Lamron Lit Corner: What’s the edition of Alice in Wonderland

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”

~ Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

This week’s Lamron Lit Corner will be a bit different than usual—when tackling Lewis Carroll’s famous children's novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I thought to myself, “What can I add to the conversation around this book? What can I say that hasn’t already been said?” Then I looked at my bookshelf and decided that the answer was right in front of me, or rather, the question: for those who have never read this seminal work, what edition should you buy?

Let’s start with the original text first. For the cheapest and most accurate text, any thrift version will work, whether it be Dover Thrift or any number of other reprints. But in my opinion, Alice is not the type of work to be read out of any normal book, and especially not one without illustrations.

The original work contained wood-engraved illustrations by John Tenniel that have become a staple of literary art ever since. Many editions, such as the Barnes and Noble Deluxe Leatherbound edition, contain these same illustrations. In addition, this edition contains Through the Looking Glass as well as a massive number of other poems and pieces by Carroll, all of which go largely unknown compared to Alice. It comes in a beautiful, sky blue hard cover with a pink ribbon and silver-encrusted pages, one of the best of the B&N leatherbounds. This edition will run you $25, but if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, Barnes and Noble also has their leatherbound Signature Classics, one of which is just Alice and Looking Glass; while not as beautiful to look at, this copy is far more realistic to carry with you and read from and will only cost $10.

For those literary scholars out there like myself, the best editions for notes and other references comes down to Penguin Classics and Norton Critical Editions. Penguin, as always, has the more streamlined annotations of the two, keeping it focused on those who don’t necessarily have a degree to back their information on the book. If you go with the Penguin Clothbound, not only will you get the same information and annotations, but it will come in an amazing cloth hardcover. For Norton, there is no beautiful edition to choose from, but this is the ultimate place to go for information and critical essays on Carroll’s works. This edition is updated fairly frequently as well, keeping the essays relevant to the times.

Now, for those wanting a newer take on this classic, look no further than Pushkin Children’s edition, illustrated by Floor Rieder. This is the only edition of Alice (and Looking Glass) that I recommend that does not use the illustrations by Tenniel and instead reimagines Alice as a slightly older girl without her signature blonde hair and blue dress. This new art style is gorgeous, and while I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is better than the original by any stretch, it succeeds in being more welcoming. Gone are the borderline-horror illustrations of Alice’s long neck and the grotesque Queen of Hearts, and while I find beauty in those older versions, Rieder’s reimagining helps welcome younger readers. In addition, the book includes Through the Looking Glass with the second novel being printed upside-down, requiring the reader to flip the book over to read it, which I find genius.

Whichever edition you choose, there’s no doubt you’ll find Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to be as entertaining as it was back in the 1860s when it was first published. There are so few books where we have the same ability to choose between dozens if not hundreds of different editions to read out of, so I wish you luck finding your perfect choice.