Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Author: Qiu Sheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: A middle-length fairy tale by Lewis Carroll, a British fairy tale writer. The story tells of a girl named Alice who, while dozing, suddenly sees a dressed-up white rabbit run past. Alice follows the rabbit and tumbles into a black hole, falling for a long time before landing on a pile of dry leaves. She walks into a hall with many doors around. In the center of the hall, on a glass table, lies a string of golden keys. She uses one of them to open a tiny door, revealing a beautiful garden. The door is too small for her to fit through, so later, after drinking a bottle of drink on the table, she shrinks into a tiny person only 10 inches tall. She then eats a cake under the table and grows to 9 feet tall, making the door unapproachable again. Desperate, she cries until her tears form a river. The white rabbit appears, drops a fan, and she uses it to shrink back into a tiny person. She accidentally falls into her pool of tears and barely manages to swim to the shore. Alice arrives at the white rabbit's house and sees a bottle of drink on a cabinet. After drinking only half a bottle, her body grows so large that her head touches the ceiling, her arms stretch out the window, and she becomes immobile. The rabbit picks up stones and throws them at her, but all the stones on the ground turn into cakes. After eating them, she shrinks again. She then breaks free and escapes, running into the forest where she eats some mushrooms to restore her original form. Alice enters the garden of a Duchess and meets the Red Queen K and the Queen Q. The Queen is temperamental and often cuts off people's heads. The Cheshire Cat angers the Queen and is sentenced to be beheaded. However, the cat's body disappears, leaving the executioner unsure how to behead a head without a body. In the end, the Queen orders the head of Alice, who refuses to testify against the absurdity, to be cut off. Alice wakes up in self-defense. This fairy tale is considered a pinnacle of 19th-century British absurd literature.