it is unclear why...

- However! – Alice suddenly remembered something and jumped up. – If I’m not in a hurry to go back through the Mirror yet, why not look at the other rooms? Or no, I’d better go to the garden!

She quickly left the room and ran down the steps, that is, she didn’t so much run as... flew, barely touching the railing with her hand. “Perhaps this is how it is done here,” thought Alice. “It’s both more convenient and easier than walking.” Having passed the hallway, Alice would certainly have flown straight out the door if, from being unaccustomed to flying, she had not felt slightly dizzy. She grabbed the doorframe and was pleased to discover that she could get into the garden on foot.

Chapter II. Garden with talkative flowers

“I’ll climb the hill,” Alice decided. “The garden will be visible much better from there.” Here is the path. And you can climb up without much difficulty... No, perhaps it will be a little difficult... - she added, having walked a few yards. - The path winds in circles. And yet I will reach the top. Well well! This is some kind of spiral, not a path. So, one more turn and I’m at the top... Wow! So much to go and come back! We'll have to look for another way."

Not so. No matter which direction they went, no matter how the paths twisted, Alice, having chosen one or another, invariably found herself at the door of the Looking-Glass House. One of the paths turned towards him quite sharply. Alice almost ran into the wall while accelerating.

- I don’t want to hear anything! - Alice said angrily and covered her ears, pretending that the House had approached her with an offer to enter it. “As soon as you enter, you will immediately demand that I return home.” What about adventures?

She turned her back to the House, chose another path and walked forward with the firm intention of not stopping until she reached her goal. A few minutes later, Alice was delighted:

- Well, finally... - when suddenly the path swerved, shuddered(it was in these terms that Alice talked about it) and in the blink of an eye delivered her to the porch.

- I have no more strength! – Alice was loudly indignant. - Some house stood across my road! I've never seen houses like this before didn't get caught!

She looked at the hillock and decided to try her luck again. This time she's on her way got caught a large flower bed with daisies around the circumference and a lilac bush in the middle. Alice looked at one chrysanthemum, which swayed gracefully from the slightest breath, sighed and whispered:

“It’s a pity that chrysanthemums can’t speak.”

- But they can! – Chrysanthemum responded immediately. - It would only be with someone. And we don’t talk to the first people we meet at all!

Alice was almost speechless from surprise. For a whole minute she looked at the talking flower without breathing. The chrysanthemum swayed in the wind as if nothing had happened.

“I didn’t know that flowers spoke,” Alice said in a whisper for some reason.

- How are they worse than you? - Chrysanthemum muttered. “And they speak much louder.”

– Decent“Flowers,” Rose said, “never speak first.” “I was sure that you didn’t know the rules of decency.” It was written all over your face, which, by the way, wasn’t exactly smart. It's good that the color is more or less decent. This gives some hope.

“Color doesn’t matter,” said Chrysanthemum. “If she didn’t have such strange petals, she would look no worse than others.”

To hush up the unpleasant conversation, Alice began questioning:

– Aren’t you afraid to grow up here? You can't stand up for yourself.

- What's the use of lilacs? - said Rose. – Now, I hope everything is clear?

– What can Lilac do if you are in danger? – Alice didn’t understand the hint.

“She can be very frightening,” Rose answered.

- How to howl siren, - one Daisy picked up, - the soul into the roots will leave! That's why it's called Lilac.

– How can you not know such simple things! - another one squealed, and all the Daisies squealed indignantly.

Alice even thought that their piercing screams took her breath away.

- Be silent, damn you! - Chrysanthemum squealed, trembling with indignation, and began to sway excitedly from side to side. “They do what they want,” she added, breathing convulsively and turning to Alice. - Soon they will completely sit on your head.

“Calm down, please,” Alice said sympathetically, leaned over to the Daisies, who continued to strain, and whispered menacingly: “Bite your tongues, otherwise your heads won’t be blown off!”

The daisies fell silent at once and turned white from horror.

- It's good that you cut off,” Chrysanthemum approved of Alice’s actions. - What disgusting flowers! One begins to crack, others pick it up and carry it - the petals wither!

- How well you speak! - Alice admired, hoping with her praise to return Chrysanthemum to her previous mood. “I’ve been to many gardens, but I’ve never seen talking flowers.”

- In those gardens, flowers probably grow among the grass? – Chrysanthemum asked, not without envy.

“That’s right,” Alice nodded, “the grass just spreads around them.”

- On these beds“They sleep,” Chrysanthemum explained. “That’s why they don’t have time to talk.” And look at what we are growing on.

Alice looked: the ground in the flowerbed was without a single blade of grass.

- Who would have thought! - Alice exclaimed, completely satisfied with Chrysanthemum's explanation.

“Anyone, but not you,” Rose grinned defiantly. “It seems to me that you don’t think about anything at all and can’t think.”

“I’ve never seen such a dumbass in my life!” – Violet assented.

Alice jumped up in surprise (until now Violet had preferred to remain modestly silent).

- To whom, it’s better for you to refrain from making comments! – Chrysanthemum turned to Violet. - He stands, you know, in the shade, sleeps without waking up, and then he talks! The buds on the trees are still silent. But they are much smarter than you.

After Chrysanthemum’s words, there was no point in arguing with Violet. Alice continued her questions:

-Are there other people here besides me?

“Of course,” Rose answered. – Growing here's another one walking flower. I don't understand how you can walk!

– What do you even understand? - Chrysanthemum screwed up.

“Only he’s bigger than you,” Rose finished without even looking in her direction.

– But is he the same as me? - Alice became worried.

The Alice tales are among the most famous books written in English: in terms of citations, they are second only to the Bible and Shakespeare's plays. Time passes, the era described by Carroll goes deeper and deeper into the past, but interest in “Alice” does not decrease, but, on the contrary, grows. What is "Alice in Wonderland"? A fairy tale for children, a collection of logical paradoxes for adults, an allegory of English history or theological disputes? The more time passes, the more incredible interpretations these texts acquire.

Who is Lewis Carroll

Self-portrait of Charles Dodgson. Around 1872

Carroll's writing life is the story of a man who got into literature by accident. Charles Dodgson (that was the real name of the author of Alice) grew up among numerous sisters and brothers: he was the third of 11 children. The younger ones had to be kept busy, and Charles had a natural gift for inventing a wide variety of games. The puppet theater he made at the age of 11 has survived, and in the family papers one can find stories, fairy tales and poetic parodies that he composed at the age of 12 and 13. As a youth, Dodgson loved to invent words and word games; years later he would write a weekly games column for Vanity Fair. Words galumph According to the definition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb to galumph was previously interpreted as “to move in erratic leaps”, and in modern language it has come to mean a noisy and clumsy movement. And chortle To chortle - “to laugh loudly and joyfully.”, invented by him for the poem “Jabberwocky”, are included in English dictionaries.

Dodgson was a paradoxical and mysterious person. On the one hand, a shy, pedantic, stuttering mathematics teacher at Oxford's Christ Church College and researcher of Euclidean geometry and symbolic logic, a prim gentleman and clergyman Dodgson accepted the rank of deacon, but did not dare to become a priest, as was customary for members of the college.; on the other hand, a man who kept company with all the famous writers, poets and artists of his time, an author of romantic poems, a lover of theater and society - including children's. He could tell stories to children; its many child-friends Carroll's definition of the children with whom he was friends and corresponded. they recalled that he was always ready to unfold before them some plot stored in his memory, providing it with new details and changing the action. The fact that one of these stories (an improvisational tale told on July 4, 1862), unlike many others, was written down and then published is an amazing coincidence of circumstances.

How did the fairy tale about Alice come about?

Alice Liddell. Photo by Lewis Carroll. Summer 1858 National Media Museum

Alice Liddell. Photo by Lewis Carroll. May-June 1860 The Morgan Library & Museum

In the summer of 1862, Charles Dodgson told Rector Liddell's daughters Henry Liddell is known not only as Alice's father: together with Robert Scott, he compiled the famous dictionary of the ancient Greek language - the so-called “Liddell-Scott”. Classical philologists around the world still use it today. fairy tale-improvisation. The girls persistently asked to record it. In the winter of the following year, Dodgson completed a manuscript entitled "Alice's Adventures Underground" and gave it to one of the Liddell sisters, Alice. Other readers of the Adventures included the children of the writer George MacDonald, whom Dodgeson met while being treated for a stutter. Macdonald convinced him to think about publication, Dodgson seriously revised the text, and in December 1865 The publisher dated the circulation to 1866."Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was published, signed by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. "Alice" unexpectedly received incredible success, and in 1867 its author began work on a sequel. In December 1871, the book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Seeed There was published.

The British Library

A page from Lewis Carroll's handwritten book Alice's Adventures Underground. 1862–1864 The British Library

In 1928, Alice Hargreaves, née Liddell, finding herself strapped for cash after the death of her husband, put the manuscript up for auction at Sotheby’s and sold it for an incredible £15,400 at the time. After 20 years, the manuscript again went to auction, where for 100 thousand dollars, on the initiative of the head of the US Library of Congress, it was bought by a group of American philanthropists to donate it to the British Museum - as a token of gratitude to the British to the people who held Hitler back while the US prepared for war. Later, the manuscript was transferred to the British Library, on whose website anyone can now look through it.

Alice Hargreaves (Liddell). New York, 1932 The Granger Collection / Libertad Digital

To date, more than a hundred English editions of “Alice” have been published, it has been translated into 174 languages, dozens of film adaptations and thousands of theatrical productions have been created based on the fairy tales.---

What is "Alice in Wonderland"

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Library of Congress

Lewis Carroll with the family of writer George MacDonald. 1863 George MacDonald Society

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

To truly understand Alice in Wonderland, it is important to keep in mind that this book was born by accident. The author moved where his imagination led him, without wanting to tell the reader anything and without implying any clues. Perhaps this is why the text has become an ideal field for searching for meaning. This is not a complete list of interpretations of books about Alice proposed by readers and researchers.

History of England

The baby duke turning into a pig is Richard III, whose coat of arms featured a white boar, and the Queen's demand to repaint the white roses red is, of course, a reference to the confrontation between the Scarlet and White Roses - Lancasters and Yorks. According to another version, the book depicts the court of Queen Victoria: according to legend, the queen herself wrote “Alice”, and then asked an unknown Oxford professor to sign the fairy tales with her name.

History of the Oxford Movement Oxford movement- a movement to bring Anglican worship and dogma closer to the Catholic tradition, which developed in Oxford in the 1830s and 40s.

The high and low doors that Alice, changing her height, is trying to enter are the High and Low Churches (gravitating, respectively, to the Catholic and Protestant traditions) and the believer oscillating between these movements. Dinah the cat and the Scotch terrier, the mention of which the Mouse (a simple parishioner) is so afraid of, are Catholicism and Presbyterianism, the White and Black Queens are Cardinals Newman and Manning, and the Jabberwocky is the papacy.

Chess problem

To solve it, you need to use, unlike ordinary problems, not only chess technique, but also “chess morality,” which leads the reader to broad moral and ethical generalizations.

Encyclopedia of psychosis and sexuality

In the 1920s-50s, psychoanalytic interpretations of “Alice” became especially popular, and attempts were made to present Carroll’s friendship with children as evidence of his unnatural inclinations.

Encyclopedia of "substance" use

In the 1960s, in the wake of interest in various ways of “expanding consciousness”, in fairy tales about Alice, who is constantly changing, drinking from bottles and biting off mushrooms, and conducting philosophical conversations with the Caterpillar, smoking a huge pipe, they began to see an encyclopedia use of "substances". The manifesto of this tradition is the song written in 1967 “ White Rabbit» Jefferson Airplane:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all “One pill and you grow, // Another and you shrink. // And the ones your mother gives you // Are of no use.”.

Where did it come from?

Carroll's fantasy is surprising in that there is nothing fictitious in “Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.” Carroll's method resembles an applique: elements of real life are intricately mixed together, so in the heroes of the fairy tale, its first listeners easily guessed themselves, the narrator, mutual acquaintances, familiar places and situations.

July 4, 1862

“Golden July Afternoon” from the poetic dedication that precedes the text of the book is a very specific Friday, July 4, 1862. According to W. Hugh Auden, the day is “as memorable in the history of literature as in the history of the American state.” It was on the 4th of July that Charles Dodgson, as well as his friend, a teacher at Trinity College And later - tutor to Prince Leopold and canon of Westminster Abbey. Robinson Duckworth and the three rector's daughters - 13-year-old Lorina Charlotte, 10-year-old Alice Pleasence and eight-year-old Edith Mary - went on a boat trip on the Isis (that's the name of the Thames that flows through Oxford).

Page from Lewis Carroll's diary dated July 4, 1862 (right) with an addition dated February 10, 1863 (left)“Atkinson brought his friends, Mrs. and Miss Peters, to me. I took pictures of them, and then they looked at my album and stayed for breakfast. They then went to the museum, and Duckworth and I, taking the three Liddell girls with us, went for a walk up the river to Godstow; drank tea on the shore and returned to Christ Church only at a quarter to eight. They came to me to show the girls my collection of photographs, and delivered them home at about nine o’clock” (translated by Nina Demurova). Addition: “On this occasion, I told them the fairy tale “Alice’s Adventures Underground,” which I began to write down for Alice and which is now completed (as far as the text is concerned), although the drawings are not yet even partially ready.” The British Library

Strictly speaking, this was already the second attempt to go on a summer river walk. On the seventeenth of June the same party, as well as Dodgson's two sisters and aunt, boarded the boat, but soon it began to rain, and the strollers had to change their plans This episode formed the basis for the chapters "Sea of Tears" and "Running in Circles.". But on the 4th of July the weather was fine, and the company had a picnic at Godstow, near the ruins of the ancient abbey. It was there that Dodgson told the Liddell girls the first version of the fairy tale about Alice. It was impromptu: to a friend’s perplexed questions about where he heard this fairy tale, the author answered that he was “making it up on the fly.” The walks continued until mid-August, and the girls asked to talk further and further.

Alice, Dodo, Ed the Eaglet, Black Queen and others

Liddell sisters. Photo by Lewis Carroll. Summer 1858 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The prototype of the main character was the middle sister, Alice, Dodgeson's favorite. Lorina became the prototype of Laurie the parrot, and Edith became the prototype of Ed the Eaglet. There is also a reference to the Liddell sisters in the chapter “Mad Tea Party”: the “jelly young ladies” from Sonya’s story are called Elsie, Lacey and Tilly. “Elsie” is a reproduction of the initials of Lorina Charlotte (L.C., that is, Lorina Charlotte); "Til-lee" is short for Matilda, Edith's pet name, and "Lacie" is an anagram of Alice. Dodgson himself is a Dodo. When introducing himself, he pronounced his last name with a characteristic stutter: “Do-do-dodgson.” Duckworth was depicted as the Drake (Robin Goose, translated by Nina Demurova), and Miss Prickett, the governess of the Liddell sisters (they called her Pricks), became the prototype of the Mouse and the Black Queen.

A door, a garden of amazing beauty and a crazy tea party

Rector's garden. Photo by Lewis Carroll. 1856–1857Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Gate in the rector's garden todayPhoto by Nikolai Epple

"Cat tree" in the rector's garden todayPhoto by Nikolai Epple

View of the Provost's Garden from Dodgson's office in the library todayPhoto by Nikolai Epple

Fridesvida's well todayPhoto by Nikolai Epple

Looking through the door, Alice sees a “garden of amazing beauty” - this is the door leading from the garden of the rector’s house to the garden at the cathedral (children were forbidden to enter the church garden, and they could only see it through the gate). Here Dodgson and the girls played croquet, and cats sat on a spreading tree growing in the garden. The current residents of the rector's house believe that the Cheshire Cat was among them.

Even the mad tea party, for whose participants it is always six o'clock and time to drink tea, has a real prototype: whenever the Liddell sisters came to Dodgson, he always had tea ready for them. The “molasses well” from the fairy tale that Sonya tells during tea party turns into “kisel”, and the sisters living at the bottom become “jelly ladies”. This is a healing spring in the town of Binzi, which was located on the road from Oxford to Godstow.

The first version of “Alice in Wonderland” was precisely a collection of such references, while nonsense and word games of the well-known “Alice” appeared only when the fairy tale was revised for publication.

Chess, talking flowers and Through the Looking Glass

Illustration by John Tenniel for “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” Chicago, 1900 Library of Congress

"Alice Through the Looking Glass" also contains a huge number of references to real people and situations. Dodgson loved to play chess with the Liddell sisters - hence the chess basis of the tale. Snowflake was the name of the kitten of Mary MacDonald, daughter of George MacDonald, and Dodgson bred his eldest daughter Lily as a white pawn. Rose and violet from the chapter “The Garden Where the Flowers Spoke” - Liddell's younger sisters Rhoda and Violet Violet (English) - violet.. The garden itself and the subsequent running in place were obviously inspired by the author's walk with Alice and Miss Prickett on April 4, 1863. Carroll came to visit the children who were staying with their grandparents in Charlton Kings (in their house there was the very mirror through which Alice passes). The episode with the train journey (chapter “Through the Looking Glass Insects”) is an echo of the journey back to Oxford on April 16, 1863. It was perhaps during this trip that Dodgson came up with the topography of Through the Looking Glass: the railway line between Gloucester and Didcot crosses six streams - very similar to the six horizontal streams that Alice the pawn crosses in Through the Looking Glass to become queen.

What does the book consist of?

Words, proverbs, folk poems and songs

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867 Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

The elements of reality that make up the surreal world of Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are not limited to people, places and situations. To a much greater extent, this world is created from the elements of language. However, these layers are closely intertwined. For example, for the role of the prototype of the Hatter Translated by Demurova - Hatter. at least two real people are contenders: Oxford inventor and businessman Theophilus Carter It is believed that John Tenniel, who illustrated Alice, came to Oxford specifically to make sketches from it. and Roger Crab, a hatmaker who lived in the 17th century. But first of all, this character owes its origin to language. The Hatter is a visualization of the English proverb “Mad as a hatter.” In 19th-century England, mercury was used in the production of felt, which was used to make hats. Hatters inhaled its fumes, and symptoms of mercury poisoning include slurred speech, memory loss, tics and distorted vision.

The character created from a linguistic image is a very characteristic technique for Carroll. The March Hare is also from the saying: “Mad as a March hare” translated means “Mad as a March Hare”: in England it is believed that hares go crazy during the breeding season, that is, from February to September.

The Cheshire Cat came from the expression “To grin like a Cheshire cat” "Grinr like the Cheshire Cat.". The origin of this phrase is not entirely obvious. Perhaps it arose because there were many dairy farms in Cheshire and cats felt especially at ease there, or because on these farms they made cheese in the shape of cats with smiling faces (and they were supposed to be eaten from the tail, so the latter is what what was left of them was a muzzle without a body). Or because a local artist painted lions with gaping mouths over the entrances to pubs, but what he ended up with were smiling cats. Alice’s remark “It’s not forbidden to look at kings” in response to the King’s dissatisfaction with the gaze of the Cheshire Cat is also a reference to the old proverb “A cat may look at a king,” meaning that even those at the very bottom have a hierarchical There are rights to the staircase.

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867 Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

But this technique is best seen in the example of the Quasi Turtle, whom Alice meets in the ninth chapter. In the original, her name is Mock Turtle. And in response to Alice’s perplexed question about what she is, the Queen tells her: “It’s the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from” - that is, what “like turtle soup” is made from. Mock turtle soup is an imitation of the traditional gourmet green turtle soup made from veal. That is why in Tenniel's illustration the Mock Turtle is a creature with the head of a calf, hind hooves and a calf's tail.. This kind of wordplay-based character creation is very typical of Carroll. In the original edition of Nina Demurova’s translation, Mock Turtle is called Pod-Kotik, that is, a creature from whose skin fur coats “like a cat” are made..

Carroll's language also controls the development of the plot. So, the Jack of Diamonds steals pretzels, for which he is tried in the 11th and 12th chapters of Wonderland. This is a “dramatization” of the English folk song “The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts...” (“King of Hearts, wishing for pretzels...”). Episodes about Humpty Dumpty, the Lion and the Unicorn also grew from folk songs.

Tennyson, Shakespeare and English folk poetry

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867 Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

In Carroll's books you can find many references to literary works. The most obvious are outright parodies, primarily alterations of well-known poems, mainly moralizing ones (“Papa William,” “Little Crocodile,” “Evening Food,” and so on). Parodies are not limited to poetry: Carroll ironically plays on passages from textbooks (in the chapter “Running in a Circle”) and even poems by poets whom he had great respect for (the episode at the beginning of the chapter “The Garden Where the Flowers Spoke” plays on lines from Tennyson's poem "Maud"). Fairy tales about Alice are so filled with literary reminiscences, quotes and half-quotes that just listing them would fill weighty volumes. Among the authors cited by Carroll are Virgil, Dante, Milton, Gray, Coleridge, Scott, Keats, Dickens, MacDonald and many others. Shakespeare is quoted especially often in Alice: for example, the line “Off with his (her) head,” which the Queen constantly repeats, is a direct quote from Richard III.

How logic and mathematics influenced Alice

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867 Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Charles Dodgson's specialties were Euclidean geometry, calculus and mathematical logic. In addition, he was interested in photography, the invention of logic and mathematical games and puzzles. This logician and mathematician becomes one of the creators of nonsense literature, in which the absurd is a strict system.

An example of nonsense is the Hatter's watch, which shows not the hour, but the number. This seems strange to Alice - after all, there is no point in a clock that does not show time. But they have no meaning in her coordinate system, whereas in the world of the Hat-no-Kay, in which it is always six o’clock and time for tea, the meaning of the clock is precisely to indicate the day. Within each of the worlds, the logic is not broken - it goes astray when they meet. In the same way, the idea of lubricating a watch with butter is not nonsense, but an understandable failure of logic: both the mechanism and the bread are supposed to be lubricated with something, the main thing is not to confuse what exactly.

Inversion is another feature of Carroll's writing method. In the graphical multiplication method he invented, the multiplier was written backwards and above the multiplicand. According to Dodgson, “The Hunting of the Snark” was written backwards: first the last line, then the last stanza, and then everything else. The game “Duplets” he invented consisted of rearranging the letters in a word. His pseudonym Lewis Carroll is also an inversion: at first he translated his full name - Charles Lutwidge - into Latin, it turned out Carolus Ludovicus. And then back to English - the names swapped places.

Illustration by John Tenniel for “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” Chicago, 1900 Library of Congress

Inversion in “Alice” occurs at a variety of levels - from the plot (at the trial of the Knave, the Queen demands first to pass a verdict and then establish the guilt of the defendant) to structural (meeting Alice, the Unicorn says that he has always considered children to be fairy-tale creatures). The principle of mirror reflection, to which the logic of the existence of the Looking Glass is subordinated, is also a type of inversion (and the “reflected” arrangement of the pieces on the chess board makes the chess game an ideal continuation of the theme of the card game from the first book). To quench your thirst, here you need to try dry cookies; to stand still, you need to run; The finger first bleeds, and only then is it pricked with a pin.

Who created the first illustrations for Alice?

Sir John Tenniel. 1860s National Portrait Gallery

One of the most important components of fairy tales about Alice is the illustrations with which the first readers saw her and which are not in most reprints. We are talking about the illustrations of John Tenniel (1820-1914), which are no less important than the real prototypes of the characters and situations described in the book.

At first, Carroll was going to publish a book with his own illustrations and even transferred some of the drawings onto boxwood tablets, which were used by printers to make engravings. But friends from the prerafa-elite circle convinced him to invite a professional illustrator. Carroll chose the most famous and sought-after: Tenniel was then the chief illustrator of the influential satirical magazine Punch and one of the busiest artists.

Work on the illustrations under Carroll’s meticulous and often intrusive control (70% of the illustrations are based on the author’s drawings) delayed the release of the book for a long time. Tenniel was dissatisfied with the quality of the print run, so Carroll demanded that the publishers withdraw it from sale. Interestingly, it is now the one that is most valued by collectors. and print a new one. And yet, in preparation for the publication of Alice Through the Looking Glass, Carroll again invited Tenniel. At first he flatly refused (working with Carroll required too much effort and time), but the author was persistent and eventually persuaded the artist to take up the work.

Illustration by John Tenniel for “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” Chicago, 1900 Library of Congress

Tenniel's illustrations are not an addition to the text, but his full partner, and that is why Carroll was so demanding of them. Even at the level of the plot, much can be understood only thanks to illustrations - for example, that the Royal Messenger from the fifth and seventh chapters of Through the Looking Glass is the Hat from Wonderland. Some Oxford realities began to be associated with “Alice” due to the fact that they served as prototypes not for Carroll, but for Tenniel: for example, the drawing from the chapter “Water and Knitting” depicts a “sheep” store at 83 St. Aldates. Today it is a gift shop dedicated to the books of Lewis Carroll.

Illustration by John Tenniel for “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” Chicago, 1900 Library of Congress

Where is the moral

One of the reasons for the success of “Alice” is the lack of moralizing, which was usual for children’s books of that time. Edifying children's stories were the mainstream of children's literature at the time (they were published in huge quantities in publications like Aunt Judy's Magazine). Fairy tales about Alice stand out from this series: their heroine behaves naturally, like a living child, and not a model of virtue. She gets confused with dates and words, and has trouble remembering textbook verses and historical examples. And Carroll’s parodic approach itself, which makes textbook poems the subject of frivolous play, is not very conducive to moralizing. Moreover, moralizing and edification in “Alice” are a direct object of ridicule: just remember the absurd remarks of the Duchess (“And the morality from here is…”) and the bloodthirstiness of the Black Queen, whose image Carroll himself called “the quintessence of all governesses." The success of "Alice" showed that it was precisely this kind of children's literature that was most lacking, both for children and adults.

Illustration by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland. London, 1867 Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Carroll's further literary fate confirmed the uniqueness of "Alice" as the result of an incredible coincidence of circumstances. Few people know that, in addition to Alice in Wonderland, he wrote Sylvia and Bruno, an edifying novel about a magical land that consciously (but completely unsuccessfully) develops the themes present in Alice. In total, Carroll worked on this novel for 20 years and considered it his life’s work.

How to translate "Alice"

The main character of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Alice in Wonderland" is language, which makes the translation of these books incredibly difficult, and sometimes impossible. Here is just one of the many examples of the untranslatability of “Alice”: the jam, which, according to the Queen’s “firm rule”, the maid receives only “for tomorrow”, in the Russian translation is nothing more than another case of strange looking-glass logic “I would take you [as a maid] with pleasure,” responded the Queen. - Two
pennies a week and jam for tomorrow!
Alice laughed.
“No, I won’t become a maid,” she said. - Besides, I don’t like jam!
“The jam is excellent,” insisted the Queen.
- Thank you, but today I really don’t feel like it!
“You still wouldn’t get it today, even if you really wanted it,” answered the Queen. “I have a firm rule: jam for tomorrow!” And only for tomorrow!
- But tomorrow will someday be today!
- No never! Tomorrow never happens today! Is it really possible to wake up in the morning and say: “Well, now, finally, tomorrow?”” (translated by Nina Demurova).. But in the original, the phrase “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day” is not just strange. As is usually the case with Carroll, this strangeness has a system that is built from elements of reality. The word jam, which in English means “jam,” is used in Latin to convey the meaning of “now,” “now,” but only in the past and future tenses. In the present tense, the word nunc is used for this. The phrase Carroll put into the Queen’s mouth was used in Latin lessons as a mnemonic rule. Thus, “jam for tomorrow” is not only a looking-glass oddity, but also an elegant game of language and another example of Carroll’s play on school routine.-

“Alice in Wonderland” cannot be translated, but it can be recreated in the material of another language. It is precisely these translations of Carroll that turn out to be successful. This happened with the Russian translation made by Nina Mikhailovna Demurova. The edition of “Alice” prepared by Demurova in the series “Literary Monuments” (1979) is an example of book publishing, combining the talent and deepest competence of the editor-translator with the best traditions of Soviet academic science. In addition to the translation, the publication includes a classic commentary by Martin Gardner from his “Annotated Alice” (in turn, annotated for the Russian reader), articles on Carroll by Gilbert Chesterton, Virginia Woolf, Walter de la Mare and other materials - and, of course , reproduces Tenniel's illustrations.

Lewis Carroll. "Alice in Wonderland. Alice in the Wonderland". Moscow, 1978 litpamyatniki.ru

Demurova not only translated Alice, but performed a miracle, making this book a treasure of Russian-speaking culture. There is quite a lot of evidence of this; one of the most eloquent - made by Oleg Gerasimov based on this translation musical performance, which was released on records from the Me-lo-Diya studio in 1976. The songs for the play were written by Vladimir Vysotsky - and the release of the records became his first official publication in the USSR as a poet and composer. The performance turned out to be so lively that listeners found political overtones in it (“There is a lot that is unclear in a strange country”, “No, no, the people do not have a difficult role: // Falling to your knees - what’s the problem?”), and the artistic council even tried prohibit the release of records. But the records were still released and re-released until the 1990s in millions of copies.

"Alice in Wonderland" LP sleeve. Recording company "Melody", 1976 izbrannoe.com

In this book, Lewis Carroll, a great lover of puzzles, paradoxes and “shifters”, the author of the already famous “Alice in Wonderland”, sends his favorite heroine, the girl Alice, to another fairy-tale country - Through the Looking Glass.

Like last time, Alice sets off on adventures thanks to her curious and cute animal - a black kitten, with whom she plays half asleep. And on the other side of the magical mirror face, various miracles and transformations begin.

Alice seemed to find herself in exactly the same room with a blazing fireplace, but the portraits there were whispering about something, the clock was smiling broadly, and near the fireplace Alice saw many small, but living chess pieces. The Black King and the Black Queen, the White King and the White Queen, the Rooks and Pawns were walking there and chatting decorously, obviously not noticing the appearance of Alice.

And when the girl picked up the king and cleaned him of the ash, he was so frightened by this intervention of an incomprehensible invisible force that, by his own admission, his sideburns went cold to the tips, which, the Black Queen did not fail to notice, he did not have at all. And even when clever Alice figured out how in this country it was necessary to read poems written in a completely incomprehensible way, and held the book up to the mirror, the meaning of the poem still somehow eluded her, although it was felt that the words contained a lot of familiarity and the events depicted were amazing.

Alice really wanted to explore the unusual country, but it was not easy to do: no matter how hard she tried to climb to the top of the hill, every time she again found herself at the entrance to the house from which she came. After talking with very lively flowers growing nearby in a flower bed, Alice heard unusual advice: to go in the opposite direction from the goal. Seeing the Black Queen, Alice did so and, to her amazement, met her at the foot of a previously unattainable hill. It was then that Alice noticed that the country was divided into neat cells with hedges and streams - like a chessboard. And Alice really wanted to take part in this chess game, even if only as a pawn; although most of all, of course, she wanted to become Queen. But in chess, if you try really hard, even a pawn can become a queen. The Black Queen even told her how to get to the eighth line. Alice set off on a journey full of surprises and adventures. In this extraordinary country, instead of bees, elephants flew around Alice, on the train in which Alice found herself, passengers (including a Goat, a Beetle and a Horse) presented tickets the size of themselves, and the Controller looked at Alice for a long time through a telescope, microscope, theater binoculars and finally concluded: “You’re going in the wrong direction!” Having approached the stream, the train carelessly jumped over it (and with it Alice jumped to the fourth line of the chessboard). Then she met so many incredible creatures and heard so many incredible opinions that she could not even remember her own name. Then she no longer objected when the Lion and the Unicorn, these fairy-tale monsters, began to call her, Alice, the Beast.

On the fourth line, as the Black Queen predicted, Alice met two fat men, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who were always arguing and even fighting over trifles. The brawlers pretty much frightened Alice: bringing her to the Black King who was sleeping nearby, they declared that he was only dreaming of her and that as soon as the King woke up, like Alice and themselves, everything around would disappear. Although Alice did not believe them, she still did not wake up the King and check the twins’ words.

Life through the looking glass was reflected in everything. The White Queen, who met Alice, promised to treat the girl with jam tomorrow. Alice began to refuse, but the Queen reassured her: tomorrow really never comes anyway, it comes only today, and jam is promised for tomorrow. Moreover, it turned out that the Queen remembers both the past and the future at once, and when she screamed in pain over her finger that bled a little later, she still did not prick it at all, this happened only after some time. And then, in the forest, Alice could not cut the pie and treat those gathered: the pie kept growing together; then Lev explained to her that the Mirror Pie must first be distributed, and only then cut. Here everything happened contrary to the usual logic, as if backwards.

Ordinary objects also behaved in a way that was unlike anything else. The egg suddenly grew before Alice's eyes and turned into a round, forehead-shaped man, whom Alice immediately recognized as Humpty Dumpty from the famous nursery rhyme. However, the conversation with him put poor Alice at a complete dead end, because with him even quite familiar words acquired unexpected meanings, let alone unfamiliar ones!..

This property - to interpret in an unusual way, to turn familiar words inside out - was inherent in almost all inhabitants of the Looking Glass. When Alice met the White King in the forest and told him that she did not see anyone on the road, the King envied her: of course, she managed to see Nobody; The King himself never got to see him.

In the end, Alice, of course, reached the eighth line, where she felt an unusually heavy object on her head - it was a crown. However, the Black and White Queens who appeared soon still behaved with her like two angry governesses, puzzling the newly-crowned Queen with their strange logic. And the feast, seemingly arranged in her honor, was also surprisingly strange. Angry Alice pounced on the Black Queen who came to her hand, began to shake her and suddenly discovered that she was holding in her hands... a black kitten. So it was a dream! But whose? The question is still awaiting an answer.

Alice - 2

The White Pawn (Alice) starts and becomes Queen in eleven moves

1. Alice meets the Black Queen
2. Alice via d3 (the railway goes to d4 (Tweedledum and Tweedledee)
3. Alice meets the White Queen (with shawl)
4. Alice goes to d5 (bench, river, shop)
5. Alice goes to d6 (Humpty Dumpty)
6. Alice goes to d7 (forest)
7. White Horse takes on Black Horse
8. Alice goes to d8 (coronation)
9. Alice becomes Queen
10. Alice "castles" (feast)
11. Alice takes the Black Queen and wins the game

1. The Black Queen moves to h5
2. The White Queen goes to c4 (catches the shawl)
4. The White Queen moves to f8 (leaves an egg on the shelf)
5. The White Queen goes to c8 (escaping from the Black Horse)
6. Black Knight goes to e7
7. White Knight goes to f5
8. The Black Queen goes to e8 (“exam”)
9. Queens "castle"
10. The White Queen goes to a6 (soup)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (SETUP BEFORE THE GAME STARTS)

WHITE

Shapes: Tweedledum, Unicorn, Sheep, White Queen, White King,
Old Man, White Knight, Tweedledum
Pawns: Daisy, Zai Ats, Oyster, Little Lily, Doe, Oyster,
Boobs Chick, Daisy

Figures: Humpty Dumpty, Carpenter, Walrus, Black Queen, Black King,
Raven, Black Knight, Lion
Pawns: Daisy, Stranger, Oyster, Tiger Lily, Rose, Oyster,
Frog, Daisy

Child with a cloudless brow
And with a surprised look,
Let everything change around
And you and I are not close,
Let the years separate us
Please accept my story as a gift.

I only see you in my dreams,
I can't hear your laughter, dear,
You have grown up, and about me,
I probably forgot (*1).
I've had enough for now
You will listen to my story.

It started many years ago
Early July morning,
Our boat glided in harmony
With my story.
I remember this blue path
Even though the years have been saying: forget it!

My dear friend, the days will fly by,
A menacing voice will be heard.
And he tells you: “Go to sleep!”
And it will be too late to argue.
We look so much like guys
That they don’t want to go to bed.

All around - frost, blinding snow
And empty as in the desert,
We have joy, children's laughter,
The fire is burning in the fireplace.
A fairy tale saves you from adversity -
Let her save you.

Although there is a slight sadness in the air
In my fairy tale,
Even though summer is over, let it be
Its colors do not fade,
Breath of evil this time too
Don't be saddened by my story.

Since the chess problem given on the previous page posed
to some readers' confusion, I should obviously explain that she
drawn up in accordance with the rules - as far as they themselves are concerned
_moves_.