The Nursery Alice
Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 4.7- Word count
- 47K words
- Chapters
- 5
Tags
English Originals Children's Literature AliceWonderland FantasyCuriosityIllustrated GuideHumor ReliefFairy Tale AdaptationParent-Child ReadingEarly ReaderChildren's Picture BookYouth ReadingSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Nursery "Alice" by Lewis CarrollAuthor: Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 3, 2017Editor's review
The Nursery "Alice" is Lewis Carroll's own retelling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for younger readers: the language is simpler, the plot more focused, and the wonderful characters and scenes of the original are retained. Its distinctive value lies in showing how the author deliberately adjusted the story to children's reading ability, making it an interesting source for studying the textual evolution of Alice. For adult readers, it serves as a reference for understanding the approach behind the adaptation; for shared parent-child reading, it offers an easier entry point than the original. Note that the book still carries Victorian language habits and some expressions that seem odd today, so reading with an adult will go more smoothly. Overall, it works well as an introductory reader to classic children's literature or as a supplementary text for comparing versions.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Parents who want to introduce the Alice story to young children and need a simplified version
- Readers studying textual differences across Carroll's works and adaptations in children's literature
- English learners at beginner to intermediate level who want a simplified classic
- Fans of Alice who want to collect different textual forms of the story
Not a good fit for
- Readers who want the complete original plot of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Readers who cannot accept Victorian views of childhood and language style at all
- Users of illustrated picture books for very young children who need abundant illustrations or modern layout design
Reading tips
- For shared reading, have an adult read it through first, mark possibly confusing period expressions, then tell the story to the child.
- Read it alongside the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to observe how Carroll cut and simplified.
- English learners can read this first to build the plot framework, then take on the original.
- Read one or two chapters at a time and discuss the strange characters to sustain interest.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
FAQ
What is the relationship between this book and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?
It is Carroll's own retelling for younger readers, not a sequel or translation by someone else. The story framework is related to the original, but the language is simpler and the text shorter, with some plot adjustments, so that young children can more easily follow and read it; it can therefore be seen as a child-friendly adaptation of the original.What age of child is it suitable for?
Because it is an English public-domain text with period language features, independent reading suits children with some English foundation; for shared reading in Chinese, even younger children can grasp the general story. The specific age varies with the child's language experience and the accompanying adult, so parents are advised to look through it first before deciding.Does this electronic edition include illustrations?
The information only states that Project Gutenberg released an electronic edition and does not specify illustrations. Gutenberg editions are usually text-based, and whether images are included varies by edition. Readers can check the file contents after downloading; it should not be assumed that it has complete illustrations.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898 AuthorLewis Carroll (Carroll, Lewis, 1832–1898) is an English writer known for children's literature and nonsense narrative. The collection holds 26 of his works, with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as representative titles, alongside derived texts such as The Nursery Alice and translations into Finnish, French, Esperanto, and other languages, showing their wide circulation. His writing is distinguished by logical games, verbal puns, and bizarre imagination; through dreams and transformations it disrupts everyday order, and beneath the seemingly light fairy tale lie reflections on rules, growing up, and identity. These works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age literature, yet are better regarded as classic fantasy that transcends age. Public information on the details of his life is limited, so this note focuses on the themes, style, and lasting influence of his works.