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Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (Book Review)

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Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Author: Lewis Carroll Publication Date: 1865 Producer: Audible, Inc. (2015) Narrated by: Scarlett Johansson Recording Time: 2 hours, 44 minutes

Alice is sitting on a riverbank in the summertime, with her sisten, when she sees a White Rabbit in a coat running by. The White Rabbit pulls out a pocket watch, says that he is late, and then jumps down a rabbit hole. Alice, as one does, follows the White Rabbit down the hole. After a long fall, she finds herself in a large hallway lined with doors. She finds a key on a small table and then tries it on various doors until she finds the one that works. The door, she sees a beautiful garden through the door, but Alice is too large to fit through it. She cries. She subsequently finds a bottle marked “DRINK ME” and does as the label says. She shrinks down to the right size to fit through the door, however, she cannot enter because she left the key on the tabletop above her head. She is now too small to reach it. Just then, Alice finds a cake marked “EAT ME.” Again she does as the label says and she grows very tall. Now she can reach the key but she is once again unable to pass through the door to enter the garden. Alice cries again. This time her giant tears create a large pool around her. While she cries, she shrinks and falls into the pool of tears. Now that she is smaller, the pool of tears seems as large as a sea. She swims and treads water until she meets a Mouse. The Mouse and Alice make it to the shore where several animals are gathered. After a “Caucus Race,” Alice accidentally scares all of the animals by telling stories about her cat, Dinah.

Alice sees the White Rabbit again. The White Rabbit thinks that she is a servant and sends her to his home to get his gloves. Inside the White Rabbit’s house, Alice drinks an unmarked bottle of liquid because she expects something to happen. She grows so large that she more than fills up the room. The White Rabbit returns to his house, wondering what is keeping her, and he is angry about seeing her arm sticking out of his window. She uses her giant hand to scare the White Rabbit and his helpers away. The animals outside throw rocks at her. The rocks turn into cakes when they land in the house. Alice eats one of the cakes and shrinks to a smaller size.

She leaves the house and enters the forest. There she meets a Caterpillar on a mushroom who is smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar and Alice get argue and the Caterpillar leaves. Before he goes, he tells her that different parts of the mushroom will make her either grow or shrink. Alice decides to taste a part of the mushroom. This causes her neck stretch above the tree tops. A pigeon sees her and accuses her of being a snake who wants to eat her eggs.

Alice eats another part of the mushroom and returns to her normal height. From there, she walks around until she finds the house of the Duchess. She enters the house and finds the Duchess nursing a squealing baby. Inside, she also finds a Cheshire Cat who is grinning and a Cook who is putting too much pepper into a cauldron of soup. The Duchess is not nice to Alice. She then leaves to go play croquet with the Queen. As the Duchess leaves, she gives Alice the baby. Alice then realizes that the baby is actually a pig. She lets the pig go and returns to the forest. In the forest, she sees the grinning Cheshire Cat again. The Cheshire Cat tells Alice that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including Alice herself. The Cheshire Cat tells Alice how to get to the March Hare’s house. After doing this, it disappears except for its floating grin.

At the March Hare’s house, Alice meets the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. They are having tea. None of them are nice to her. She learns that they did something wrong to Time itself and are thus trapped in perpetual tea-time. Alice leaves and travels through the forest yet again. She finds a tree with a door in its side. Alice goes through the door and finds herself back in the great hall. She takes the key, uses the mushroom to shrink her body, and finally enters through the door and into the garden.

Alice finds the Queen of Hearts and plays croquet with her. The ground is hilly, the mallets and balls are live flamingos and hedgehogs, and the Queen repeatedly makes calls to execute the other players. In the middle of the game, Alice meets the Cheshire Cat again. He asks her how she is doing. The King of Hearts interrupts their conversation and gets into an argument with The Cheshire Cat. The King gets angry and calls for the Cheshire Cat’s beheading. However, the Cheshire Cat is now only a head floating in midair so no one can agree on how to behead it.

The Duchess sees Alice and is friendly. However, Alice is not comfortable with her. The Queen of Hearts makes the Duchess leave. She then tells Alice to visit the Mock Turtle. The Queen of Hearts sends the Gryphon to go with Alice to meet the Mock Turtle. Alice talks about her adventures with the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon. Alice listens to the Mock Turtle’s story and then they all hear an announcement that a trial is about to begin. The Gryphon takes Alice back to the croquet match.

The Knave of Hearts is now on trial for stealing the Queen’s tarts. Alice is proud of herself for understanding what is happening in the proceedings. The Mad Hatter and the Cook give testimony but it does not make sense. The White Rabbit calls Alice to the witness stand. The King asks her questions. The White Rabbit then provides new evidence, a letter written by the Knave. The letter is a poem. The King interprets the poem as an admission of guilt from the Knave. Alice says that the note is nonsense and she protests to the King. Alice’s protests infuriate The Queen who then orders that Alice be beheaded. Before this can happen, Alice grows to a giant size. She then knocks down the Queen’s army of playing cards.

Then Alice is awake on her sister’s lap, back at the riverbank. She tells her sister about her dream and then goes inside for tea. Her sister thinks about Alice’s adventures.

I was inspired to listen to this book after watching the recent Matrix movie trailer. The Alice franchise has had a prolonged cultural impact for a century and a half – leading to movies, songs, and conspiracy theories which rely on imagery from the book. I have never read the book so I wanted to familiarize myself with an important cultural touchstone

My expectations for Scarlett Johansson’s performance were not high enough going into this listen. She gives a terrific performance including fun and unique voices for each of the characters mentioned. Through her performance, she comes across as a fan of the book and I really enjoyed her narration.

That is probably the extent of my positive reaction to this story. I know that a lot of people have a great fondness for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . If you feel that way, obviously you are not alone. But for me, I just could not get into this or even find the hook that reels other people in. The story is one random event leading into another and then leading into another before finally the novel is over. The novel is creative but I found it to be more frustrating than immersive. I was never emotionally invested in any part of this story and it required quite a bit of effort on my part just to finish. Perhaps I just simply needed to read this for the first time as a kid.

What is this book supposed to be about? We get some clues about that at the very end.

• The trauma of growing out of childhood. * Alice is constantly changing sizes throughout the book, each time it seems to bring about distress, and I assume this is intended to reflect the struggles of puberty when a girl might no longer be a girl, and yet she is also not a woman, either.
• Life is inexplainable and puzzling. * Throughout the novel, Alice is constantly encountering situations wherein logic does not apply. We maybe see that most clearly when Alice is told that everyone is mad, including her.
• Death is a constant possibility. * Alice is constantly facing down situations that could kill her. Initially she seems not to notice. By the end of the book, she is very much aware of the danger she is in. This emerging awareness of death is something that accompanies everyone’s journey from childhood innocence to adulthood.

The book is filled with great quotes. A few of my favorites are below.

“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”

“If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.”

“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?” The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

“How long is forever? Sometimes just one second”

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5 thoughts on “ alice’s adventures in wonderland (book review) ”.

And we thought there were no good drugs until the sixties! Fine read, my man, fine read.

Thanks. And for whatever it’s worth I believe White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane is explicitly about drugs.

Yes and a favorite of mine though as a gendarme I did not get to participate recreationally. I admired the artistry, the craftsmanship, and presentation – Go Ask Alice… And AiW, a conceptual fave, lets me understand why a lot of what I myself write is not fully understood (appreciated?) by the general population.

this is a beatiful review fr f

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Book Review

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most famous and enduring children's classics. The novel is full of whimsical charm, and a feeling for the absurd that is unsurpassed. But, who was Lewis Carroll?

Charles Dodgson

Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was a mathematician and logician who lectured at Oxford University. He balanced both personas, as he used his study in the sciences to create his eminently strange books. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a charming, light book, that reputedly pleased Queen Victoria . She asked to receive the author's next work and was swiftly sent a copy of An Elementary Treatment of Determinants .

The book begins with young Alice, bored, sitting by a river, reading a book with her sister. Then Alice catches sight of a small white figure, a rabbit dressed in a waistcoat and holding a pocket watch, murmuring to himself that he is late. She runs after the rabbit and follows it into a hole. After falling into the depths of the earth, she finds herself in a corridor full of doors. At the end of the corridor, there is a tiny door with a tiny key through which Alice can see a beautiful garden that she is desperate to enter. She then spots a bottle labeled "Drink me" (which she does) and begins to shrink until she is small enough to fit through the door.

Unfortunately, she has left the key that fits the lock on a table, now well out of her reach. She then finds a cake labeled "Eat me" (which, again, she does), and is restored to her normal size. Disconcerted by this frustrating series of events, Alice begins to cry, and as she does, she shrinks and is washed away in her own tears.

This strange beginning leads to a series of progressively "​curiouser and curiouser" events, which see Alice babysit a pig, take part in a tea party that is held hostage by time (so never ends), and engage in a game of croquet in which flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls. She meets some extravagant and incredible characters, from the Cheshire Cat to a caterpillar smoking a hookah and being decidedly contradictory. She also, famously, meets the Queen of Hearts who has a penchant for execution.​

The book reaches its climax in the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. A good deal of nonsense evidence is given against the unfortunate man, and a letter is produced which only refers to events by pronouns (but which is supposedly damning evidence). Alice, who by now has grown to a great size, stands up for the Knave and the Queen, predictably, demands her execution. As she is fighting off the Queen’s card soldiers, Alice awakes, realizing she has been dreaming all along.

Carroll's book is episodic and reveals more in the situations that it contrives than in any serious attempt at plot or character analysis. Like a series of nonsense poems or stories created more for their puzzling nature or illogical delightfulness, the events of Alice's adventure are her encounters with incredible but immensely likable characters. Carroll was a master of toying with the eccentricities of language.

One feels that Carroll is never more at home than when he is playing, punning, or otherwise messing around with the English tongue. Although the book has been interpreted in numerous ways, from an allegory of semiotic theory to a drug-fueled hallucination, perhaps it is this playfulness that has ensured its success over the last century.

The book is brilliant for children, but with enough hilarity and joy for life in it to please adults too, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a lovely book with which to take a brief respite from our overly rational and sometimes dreary world.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Caroll | Book Review

Book Review of  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland The Children’s Book Review

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Written by Lewis Carroll

Illustrated by Anna Bond

Ages: 10+ | 192 Pages

Publisher: Puffin Books | ISBN-13: 9780147515872

What to Expect: Adventure, Fantasy, and Classics

When it comes to beloved works of literature, few can compare to Lewis Carroll’s  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . This enchanting tale, considered a timeless classic, has captivated and delighted readers for generations for very good reason—if ever there was a tall tale, this might be the tallest.

At its heart,  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  is a story full of wonder and whimsy, centered around a young girl named Alice who longs for something more than her mundane existence. When she unexpectedly tumbles down a rabbit hole into an entirely new world known as Wonderland, readers are whisked away on a magical journey beyond their wildest imaginings.

Here, in Wonderland, Alice encounters all manner of curious characters, from the endlessly tardy White Rabbit (always rushing about with his pocket watch) to the puzzling Cheshire Cat (who becomes invisible except for his big grin) to the Hatter (who is completely mad) to the Queen of Hearts (who is very difficult to please) and beyond. There are riddles to solve, quirky poems, and a tea party Alice can’t wait to leave.

In the midst of all of the absurd happenings, Carroll weaves in a series of mind-bending riddles that keep readers guessing until the very end. But beyond the exquisite story, we cannot forget Anna Bond’s stunning and evocative illustrations in this Puffin in Bloom edition of the story, which bring the magical world of Wonderland to life in vivid, floral detail. 

Readers, young and old alike, will undoubtedly be spellbound by the allure of Alice in Wonderland. As sure as ferrets are ferrets, readers will be charmed by the words and fascinated by the illustrations.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  is dreamy—you would be completely mad not to read this book!

Buy the Book

About the author.

Lewis Carroll is the pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Queen Victoria was one of the first well-known fans of his book  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  With royalty loving the book, it’s no wonder that the story has been adapted into multiple movies, live performances, and comic books.

What to Read Next If You Love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

• Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There , by Lewis Carroll
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , by L. Frank Baum
• The Looking Glass Wars , by Frank Beddor
• Peter Pan , by J.M. Barrie

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Discover more books like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Adventure , Fantasy , and Classics .

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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• The Guardian - Alice in Wonderland: the never-ending adventures
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , widely beloved British children’s book by Lewis Carroll , published in 1865. With its fantastical tales and riddles , it became one of the most popular works of English-language fiction. It was notably illustrated by British artist John Tenniel .

The story centres on Alice, a young girl who falls asleep in a meadow and dreams that she follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole. She has many wondrous, often bizarre adventures with thoroughly illogical and very strange creatures, often changing size unexpectedly (she grows as tall as a house and shrinks to 3 inches [7 cm]). She encounters the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Duchess (with a baby that becomes a pig), and the Cheshire Cat , and she attends a strange endless tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare . She plays a game of croquet with an unmanageable flamingo for a croquet mallet and uncooperative hedgehogs for croquet balls while the Queen calls for the execution of almost everyone present. Later, at the Queen’s behest, the Gryphon takes Alice to meet the sobbing Mock Turtle , who describes his education in such subjects as Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision . Alice is then called as a witness in the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of having stolen the Queen’s tarts. However, when the Queen demands that Alice be beheaded, Alice realizes that the characters are only a pack of cards, and she then awakens from her dream.

The story was originally told by Carroll to Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell (the daughters of Henry George Liddell , dean of Christ Church, Oxford , where the author had studied and held a fellowship) on a picnic in July 1862. Alice asked Carroll to write out the stories for her, and in response he produced a hand-lettered collection entitled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground . A visitor to the Liddell home saw the storybook and thought it should be published, so Carroll revised and expanded it. Appearing at a time when children’s literature generally was intended to teach moral lessons, the book at first baffled critics, who failed to appreciate the nonsense that so captivated its young readers. But Carroll understood how children’s minds worked, and the way he turned logic on its head appealed to their sense of the ridiculous. In the riddles and the poems—such as “How doth the little crocodile” and “You are old, Father William” (both parodies of well-known didactic poems)—he reached even more absurd heights. The work attracted a following and led to a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (dated 1872 but published in December 1871). By the end of the 19th century, Alice (taking the two volumes together) had become the most popular children’s book in England, and within two more decades it was among the most popular storybooks in the world. It inspired numerous films, theatrical performances, and ballets as well as countless works of scholarly analysis.

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Book Review: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Galina Zinko

2019, Lewis Carroll Review

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The Lewis Carroll Review: The Reviewing Journal of the Lewis Carroll Society

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Content: - Editor's Welcome (Franziska Kohlt) Alice and Satire Reviews - "Alice's Adventures in Punch", Andy Malcolm & George Walker (Dayna Nuhn) - "Alice in Brexitland", Lucien Young (Kiera Vaclavik) - "Theresa Maybe in Brexitland", Madeleina Kay (Franziska Kohlt) "Five Questions" - Five Questions for Lucien Young - Five Questions for Madeleina Kay Other Reviews: - "Victorian Giants: The Art of Photography" (Exhibition Catalogue), Phillip Prodger & HRH the Duchess of Cambridge (James Lythgoe) - "Mad about the Hatter", Dakota Chase (Geoffrey Budworth) - "It's Always Tea Time" (Exhibition Catalogue), Vappu Thurlow (Lindsay Fulcher) - "The Curious Case of Mary Ann", Jenn Thorson (Robert Stek) - "A History of Children's Books in 100 Books", Roderick Cave and Sara Ayad (Selwyn Goodacre)

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) is a classic that has been continuously published for more than 150 years. During this time, it creates a wonderland for numerous illustrators, artists, writers, and movie makers. They keep adapting, rewriting , and re-illustrating the work owing to its potential for new comprehensions and interpretations. Among these efforts and devotions, the re-illustrations in different eras provide noteworthy images demonstrating diverse ways to read, visualize, and represent Carroll's work. As one of the illustrators after Sir John Tenniel, Anthony Browne uses a distinct style in re-illustrating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1988. He presents an accessible Alice with surreal techniques. Being not as abstract and obscure as the volume by Salvador Dali (1969), Browne's surreal Alice is marked by the vivid images and distinctive colors, and intriguingly transcends the recognizable signifiers. First of all, challenging Tenniel's iconic illustrations, Browne's work renders a different way to see Alice's story by re-interpreting and visualizing Carroll's text. Except for the surreal images of the heroine, Browne adds some imaginary but text-based images that are not present in Tenniel's version such as separate body parts, aloof facial expressions and even the image of a crying Alice. Moreover, Browne marks his individual style by alluding to well-known paintings and presenting alternative animal characters. Browne appropriates the noted paintings to bring forth the rich connotations and symbolic meanings deftly echoing the elusive language of Carroll's text. As for the animal characters, they preserve their animalistic opaqueness eliciting the reader's/viewer's different imagination instead of being anthropomorphic. Last but not least, Browne reconfigures Alice as a curious but lonely child corresponding to his consistent concern about contemporary children. Browne's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland makes a wonderland that presents a surreal Alice, sustains his distinct style, and further explores the ideas of animals and childhood as suggested in Carroll's text.

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The paper is an identity-based analysis of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and two film adaptations, Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010). Alice’s identity crisis identified in each of the Alice works was observed in view of Erik H. Erikson’s and James Marcia’s identity theories in order to reach conclusions pertaining to the nature of childhood and growing up in the Victorian era, in the mid twentieth century, and at the beginning of the 21st century. As the three different Alice characters originated in different historical periods, their identity issues conditioned by their culture, society and circumstances reveal three different processes of identity formation. Due to the fact that while creating their adaptations both Walt Disney and Tim Burton relied on the expectations of their audiences more than the spirit of the literary original, much like Carroll’s work these adaptations serve as a good reference in reflecting the historical and cultural changes of children’s position in society.

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis carroll, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Alice in Wonderland: Introduction

Alice in wonderland: plot summary, alice in wonderland: detailed summary & analysis, alice in wonderland: themes, alice in wonderland: quotes, alice in wonderland: characters, alice in wonderland: symbols, alice in wonderland: literary devices, alice in wonderland: quizzes, alice in wonderland: theme wheel, brief biography of lewis carroll.

Historical Context of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Other books related to alice's adventures in wonderland.

• Full Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (but often known by the shortened Alice in Wonderland )
• When Written: 1862-63
• Where Written: Oxford, England
• When Published: 26th November 1865
• Literary Period: Victorian England, soon to become the “Golden Age” of Children’s Literature
• Genre: Children’s story, Fantasy, Literary Nonsense, Adventure
• Setting: Wonderland, a dream world that Alice finds when she falls down a rabbit hole
• Climax: The trial of the Knave of Hearts, where all the strange creatures Alice has encountered assemble at the court of the nonsensically angry Queen of Hearts. To Alice's surprise, she becomes the crucial final witness
• Antagonist: The Queen of Hearts is the antagonist of Wonderland, with her ridiculous love of beheading, she reigns over her realm, representing the bossiness and silliness of the adult world.
• Point of View: A third-person narrator follows Alice through Wonderland, but also occasionally dips into the first person, when describing her thoughts, and also follows her sister’s thoughts in the final chapter

Extra Credit for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Night-writing. Carroll put his mathematical mind to inventions when he wasn’t writing. He invented a tool for writing at night, using a system of symbols in the corner of cardboard squares, so that he didn’t have to get up and light a candle.

Alice without Words. Alice in Wonderland has inspired many adaptations. Some artists have even challenged themselves to recreate Alice without the use of language that defines the novella, like the recent ballet from the English Royal Ballet, which uses choreography to recreate the atmosphere of wordplay without using words at all.

Book Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, is a rather peculiar adventure tale filled with all sorts of oddities and misfits. The story begins with the main protagonist, Alice, as she follows the White Rabbit into the infamous rabbit hole. In Wonderland, or so it seems, she meets several creatures all with the strangest backstories and personalities. The story is carefully crafted so that much of the book confuses the casual reader. A great concern for detail is needed to understand the novel and its full meaning. The book shares the complexities and hardships of growing up, in which the Lewis Carroll absolutely nailed. He also shares his negative opinions about the British government through the main antagonist, the Queen of Hearts, who is meant to be a high and powerful monarch, but never does anything. Overall, the book is a great read and it is certainly entertaining to spend some time to pick out the many small details hidden in the book. 8th Grade.

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Alice in Wonderland (Book Review)

Reviewed by Bruce Heydt By Lewis Carroll Available in many editions, both soft and hardcover

Within the pages of Lewis Carroll’s signature novel, Alice in Wonderland, the worlds above and below the famous rabbit hole nowhere intersect. Above the hole the reader finds calm and order, bright sunlight and the gently flowing Thames. Down below, the laws of nature and logic have been turned on their heads. Seemingly, never the twain shall meet.

Things are not always as they first appear, however. For a century and more, children have enjoyed the sheer silliness of Wonderland’s residents, but to the initiated they are a wry reflection of Carroll’s Victorian-era England, or at least Victorian England as Carroll himself perceived it.

The reign of Britain’s very own aboveground Queen of Hearts was a time of rapid change, exemplified by advances in science and by the Industrial Revolution—as well as by an increasing subservience to schedules and timetables that created a manic, rabbitlike response to the dread of running late. (The white rabbit is, in fact, a dead-ringer for every railway conductor I’ve ever met.) Even while industrialization transformed Britain, 18th-century social customs—most notably a rigid class structure in which every card had its proper place in the deck—lingered on.

Carroll himself was something of a square peg in Victorian Britain’s round hole, and he viewed the world into which he had fallen, through no fault of his own, as a Wonderland in many ways no more strange than Alice’s. A mathematician himself, Carroll had a keen sense of logic and order. He also had a sense of the absurd, and saw many of the intellectual trends of his day in the latter light. In contrast to the mock intellectualism of adults, Carroll seems to prefer the innocent common sense of children, who therefore became, like Alice, the heroines of most of his stories. Alice’s greatest challenge in Wonderland often seems not to be how to return to the aboveground world, as might be expected, but in remaining uninfected by the dangerous and surreal logic of the “adult” Wonderlanders she encounters—an ultimately futile endeavor, since Alice, along with every other little girl, is on an inevitable progress toward adulthood herself. The journey, however, often proceeds in fits and starts and takes many false turns, as Alice discovers to her ongoing frustration when she alternately shrinks and grows at the mere sip of drink or bite of cake. That alone would be frightening enough even without the possibility—a very real one, as Alice learns—that any child may grow up to become a “pig.”

Despite its unpredictability, Wonder land is seductive and almost preferable to the real (but bland by comparison) contemporary world. Readers can safely give in to its enticements by joining Alice as she tumbles down the rabbit hole. The creatures and situations that visitors to Wonderland will encounter include, famously, a grinning Cheshire cat, a maddeningly absurd tea party, a sagacious caterpillar, a mind-bending croquet match, a thieving knave and a queen with an attitude who seems more than capable of bringing the entire world under her dominion. (Presumably, the real monarch would not have been amused by any suggestion of a simi larity.) So well-known are these creations that Carroll’s imagery is said to be more frequently alluded to than is any other literary source, save only the Bible and Shakespeare.

Today’s readers have an abundance of editions to choose from when settling down with this classic, perhaps with a child or grandchild on their knee. Do select one that contains the original illustrations by John Tenniel, which have become classics in their own right, or perhaps the edgier color images of Arthur Rackham.

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THE "STORYLAND" SERIES

Alice's adventures in wonderland.

SAM'L GABRIEL SONS & COMPANY NEW YORK

Copyright, 1916, by sam'l gabriel sons & company new york.

Alice in the Room of the Duchess.

      ALICE'S ADVENTURES             IN WONDERLAND

I—DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE

A lice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that, nor did Alice think it so [Pg 4] very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" But when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole, under the hedge. In another moment, down went Alice after it!

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time, as she went down, to look about her. First, she tried to make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and [Pg 5] pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed. It was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but, to her great disappointment, it was empty; she did not like to drop the jar, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

Down, down, down! Would the fall never come to an end? There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking to herself. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!" (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear, I wish you were down here with me!" Alice felt that she was dozing off, when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up in a moment. She looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost. Away went Alice like the wind and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh, my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen.

She found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all 'round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, [Pg 6] wondering how she was ever to get out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little table, all made of solid glass. There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but, at any rate, it would not open any of them. However, on the second time 'round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high. She tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight, it fitted!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole; she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway. "Oh," said Alice, "how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin."

Alice went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate, a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes. This time she [Pg 7] found a little bottle on it ("which certainly was not here before," said Alice), and tied 'round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters.

"No, I'll look first," she said, "and see whether it's marked ' poison ' or not," for she had never forgotten that, if you drink from a bottle marked "poison," it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later. However, this bottle was not marked "poison," so Alice ventured to taste it, and, finding it very nice (it had a sort of mixed flavor of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffy and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off.

"What a curious feeling!" said Alice. "I must be shutting up like a telescope!"

And so it was indeed! She was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden.

After awhile, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! When she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery, and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

"Come, there's no use in crying like that!" said Alice to herself rather sharply. "I advise you to [Pg 8] leave off this minute!" She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes.

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it and found in it a very small cake, on which the words "EAT ME" were beautifully marked in currants. "Well, I'll eat it," said Alice, "and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door: so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!"

She ate a little bit and said anxiously to herself, "Which way? Which way?" holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way she was growing; and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size. So she set to work and very soon finished off the cake.

II—THE POOL OF TEARS

"C uriouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). "Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-by, feet! Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you."

Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall; in fact, she was now rather more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.

Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever. She sat down and began to cry again.

She went on shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all 'round her and reaching half down the hall.

After a time, she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid-gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He [Pg 10] came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!"

When the Rabbit came near her, Alice began, in a low, timid voice, "If you please, sir—" The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid-gloves and the fan and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.

Alice took up the fan and gloves and she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking. "Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. Was I the same when I got up this morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is, 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

As she said this, she looked down at her hands and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid-gloves while she was talking. "How can I have done that?" she thought. "I must be growing small again." She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it and found that she was now about two feet high and was going on [Pg 11] shrinking rapidly. She soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding and she dropped it hastily, just in time to save herself from shrinking away altogether.

"That was a narrow escape!" said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence. "And now for the garden!" And she ran with all speed back to the little door; but, alas! the little door was shut again and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before. "Things are worse than ever," thought the poor child, "for I never was so small as this before, never!"

As she said these words, her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt-water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea. However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.

Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to see what it was: she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself. [Pg 12]

"Would it be of any use, now," thought Alice, "to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here that I should think very likely it can talk; at any rate, there's no harm in trying." So she began, "O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!" The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.

"Perhaps it doesn't understand English," thought Alice. "I dare say it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror." So she began again: "Où est ma chatte?" which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water and seemed to quiver all over with fright. "Oh, I beg your pardon!" cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. "I quite forgot you didn't like cats."

"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse in a shrill, passionate voice. "Would you like cats, if you were me?"

"Well, perhaps not," said Alice in a soothing tone; "don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah. I think you'd take a fancy to cats, if you could only see her. She is such a dear, quiet thing." The Mouse was bristling all over and she felt certain it must be really offended. "We won't talk about her any more, if you'd rather not."

"We, indeed!" cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of its tail. "As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always hated cats [Pg 13] —nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!"

Alice at the Mad Tea Party.

"I won't indeed!" said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. "Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs? There is such a nice little dog near our house, I should like to show you! It kills all the rats and—oh, dear!" cried Alice in a sorrowful tone. "I'm afraid I've offended it again!" For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.

So she called softly after it, "Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won't talk about cats, or dogs either, if you don't like them!" When the Mouse heard this, it turned 'round and swam slowly back to her; its face was quite pale, and it said, in a low, trembling voice, "Let us get to the shore and then I'll tell you my history and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs."

It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it; there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way and the whole party swam to the shore.

III—A CAUCUS-RACE AND A LONG TALE

T hey were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank—the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross and uncomfortable.

The first question, of course, was how to get dry again. They had a consultation about this and after a few minutes, it seemed quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them, as if she had known them all her life.

At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of [Pg 15] some authority among them, called out, "Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'll soon make you dry enough!" They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle.

"Ahem!" said the Mouse with an important air. "Are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all 'round, if you please! 'William the Conqueror, whose cause was favored by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria'—"

"Ugh!" said the Lory, with a shiver.

"—'And even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable'—"

"Found what ?" said the Duck.

"Found it ," the Mouse replied rather crossly; "of course, you know what 'it' means."

"I know what 'it' means well enough, when I find a thing," said the Duck; "it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?"

The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, "'—found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown.'—How are you getting on now, my dear?" it continued, turning to Alice as it spoke.

"As wet as ever," said Alice in a melancholy tone; "it doesn't seem to dry me at all."

"In that case," said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, "I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies—" [Pg 16]

"Speak English!" said the Eaglet. "I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!"

"What I was going to say," said the Dodo in an offended tone, "is that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race."

"What is a Caucus-race?" said Alice.

"Why," said the Dodo, "the best way to explain it is to do it." First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no "One, two, three and away!" but they began running when they liked and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out, "The race is over!" and they all crowded 'round it, panting and asking, "But who has won?" [Pg 17]

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought. At last it said, " Everybody has won, and all must have prizes."

"But who is to give the prizes?" quite a chorus of voices asked.

"Why, she , of course," said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded 'round her, calling out, in a confused way, "Prizes! Prizes!"

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a box of comfits (luckily the salt-water had not got into it) and handed them 'round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece, all 'round.

The next thing was to eat the comfits; this caused some noise and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back. However, it was over at last and they sat down again in a ring and begged the Mouse to tell them something more.

"You promised to tell me your history, you know," said Alice, "and why it is you hate—C and D," she added in a whisper, half afraid that it would be offended again.

"Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice and sighing.

"It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail, "but why do you call it sad?" And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this: [Pg 18] —

[Pg 19] "You are not attending!" said the Mouse to Alice, severely. "What are you thinking of?"

"I beg your pardon," said Alice very humbly, "you had got to the fifth bend, I think?"

"You insult me by talking such nonsense!" said the Mouse, getting up and walking away.

"Please come back and finish your story!" Alice called after it. And the others all joined in chorus, "Yes, please do!" But the Mouse only shook its head impatiently and walked a little quicker.

"I wish I had Dinah, our cat, here!" said Alice. This caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of the birds hurried off at once, and a Canary called out in a trembling voice, to its children, "Come away, my dears! It's high time you were all in bed!" On various pretexts they all moved off and Alice was soon left alone.

"I wish I hadn't mentioned Dinah! Nobody seems to like her down here and I'm sure she's the best cat in the world!" Poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt very lonely and low-spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard a little pattering of footsteps in the distance and she looked up eagerly.

IV—THE RABBIT SENDS IN A LITTLE BILL

I t was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; Alice heard it muttering to itself, "The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh, my dear paws! Oh, my fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?" Alice guessed in a moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid-gloves and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were nowhere to be seen—everything seemed to have changed since her swim in the pool, and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door, had vanished completely. [Pg 21]

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, and called to her, in an angry tone, "Why, Mary Ann, what are you doing out here? Run home this moment and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!"

"He took me for his housemaid!" said Alice, as she ran off. "How surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am!" As she said this, she came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the name "W. RABBIT" engraved upon it. She went in without knocking and hurried upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the real Mary Ann and be turned out of the house before she had found the fan and gloves.

By this time, Alice had found her way into a tidy little room with a table in the window, and on it a fan and two or three pairs of tiny white kid-gloves; she took up the fan and a pair of the gloves and was just going to leave the room, when her eyes fell upon a little bottle that stood near the looking-glass. She uncorked it and put it to her lips, saying to herself, "I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for, really, I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!"

Before she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken. She hastily put down the bottle, remarking, "That's quite enough—I hope I sha'n't grow any more."

Alas! It was too late to wish that! She went on growing and growing and very soon she had to kneel down on the floor. Still she went on growing, and, as a last resource, she put one arm out of the window and one foot up the chimney, and said to herself, [Pg 22] "Now I can do no more, whatever happens. What will become of me?"

Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect and she grew no larger. After a few minutes she heard a voice outside and stopped to listen.

"Mary Ann! Mary Ann!" said the voice. "Fetch me my gloves this moment!" Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look for her and she trembled till she shook the house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large as the Rabbit and had no reason to be afraid of it.

Presently the Rabbit came up to the door and tried to open it; but as the door opened inwards and Alice's elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a failure. Alice heard it say to itself, "Then I'll go 'round and get in at the window."

" That you won't!" thought Alice; and after waiting till she fancied she heard the Rabbit just under the window, she suddenly spread out her hand and [Pg 23] made a snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything, but she heard a little shriek and a fall and a crash of broken glass, from which she concluded that it was just possible it had fallen into a cucumber-frame or something of that sort.

Next came an angry voice—the Rabbit's—"Pat! Pat! Where are you?" And then a voice she had never heard before, "Sure then, I'm here! Digging for apples, yer honor!"

"Here! Come and help me out of this! Now tell me, Pat, what's that in the window?"

"Sure, it's an arm, yer honor!"

"Well, it's got no business there, at any rate; go and take it away!"

There was a long silence after this and Alice could only hear whispers now and then, and at last she spread out her hand again and made another snatch in the air. This time there were two little shrieks and more sounds of broken glass. "I wonder what they'll do next!" thought Alice. "As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they could !"

She waited for some time without hearing anything more. At last came a rumbling of little cart-wheels and the sound of a good many voices all talking together. She made out the words: "Where's the other ladder? Bill's got the other—Bill! Here, Bill! Will the roof bear?—Who's to go down the chimney?—Nay, I sha'n't! You do it! Here, Bill! The master says you've got to go down the chimney!"

Alice drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could and waited till she heard a little animal scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above [Pg 24] her; then she gave one sharp kick and waited to see what would happen next.

The first thing she heard was a general chorus of "There goes Bill!" then the Rabbit's voice alone—"Catch him, you by the hedge!" Then silence and then another confusion of voices—"Hold up his head—Brandy now—Don't choke him—What happened to you?"

Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, "Well, I hardly know—No more, thank ye. I'm better now—all I know is, something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box and up I goes like a sky-rocket!"

After a minute or two of silence, they began moving about again, and Alice heard the Rabbit say, "A barrowful will do, to begin with."

"A barrowful of what ?" thought Alice. But she had not long to doubt, for the next moment a shower of little pebbles came rattling in at the window and some of them hit her in the face. Alice noticed, with some surprise, that the pebbles were all turning into little cakes as they lay on the floor and a bright idea came into her head. "If I eat one of these cakes," she thought, "it's sure to make some change in my size."

So she swallowed one of the cakes and was delighted to find that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house and found quite a crowd of little animals and birds waiting outside. They all made a rush at Alice the moment she appeared, but she ran off as hard as she could and soon found herself safe in a thick wood.

"The Duchess tucked her arm affectionately into Alice's."

"The first thing I've got to do," said Alice to herself, [Pg 25] as she wandered about in the wood, "is to grow to my right size again; and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other, but the great question is 'What?'"

Alice looked all around her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she could not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as herself. She stretched herself up on tiptoe and peeped over the edge and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.

V—ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR

A t last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and addressed Alice in a languid, sleepy voice.

"Who are you ?" said the Caterpillar.

Alice replied, rather shyly, "I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then."

"What do you mean by that?" said the Caterpillar, sternly. "Explain yourself!" [Pg 27]

"I can't explain myself , I'm afraid, sir," said Alice, "because I'm not myself, you see—being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing." She drew herself up and said very gravely, "I think you ought to tell me who you are, first."

"Why?" said the Caterpillar.

As Alice could not think of any good reason and the Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.

"Come back!" the Caterpillar called after her. "I've something important to say!" Alice turned and came back again.

"Keep your temper," said the Caterpillar.

"Is that all?" said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she could.

"No," said the Caterpillar.

It unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, "So you think you're changed, do you?"

"I'm afraid, I am, sir," said Alice. "I can't remember things as I used—and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together!"

"What size do you want to be?" asked the Caterpillar.

"Oh, I'm not particular as to size," Alice hastily replied, "only one doesn't like changing so often, you know. I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind," said Alice. "Three inches is such a wretched height to be."

"It is a very good height indeed!" said the Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it spoke (it was exactly three inches high). [Pg 28]

In a minute or two, the Caterpillar got down off the mushroom and crawled away into the grass, merely remarking, as it went, "One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter."

"One side of what ? The other side of what ?" thought Alice to herself.

"Of the mushroom," said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment, it was out of sight.

Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it. At last she stretched her arms 'round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.

"And now which is which?" she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect. The next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin—it had struck her foot!

She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against her foot that there was hardly room to open her mouth; but she did it at last and managed to swallow a morsel of the left-hand bit....

"Come, my head's free at last!" said Alice; but all she could see, when she looked down, was an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her.

"Where have my shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?" She was de [Pg 29] lighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag and was going to dive in among the leaves, when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry—a large pigeon had flown into her face and was beating her violently with its wings.

"Serpent!" cried the Pigeon.

"I'm not a serpent!" said Alice indignantly. "Let me alone!"

"I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried hedges," the Pigeon went on, "but those serpents! There's no pleasing them!"

Alice was more and more puzzled.

"As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs," said the Pigeon, "but I must be on the look-out for serpents, night and day! And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood," continued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, "and just as I was thinking I should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from the sky! Ugh, Serpent!"

"But I'm not a serpent, I tell you!" said Alice. "I'm a—I'm a—I'm a little girl," she added rather [Pg 30] doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day.

"You're looking for eggs, I know that well enough," said the Pigeon; "and what does it matter to me whether you're a little girl or a serpent?"

"It matters a good deal to me ," said Alice hastily; "but I'm not looking for eggs, as it happens, and if I was, I shouldn't want yours —I don't like them raw."

"Well, be off, then!" said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it settled down again into its nest. Alice crouched down among the trees as well as she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After awhile she remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.

It was so long since she had been anything near the right size that it felt quite strange at first. "The next thing is to get into that beautiful garden—how is that to be done, I wonder?" As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with a little house in it about four feet high. "Whoever lives there," thought Alice, "it'll never do to come upon them this size; why, I should frighten them out of their wits!" She did not venture to go near the house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high.

VI—PIG AND PEPPER

F or a minute or two she stood looking at the house, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood (judging by his face only, she would have called him a fish)—and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. It was opened by another footman in livery, with a round face and large eyes like a frog.

The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter, and this he handed over to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, "For the Duchess. [Pg 32] An invitation from the Queen to play croquet." The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, "From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet." Then they both bowed low and their curls got entangled together.

When Alice next peeped out, the Fish-Footman was gone, and the other was sitting on the ground near the door, staring stupidly up into the sky. Alice went timidly up to the door and knocked.

"There's no sort of use in knocking," said the Footman, "and that for two reasons. First, because I'm on the same side of the door as you are; secondly, because they're making such a noise inside, no one could possibly hear you." And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise going on within—a constant howling and sneezing, and every now and then a great crash, as if a dish or kettle had been broken to pieces.

"How am I to get in?" asked Alice.

" Are you to get in at all?" said the Footman. "That's the first question, you know."

Alice opened the door and went in. The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from one end to the other; the Duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring a large caldron which seemed to be full of soup.

"There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!" Alice said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing. Even the Duchess sneezed occasionally; and as for the baby, it was sneezing and howling alternately without a moment's pause. The only two creatures [Pg 33] in the kitchen that did not sneeze were the cook and a large cat, which was grinning from ear to ear.

"Please would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly, "why your cat grins like that?"

"It's a Cheshire-Cat," said the Duchess, "and that's why."

"I didn't know that Cheshire-Cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know that cats could grin," said Alice.

"You don't know much," said the Duchess, "and that's a fact."

Just then the cook took the caldron of soup off the fire, and at once set to work throwing everything within her reach at the Duchess and the baby—the fire-irons came first; then followed a shower of saucepans, plates and dishes. The Duchess took no notice of them, even when they hit her, and the baby was howling so much already that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not.

"Oh, please mind what you're doing!" cried Alice, jumping up and down in an agony of terror.

"Here! You may nurse it a bit, if you like!" the Duchess said to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. "I must go and get ready to play croquet with the Queen," and she hurried out of the room.

Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little creature and held out its arms and legs in all directions. "If I don't take this child away with me," thought Alice, "they're sure to kill it in a day or two. Wouldn't it be murder to leave it behind?" She said the last words out loud and the little thing grunted in reply. [Pg 34]

"If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear," said Alice, "I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now!"

Alice was just beginning to think to herself, "Now, what am I to do with this creature, when I get it home?" when it grunted again so violently that Alice looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it—it was neither more nor less than a pig; so she set the little creature down and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood.

Alice was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire-Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off. The Cat only grinned when it saw her. "Cheshire-Puss," began Alice, rather timidly, "would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here?"

"In that direction," the Cat said, waving the right paw 'round, "lives a Hatter; and in that direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like; they're both mad."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat; "we're all mad here. Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?"

"I should like it very much," said Alice, "but I haven't been invited yet."

"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.

Alice had not gone much farther before she came in sight of the house of the March Hare; it was so large a house that she did not like to go near till she had nibbled some more of the left-hand bit of mushroom.

VII—A MAD TEA-PARTY

T here was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it; a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep.

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. "No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice coming. "There's plenty of room!" said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this, but all he said was "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

"I'm glad they've begun asking riddles—I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.

"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the March Hare.

"Exactly so," said Alice.

"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.

"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least—at least I mean what I say—that's the same thing, you know."

"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, which seemed to be talking in its sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe!'" [Pg 36]

"It is the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose. The Dormouse shook its head impatiently and said, without opening its eyes, "Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself."

"Have you guessed the riddle yet?" the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

"No, I give it up," Alice replied. "What's the answer?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," said the Hatter.

"Nor I," said the March Hare.

Alice gave a weary sigh. "I think you might do something better with the time," she said, "than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers."

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

"You mean you can't take less ," said the Hatter; "it's very easy to take more than nothing."

At this, Alice got up and walked off. The Dormouse fell asleep instantly and neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she looked [Pg 37] back once or twice; the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the tea-pot.

The Trial of the Knave of Hearts.

"At any rate, I'll never go there again!" said Alice, as she picked her way through the wood. "It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!" Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it. "That's very curious!" she thought. "I think I may as well go in at once." And in she went.

Once more she found herself in the long hall and close to the little glass table. Taking the little golden key, she unlocked the door that led into the garden. Then she set to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece of it in her pocket) till she was about a foot high; then she walked down the little passage; and then —she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains.

VIII—THE QUEEN'S CROQUET GROUND

A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden; the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Suddenly their eyes chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching them. "Would you tell me, please," said Alice, a little timidly, "why you are painting those roses?"

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. [Pg 38] Two began, in a low voice, "Why, the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and, if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to—" At this moment, Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out, "The Queen! The Queen!" and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps and Alice looked 'round, eager to see the Queen.

First came ten soldiers carrying clubs, with their hands and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with diamonds. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among them Alice recognized the White Rabbit. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King's crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and last of all this grand procession came THE KING AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.

When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely, "Who is this?" She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.

"My name is Alice, so please Your Majesty," said Alice very politely; but she added to herself, "Why, they're only a pack of cards, after all!"

"Can you play croquet?" shouted the Queen. The question was evidently meant for Alice. [Pg 39]

"Yes!" said Alice loudly.

"Come on, then!" roared the Queen.

"It's—it's a very fine day!" said a timid voice to Alice. She was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face.

"Very," said Alice. "Where's the Duchess?"

"Hush! Hush!" said the Rabbit. "She's under sentence of execution."

"What for?" said Alice.

"She boxed the Queen's ears—" the Rabbit began.

"Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other. However, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began.

Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows. The croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingos and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

The players all played at once, without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time, the Queen was in a furious passion and went stamping about and shouting, "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" about once in a minute.

"They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here," thought Alice; "the great wonder is that there's anyone left alive!"

She was looking about for some way of escape, when she noticed a curious appearance in the air. [Pg 40] "It's the Cheshire-Cat," she said to herself; "now I shall have somebody to talk to."

"How are you getting on?" said the Cat.

"I don't think they play at all fairly," Alice said, in a rather complaining tone; "and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can't hear oneself speak—and they don't seem to have any rules in particular."

"How do you like the Queen?" said the Cat in a low voice.

"Not at all," said Alice.

Alice thought she might as well go back and see how the game was going on. So she went off in search of her hedgehog. The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed to Alice an excellent opportunity for croqueting one of them with the other; the only difficulty was that her flamingo was gone across to the other side of the garden, where Alice could see it trying, in a helpless sort of way, to fly up into a tree. She caught the flamingo and tucked it away under her arm, that it might not escape again. [Pg 41]

Just then Alice ran across the Duchess (who was now out of prison). She tucked her arm affectionately into Alice's and they walked off together. Alice was very glad to find her in such a pleasant temper. She was a little startled, however, when she heard the voice of the Duchess close to her ear. "You're thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk."

"The game's going on rather better now," Alice said, by way of keeping up the conversation a little.

"'Tis so," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is—'Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love that makes the world go 'round!'"

"Somebody said," Alice whispered, "that it's done by everybody minding his own business!"

"Ah, well! It means much the same thing," said the Duchess, digging her sharp little chin into Alice's shoulder, as she added "and the moral of that is—'Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves.'"

To Alice's great surprise, the Duchess's arm that was linked into hers began to tremble. Alice looked up and there stood the Queen in front of them, with her arms folded, frowning like a thunderstorm!

"Now, I give you fair warning," shouted the Queen, stamping on the ground as she spoke, "either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time. Take your choice!" The Duchess took her choice, and was gone in a moment.

"Let's go on with the game," the Queen said to Alice; and Alice was too much frightened to say a [Pg 42] word, but slowly followed her back to the croquet-ground.

All the time they were playing, the Queen never left off quarreling with the other players and shouting, "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" By the end of half an hour or so, all the players, except the King, the Queen and Alice, were in custody of the soldiers and under sentence of execution.

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and walked away with Alice.

Alice heard the King say in a low voice to the company generally, "You are all pardoned."

Suddenly the cry "The Trial's beginning!" was heard in the distance, and Alice ran along with the others.

IX—WHO STOLE THE TARTS?

T he King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them—all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court [Pg 43] was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it. "I wish they'd get the trial done," Alice thought, "and hand 'round the refreshments!"

The judge, by the way, was the King and he wore his crown over his great wig. "That's the jury-box," thought Alice; "and those twelve creatures (some were animals and some were birds) I suppose they are the jurors."

Just then the White Rabbit cried out "Silence in the court!"

"Herald, read the accusation!" said the King.

On this, the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, then unrolled the parchment-scroll and read as follows:

"Call the first witness," said the King; and the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet and called out, "First witness!"

The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with [Pg 44] a teacup in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in the other.

"You ought to have finished," said the King. "When did you begin?"

The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into the court, arm in arm with the Dormouse. "Fourteenth of March, I think it was," he said.

"Give your evidence," said the King, "and don't be nervous, or I'll have you executed on the spot."

This did not seem to encourage the witness at all; he kept shifting from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and, in his confusion, he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread and butter.

Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation—she was beginning to grow larger again.

The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread and butter and went down on one knee. "I'm a poor man, Your Majesty," he began.

"You're a very poor speaker ," said the King.

"You may go," said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court.

"Call the next witness!" said the King.

The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in her hand and the people near the door began sneezing all at once.

"Give your evidence," said the King.

"Sha'n't," said the cook.

The King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said, in a low voice, "Your Majesty must cross-examine this witness." [Pg 45]

"Well, if I must, I must," the King said. "What are tarts made of?"

"Pepper, mostly," said the cook.

For some minutes the whole court was in confusion and by the time they had settled down again, the cook had disappeared.

"Never mind!" said the King, "call the next witness."

Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the list. Imagine her surprise when he read out, at the top of his shrill little voice, the name "Alice!"

X—ALICE'S EVIDENCE

"H ere!" cried Alice. She jumped up in such a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box, upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below.

"Oh, I beg your pardon!" she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay.

"The trial cannot proceed," said the King, "until all the jurymen are back in their proper places— all ," he repeated with great emphasis, looking hard at Alice.

"What do you know about this business?" the King said to Alice.

"Nothing whatever," said Alice.

The King then read from his book: "Rule forty- [Pg 46] two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court ."

" I'm not a mile high," said Alice.

"Nearly two miles high," said the Queen.

"Well, I sha'n't go, at any rate," said Alice.

The King turned pale and shut his note-book hastily. "Consider your verdict," he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice.

"There's more evidence to come yet, please Your Majesty," said the White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry. "This paper has just been picked up. It seems to be a letter written by the prisoner to—to somebody." He unfolded the paper as he spoke and added, "It isn't a letter, after all; it's a set of verses."

"Please, Your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it and they can't prove that I did; there's no name signed at the end."

"You must have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man," said the King. There was a general clapping of hands at this. [Pg 47]

"Read them," he added, turning to the White Rabbit.

There was dead silence in the court whilst the White Rabbit read out the verses.

"That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet," said the King.

" I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it," ventured Alice.

"If there's no meaning in it," said the King, "that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. Let the jury consider their verdict."

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first—verdict afterwards."

"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the sentence first!"

"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.

"I won't!" said Alice.

"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.

"Who cares for you ?" said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time). "You're nothing but a pack of cards!"

At this, the whole pack rose up in the air and came flying down upon her; she [Pg 48] gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.

"Wake up, Alice dear!" said her sister. "Why, what a long sleep you've had!"

"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice. And she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange adventures of hers that you have just been reading about. Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.

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“Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”

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A girl named Alice falls into a rabbit hole, where she encounters a world of strange creatures.

• Author:  Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898
• LCCN:  http://lccn.loc.gov/16014724
• Published/Created:  London: Macmillan, 1928.
• Request in:  Rare Book/Special Collections Reading Room (Jefferson LJ239)
• Download Cover Image:  [ JPG 1.2M ]

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Biggest Revelations About Donald Trump and More in The Apprentice Tell-All Book

Variety's Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh explores the behind-the-scenes drama from 'The Apprentice' in his new tell-all book, 'Apprentice in Wonderland,' out June 18

Before becoming the 45th president of the United States, The Apprentice franchise made Donald Trump a household name. Though he remembers his time working on the NBC reality series fondly, not all that went down behind the scenes was positive.

In the newly-released book, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass , Variety Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh does a deep exploration into the shows within the franchise — and former host's behavior both on and offscreen. Explosive allegations emerge throughout, including from contestants.

Keep reading for the biggest revelations from the new tell-all book, out now.

Trump's agent advised him against starring on The Apprentice

In the early 2000s, the author noted that Trump was "soft-pitched a docuseries centered on his family." But he said the idea "didn't appeal to him." However, Mark Burnett — the show's eventual series creator who had previously developed Survivor — presented an idea that appealed to Trump much more: being The Apprentice .

Trump's decision to do the show "proved to be an alarming revelation for Trump’s representation, who tried to shut it all down." His agent at the time, Jim Griffin, warned that the series was likely to fail and that would be embarrassing for Trump, Setoodeh writes in the book.

But to their dismay, Trump was fully sold on Burnett's pitch, especially as he sweetened the deal by offering the businessman an executive producer credit. Burnett also agreed to split the profits with Trump on any product placement.

Mark Burnett is called out for his treatment of the contestants

Season 1 contender Kristi Frank told Setoodeh that Burnett would "mess with" the cast, beginning with the audition rounds. She first recalled waiting for hours to meet with him and then another time, he "pulled me out of the gym when I was working out, and then we had to do my interview" in her gym clothes.

“Even after Burnett had made his selections, choosing 16 finalists to compete on The Apprentice , he kept torturing his contestants,'" Frank said, in the book. "'They messed with us. They said, 'Donald Trump will be watching you guys throughout the whole thing.' And they’d say, 'Oh, he’s watching you. He’s keeping tabs.' No, he wasn’t watching us! He had no idea what we were doing."

PEOPLE has reached out to Burnett and the production companies associated with the show and had not received a response, at press time.

Fellow season 1 contender Bowie Hogg recalled Burnett quickly reneging on his promise to not put cameras in the bathroom of their temporary communal residence, with the author noting that Burnett "couldn’t help himself, and he eventually brought the cameras into the bathroom to collect footage of the contestants getting ready."

There were also alleged incidents of "hazing," with season 2 star Rob Flanagan recalling during the interview rounds that there were "some attacks, not from Mark, but his team."

In another incident, Burnett reportedly told contestant Chris Russo that he was cutting him during the audition round because his wife was pregnant, saying that the player was "going to want to leave" if something happened to his wife or unborn child. Russo promised that he wouldn't exit abruptly if something were to happen, and Burnett made Russo "repeat his loyalty to The Apprentice over his unborn child until the producer was satisfactorily convinced."

Mark Burnett hired "rejected" Apprentice contestants to be junior producers

As the show started to come together, the author claimed Burnett hired a group of junior producers, "many of them rejected Apprentice contestants." He reportedly referred to this group internally as "the Dream Team."

The bunch would "run around Manhattan, doing mock trials of the tasks to make sure they worked in real time and ironing out hiccups before the actual contestants took them on."

Trump "almost presented himself as a Broadway character" during filming

Season 1 player Sam Solovey recalled his first introductory meeting with Trump in the show's iconic boardroom alongside his castmates, saying, "He almost presented himself as a Broadway character."

"When you go to a Broadway show, there’s a certain manner in which an actor is supposed to stand onstage, because they don’t use their hands," Solovey said. "Certain aspects of posture, cadence — he adopted all of that."

But Solovey recalled it not coming across as "natural."

"I don’t think people really analyze it, but it clearly was intentional," he said, in the book. "I believe the way that he presents himself is a larger sort of performance art. Just watching him, everything from the hands, the way he puts his fingers together and claps, the pointing fingers, the length of his ties, always wearing suits ... And I don’t think it’s natural—especially the speech pattern and the way he stands. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a tall guy and physically big. It’s all part of a product."

Trump would get "too close" to the contestants

According to the book's author, Burnett would move axed contestants — who still didn't have access to their wallets or other important personal belongings — into rooms at the Drake Hotel to avoid spoilers from getting out. This is when Trump allegedly "violated the golden rule of reality TV: never get too close to the contestants."

Trump would allegedly "regularly invite them over to his office, simply to hang out. They all had the ability to reach him. All they had to do was call his assistant." He'd even offer the fired male contenders some personal advice, with Bowie Hogg recalling Trump telling him to "always make sure you got a prenup," Setoodeh claims in the book.

Trump, according to former contestant Sam Solovey, would even invite the axed players over to his apartment. The author alleges that Trump "enlisted the fired contestants as his helpers long before the first episode of The Apprentice aired, back when they were still being held without their wallets in New York City hotel rooms during production."

Trump allegedly had various inappropriate interactions with female contestants

The book also recounts a few encounters Trump allegedly had with female contestants, including Trump's fixation with season 4 contender Jennifer Murphy.

"It was mostly among the men [on the show], where he’d say, 'Oh, she’s hot. Oh, I’d love to sleep with her.' Jennifer Murphy —t hat’s who he’d talk about,'" season 4 winner Randal Pinkett said in the book, noting that "There’s no place for those conversations in a business context" and that "It was unacceptable."

Scott Olson/Getty; Phillip Faraone/Getty

Although Murphy, who previously met Trump through his Miss USA pageant system, didn't win the season, she says that Trump would go on to forge a close bond with her post-show. He allegedly sent her to meetings with his top executives and eventually offered her two jobs, which she later turned down. But before that, the pair had an interaction in which he kissed her on the lips after a one-on-one meeting at his office, she recalls in the book.

"I mean, he didn't push it," Murphy said, noting that she "wasn't offended" by it. "It was like, one, two, three — no tongue. I just let him give me the kiss. And I kind of turned red."

Murphy also recalled Trump smacking her on her butt "a little" after they shot an Access Hollywood segment together.

Season 5 contestant   Summer Zervos' allegations of Trump kissing and later sexually assaulting her were mentioned, as well. But she declined to address the matter for the book.

Randal Pinkett recalled the aftermath of his then-controversial decision that led to him becoming the season 4 winner

In season 4, Trump presented Randal Pinkett with the option of sharing his win with eventual runner-up Rebecca Jarvis, but Pinkett declined the offer.

"I think he made himself unpopular by not doing it," Trump said, in the book. "He said no, and most people thought — especially the way I put it — he’d say yes. That’s his problem."

But Pinkett believes Trump attempted to dilute his win due to the color of his skin. “In retrospect, I would argue this: it was a combination of racism and sexism," Pinkett said, in the book.

Both Pinkett and Trump "took heat" for how they reacted in the moment. Eventually, Pinkett "confronted" Trump during a one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower where the show's publicist Jim Dowd, whom the winner hired, sat in to mediate.

Jemal Countess/Getty

Though Pinkett did go on to work with Trump, as the only Black person in an executive role, the working relationship only lasted a year and they are no longer on favorable terms.

"I think Donald’s a racist," Pinkett told the author. "And I think he consciously and unconsciously and deliberately cast Black people in a negative light."

PEOPLE reached out to Trump's team for comment and did not receive a response.

Trump's presidential run was discouraged by NBC

From Trump's perspective, NBC applied the pressure to persuade him against a presidential run, the book details. Mark Burnett even called him regularly to talk him out of it, and NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke was also trying to dissuade him.

"We talked him out of running for president," said Bob Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC Entertainment.

ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock 

Still set on running, Trump later expressed renewed interest in the idea. The businessman even claimed that he turned down the opportunity to host The Apprentice for another five seasons so that he could run for office.

"Steve Burke came up to see me with Paul Telegdy, and essentially said the same thing, 'We’ll give you anything you want,'" he recalled. "I said, 'Steve, I just don’t want to do it. I’ve done it enough. I’ve done 14 seasons in 12 years. I don’t need the money. I want to do other things.'"

Trump planned for his children to be his successors on The Apprentice , had the show continued amid his political turn

After leaving the franchise on his own terms, Trump still had ideas about how to keep it going — and who should take over his former role, the book explains.

"I said, 'The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump ,'" he said of his daughter, who began regularly appearing on the show alongside fellow Trump family members part-way through its run. "I didn’t press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.”

Trump also wanted his sons, Don Jr. and Eric , to take over as judges. "It was going to be the three of us. There were talks for a little while about it," Eric said.

However, according to Trump, "NBC didn’t like it, because it became like a family thing ... And then they came back with Arnold Schwarzenegger ."

The Terminator actor was eventually tapped to helm The Celebrity Apprentice for one season before the franchise ended for good.

Donald Trump Jr.'s alleged affair with Aubrey O'Day on The Celebrity Apprentice

Clay Aiken , a fellow contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice , claimed that Aubrey O'Day was the only contestant that had Don Jr.'s phone number. He also said the pair's affair "was not a well-kept secret," and she later confirmed it to him when they were both performing at an event in St. Petersburg, Fl.

Aiken said there "probably should have been" rules against a reality TV show judge helping out a contestant with whom they're secretly romantically involved, indicating that American Idol — the show he came in second place on in 2003 — had "very strict FCC-regulated rules."

Arsenio Hall "felt guilty" about appearing on The Celebrity Apprentice

According to Aiken, who grew close to Arsenio Hall during their time on The Celebrity Apprentice , the comedian confided in him about his conflicting feelings about joining the show.

"Arsenio felt guilty for a while," Aiken said, in the book. Arsenio explained to me people think he’s racist because he’s been asking for [Barack] Obama ’s birth certificate. I thought he was doing it for attention. I didn’t tie those things together."

Hall was later crowned that season's winner and went on to have a big career comeback. However, Aiken said: "Arsenio was worried doing the show might make him appear to be tacitly endorsing Trump in some way. And he told me afterwards he thought Trump probably just chose him to not make himself look racist."

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Millions of Americans Watched ‘The Apprentice.’ Now We Are Living It.

As a new book by Ramin Setoodeh shows, Donald Trump brought the vulgar theatrics he honed on TV to his life in politics.

Donald Trump in Universal City, Calif., during a promotional tour for “The Apprentice” in 2004. Credit... Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

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APPRENTICE IN WONDERLAND: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass , by Ramin Setoodeh

In 2004, when the entertainment journalist Ramin Setoodeh was 22, Newsweek assigned him to cover a new reality show starring Donald Trump. The show’s mix of product-hawking and emotional volatility was a hit; and in the years since “The Apprentice” first aired on NBC, Setoodeh would go on to become the co-editor in chief of Variety and Trump, of course, would go on to become president — arguably in large part because American audiences bought the mirage of the successful, no-nonsense businessman that Trump played on TV.

So it isn’t surprising that Setoodeh, like so many others who have done rotations in Trump’s orbit, would eventually add a volume to the ever-expanding shelf of Trump books. Setoodeh concedes that “The Apprentice” has already “been endlessly analyzed, debated, referenced and credited as a major factor” in Trump’s 2016 victory, and he promises that “Apprentice in Wonderland” will do something new: “What’s been lost in most of the conversations about the show is the show itself — not just a symbol, but a seminal moment in the history of popular culture.”

This is one of those my-book-will-be-different statements that sounds blandly unobjectionable on the face of it, but then turns out not to make much sense. “The Apprentice” was “a seminal moment in the history of popular culture” precisely because its star became president. The “show itself” was, from Setoodeh’s own recounting of it, just another reality television product: addictive, ultra-processed fare that could be churned out on the cheap. Trump’s stint in reality TV has been squeezed many times over for significance. What can this book tell us that we don’t know already?

Setoodeh did what he could to gather material. He interviewed Trump six times between May 2021 and November 2023, and talked to numerous people who worked for or appeared on the show. In other words, he had access. But access — especially when it comes to a 20-year-old reality show built around voluble people who crave attention — can yield only so much.

Most of what sources confided to Setoodeh are variations on the many stories about “The Apprentice” that have appeared over the years. We have been repeatedly told that Trump was less decisive and articulate than the show’s editors made him out to be , and that he made vulgar comments about women . (Not to mention that he was recently found liable for sexual abuse and defamation by a jury that ordered him to pay his accuser, the writer E. Jean Carroll, $83.3 million.) One “Apprentice” contestant, Jennifer Murphy, says that Trump kissed her, but that she wasn’t offended. “I think he looked at me in a way like he does his daughter,” she tells Setoodeh. “But also, I did think he had the hots for me a little bit.”

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