The most interesting moment of the fairy tale is Alice in the country. "Alice in Wonderland": quotes and interesting facts about the book by Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll is nothing more than a pseudonym. Charles Dodgson did his best to distance himself from his alter ego, sending back letters from Alice fans marked "addressee unknown." But the fact remains: the books he created about Alice's travels brought him much more popularity than all his scholarly works.
1. Difficulties in translation
The book has been translated into 125 languages of the world. And it wasn't that easy. The thing is that if you translate the fairy tale literally, then all the humor and all its charm disappears - there are too many puns and witticisms based on the peculiarities of the English language. Therefore, it was not the translation of the book that enjoyed the greatest success, but the retelling of Boris Zakhoder. In total, there are about 13 options for translating a fairy tale into Russian. Moreover, in the first version, created by an anonymous translator, the book was called "Sonya in the Kingdom of the Diva." The next translation appeared almost 30 years later, and the cover read "Ani's Adventures in the World of Wonders." And Boris Zakhoder admitted that he considered the name “Alice in Wonderland” to be more appropriate, but decided that the public would not appreciate such a title.
Alice in Wonderland has been filmed 40 times, including animated versions. Alice even appeared on the Muppets show - where the role of the girl was played by Brooke Shields.
3. The Mad Hatter was not in the first edition of the book.
Yes, don't be surprised. The tactless, absent-minded, eccentric and extravagant Hatter, so brilliantly played by Johnny Depp, did not appear in the first version of the tale. By the way, in the translation by Nina Demiurova, recognized as the best of all existing ones, the character's name is Hatter. The fact is that in English hatter meant not only “hatter”, as they called people who do everything wrong. Therefore, we decided that our fools would be the closest analogue in Russian. So the Hatter became the Hatter. By the way, his name and character originated from the English saying "Mad as a hatter". At that time, it was believed that workers who create hats could go crazy due to exposure to mercury vapor, which was used to process felt.
By the way, the Hatter was not the only character who was not in the original version of Alice. The Cheshire cat also appeared later.
In fact, if we talk about illustrations, it is easier to name those who in their work bypassed the motives of "Alice". The most famous are the drawings of John Tenniel, who created 42 black and white illustrations for the first publication of the book. Moreover, each drawing was discussed with the author.
Fernando Falcon's illustrations leave an ambiguous impression - seemingly cute and childish, but it seems to be like a nightmare.
Jim Minji created illustrations in the best traditions of Japanese anime, Erin Taylor drew an African-style tea party.
And Elena Kalis illustrated Alice's adventures in photographs, transferring the events to the underwater world.
Salvador Dali painted 13 watercolors for different situations from the book. Probably, his drawings are not the most childish and not even the most understandable for an adult, but they are delightful.
Well, this is just not surprising. The whole Wonderland is a world of absurdity. Some vicious critics even called everything that happened in the book nonsense. However, we will ignore the attacks of too mundane personalities, alien to fantasy and devoid of imagination, and turn to the facts from the field of medicine. And the facts are as follows: among the mental disorders of a person there is micropsia - a condition when a person perceives objects and objects proportionally reduced. Or enlarged. Remember how Alice grew and then decreased? So here. A person with Alice in Wonderland syndrome can see an ordinary doorknob as if it were the size of the door itself. But much more often people perceive objects as if from afar. What is most terrible, a person in this state does not understand what really exists, and what only seems to him.
There are references to the work of Lewis Carroll in many books and films. One of the most famous implicit quotes is the phrase "Follow the white rabbit" in the science fiction action movie The Matrix. A little later in the film, another allusion pops up: Morpheus offers Neo two pills to choose from. By choosing the right one, Keanu Reeves' character finds out "how deep that rabbit hole goes." And on the face of Morpheus there is a smile of the Cheshire cat. In "Resident Evil" there is a whole bunch of analogies, ranging from the name of the main character - Alice, to the name of the central computer - "Red Queen". The action of the virus and antivirus was tested on a white rabbit, and to get into the corporation, one had to go through a mirror. And even in the horror movie "Freddie vs. Jason" there was a place for Carroll's heroes. One of the victims in the movie sees Freddy Krueger
Over the past 20 years that Tim Burton and his "muse" - Johnny Depp have worked together, they have proven that their fruitful duo can show decent results. The gothic beauty of "Edward Scissorhands", the campy farce of "Sleepy Hollow", the mind-blowing insanity of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", each of their joint creations was unforgettable for the viewer.
So fans are eagerly awaiting the result of their latest collaboration, Alice in Wonderland, where Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter who meets Alice (Mia Wasikowska).
Let's go behind the scenes to find out that Tim Burton doesn't like motion capture technology, Mia Wasikowska hates green walls, and that creating an animated cat is much more difficult than you might imagine...
Fact 1. This film is not like the previous adaptations of the famous story.
Because, frankly, Tim Burton wasn't impressed with them. “All the versions of Alice that I saw suffered from a lack of dynamics,” says Tim. “They were all absurd stories, showing one phantasmagoric character after another. You look at them and think, “Oh, this looks unusual. Hmm, how strange ... ”and you don’t even pay attention to the development of the plot.
How does Tim Burton plan to avoid all these pitfalls? “We tried to make all the characters more solid and make the story more down to earth, simpler,” explains the director.
“I mean, they are still insane, but we gave each character their own specific insanity and a lot more depth.”
Fact 2. All special effects were obtained by trial and error.
Or, as Burton likes to say, "it was an organic process."
In fact, the special effects team filmed all the scenes using expensive Zemekis image capture equipment to discard the footage.
“In the scene with the Jack of Hearts (Crispin Glover pictured) and the tweedles, we used motion capture,” says lead animator David Schaub. “Knave in the story is 2.5 meters tall, so we thought that motion capture would be the best way in this case. But in order for the tweedles' eyes to be directed correctly, we had to put the actor on stilts. As a result, all captured images depicted the actor on stilts. It looked ridiculous. ”
“Were you sorry to throw away the footage?”
“It's Tim's choice, he acted from his own experience and what he saw and the technique he used,” answers David Schaub.
“We discussed all the things we like and don't like about image capture technology. I had some heated discussions with the animation team, but personally I think this technology looks weird,” says Tim Burton.
Fact 3. You will not understand what is real and what is not.
“There are only three live actors in the film: Alice (Wasikowska), the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and the white queen (Anne Hathaway). Tweedles and Jack of Hearts are real heads mounted on animated bodies, it looks very unusual, you have not seen anything like it. This is very cool.
At the same time, the red queen is a combination of several different methods, which we eventually distorted somewhat.
But one of the most difficult tasks was the creation of the Cheshire Cat. The difficulty was that he flies. And we thought, if cats could fly, how would they do it?
Then he always shows his huge smile, which causes problems, since he must have emotions. But how to convey other emotions, except for happiness, if he is constantly smiling? It was complicated.
As for the wonderland itself, it is completely modeled on a computer. Except, perhaps, for one scenery - this is the staircase that Alice descends after falling into the rabbit hole.
The result certainly looks amazing, but try to understand poor Mia Wasikowski.
“It was three months before the green screen,” sighs the actress. “I had to keep in mind that I would have an animated character in front of me. But this is very difficult to do when you have only tennis balls and duct tape in front of you.”
Fact 4. The Mad Hatter is a Depp/Burton creation.
“It’s funny,” says costume designer Colleen Atwood, who has worked with Tim Burton for 20 years, “but when the three of us made sketches of what we thought the Mad Hatter should look like and compared them to each other, they looked very similar” .
“One of the very interesting features of the Hatter's costume is that it is able to change its color, depending on the mood of the owner.”
“I did a lot of sketches of costumes, different colors and shades, and then it was all enhanced with the help of computer graphics. It will look very cool.”
Fact 5. Mia Wasikowska is the new Cate Blanchett.
“She's just a delightful young lady,” says Colleen Atwood, “she has no head in the clouds, is extremely hardworking and has a great sense of humor, which is a must when making such a crazy film.”
“She reminds me a lot of Cate Blanchett in the sense that they are both very talented and easy to talk to. And they are both from Australia.”
“Mia has a very mature soul, but there are elements about her that make her feel very young and naive,” agrees Tim Burton. “She is perfect for the role of Alice, as she plays herself. She, too, is at a crossroads in her career right now, and this movie will probably be the weirdest movie she's ever made. It is very unusual even for me.”
translation (c) Ptah
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Of course, now there are already and there will be many more publications on this topic, and each gives his own idea of the fantastic events in the life of Alice or Carroll.
Before breakfast, Alice said, there are six impossible things; but I offer you seven real things: little-known ideas in this special combination of madness and sanity, maturity and childhood of Alice in Wonderland.
The original title of the tale was Alice's Adventures Underground, and it would seem that our heroine was supposed to meet the Queen of Moles and not the Queen of Hearts.
Luckily, Carroll was self-critical enough to offer several options to his friend, writer and editor Tom Taylor.
Some titles, such as Alice in Among the Goblins, were even worse, but luckily Taylor helped with the selection and Carroll settled on the Wonderland we have today.
He called himself too cumbersome. Charles submitted four drafts to his editor for his consideration: Edgar Cuthwellis, Edgar U. C. Westhill, Louis Carroll, and Lewis Carroll.
2. Alice's story started on the same day.
It's not always possible to pinpoint the birth of a book in a single day, month or year, but with Alice we have that luxury thanks to the author's extensive notes.
On July 4, 1862, Carroll took little Alice Liddell and her sisters Laurina and Edith for a boat ride. To entertain the girls, he fashioned - seemingly out of thin air - a series of adventures in an unknown land in which Alice became the heroine.
(Lorina and Edith were given less glamorous roles: Laurie and Eaglet).
Enthralled by the stories, the girls asked Carroll to write down the tales. Two and a half years passed and Carroll completed the manuscript as a Christmas present in 1864.
3. Complex mathematics and Christian secret symbols in Alice's Adventures.
Carroll's father, a clergyman and later archdeacon, instilled in his eldest son a passion for mathematics and a strict adherence to Anglican doctrine.
Some critics, for example, saw the tale as Carroll's rebellion against the restraining socio-religious context of Victorian England.
Alice "fought", after all, against quirky characters who impose strict, nonsensical rules.
They wrote that the book refers to popular mathematical discoveries.
The Caterpillar, the Hatter and the Hare became irrational proponents of the new in mathematics, and the Cheshire Cat delighted the emissaries of Euclidean geometry, his smile is the shape of an ellipse.
4. Carroll's attitude towards Alice may not have been platonic.
Great book 150th anniversaries tend not to focus on negative stories, but Carroll's tale has a sinister side to it.
Although his recordings brought him fame, Carroll's main artistic preoccupation was the photography he produced.
Often his models were scantily clad girls. In fact, he wrote in his letters, "I don't think he would agree that girls' uniforms should ever be closed." (Recent biographers have attempted to normalize this behavior in the eyes of society and clear their name.)
The exact nature of their relationship is murky - his diaries from April 1858 to May 1862 are missing - but Alice played at least the problematic role of Carroll's little muse. (He was 20 years older than her).
In Alice's writings on this subject, no hints of sexual relations are found, but there is something clear in the photographs.
5. Alice has since become a muse for generations of artists and writers after Carroll - including Vladimir Nabokov.
Virginia Woolf: "Alice is not a children's book," she once said. "They are the books with which we become children."
Wolfe meant that these fairy tales restore the ability to think creatively. They remind adult readers how even the dystopian world of the heartless Queen of Hearts can become a series of delightful games.
The surrealists André Breton and Salvador Dali also took a particular interest in Wonderland.
Other writers were struck by the dark side of the tale. Vladimir Nabokov, who translated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Russia, was heavily influenced by Carroll's books when he wrote his classic Lolita.
6. There are about 20 first editions of the book - and only one original manuscript.
7. Alice's pictures can be even more important than her words.
Illustrations are secondary to most authors, but, as the Morgan exhibition highlighted, this is not Carroll's case. He made 37 pen and ink sketches for the original manuscript.
Although he had the eye of a photographer, he lacked the talent of a draftsman.
He invited Sir John Tenniel to make illustrations for Alice. Tenniel, as we know, is the first illustrator of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, whose illustrations are considered canonical today.
Released in 1856, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a success. In the story, the author fascinatingly combines the meaninglessness in children's literature.
Below are a few facts you may not have known about Alice and its author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll).
1 The Real Alice Was The Daughter Of Executive Carroll
The real Alice, who lent her name to the story, was the daughter of Henry Liddell, Dean of Sunday School at Oxford College, where Lewis Carroll worked as a math teacher. Everyone who worked at the school lived on campus. At the moment, there is an exhibition dedicated to "Alice" and her heroes.
It was here that Carroll met the sisters of the real Alice and got to know her entire family.
2. The Mad Hatter might not exist at all without the persistence of children.
When Carroll began telling a fantasy tale to the Liddell sisters in the summer of 1862 while walking along the Thames, he had no idea of being a children's writer. Little girls all the time demanded the continuation of an interesting story, so the author began to write "Adventures" in a diary, which, in the end, turned into a written novel. Such a gift was presented by Carroll to Alice for Christmas in 1864. By 1865, he had self-published the final version of Alice's Adventures, which doubled in length and added new scenes, including the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.
3. The illustrator hated the first edition
Carroll approached renowned English illustrator John Tenniel to create drawings for the story. When the author saw the first copy of the book, he was very indignant at how poorly the illustrator reflected his intentions. Carroll tried to buy up the entire print run with his small salary, so that he could then reprint it. However, Alice sold out quickly and was an instant success. Also, the book was released in limited edition in America.
4. Alice in Wonderland was first filmed in 1903
Some time after Carroll's death, directors Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stowe decided to turn the story into a 12-minute movie. At the time, it became the longest film made in the UK. Hepworth played the Frog Footman himself in the film, while his wife became the White Rabbit and the Queen.
5. Carroll almost titled the story "Alice's Clock in Elvengard"
Riding down the Thames for the afternoon, Carroll decided to write a sequel to the story of Alice for the Liddell sisters. He came up with several titles for his story. The original text of the tale, submitted by 10-year-old Liddell, was called Alice's Underground Adventure. However, since its publication, Carroll has decided that he can call it "Alice's Clock in Elvengard". There have also been thoughts of calling the story "Alice Among the Fairies". However, he settled on the "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" option.
6. Ridicule of newfangled mathematical theories
Scientists have suggested that Carroll in his story ridiculed mathematical theories, innovative for the 19th century, in general, as well as imaginary numbers. For example, the riddles that the Mad Hatter asked Alice were a reflection of the increasing abstraction that was taking place in mathematics in the 19th century. This assumption was put forward by mathematician Keith Devlin in 2010. Carroll was very conservative; he found the new forms in mathematics that came out in the mid-1800s to be absurd compared to algebra and Euclidean geometry.
7. The original illustrations were carved into wood
Tenniel was a well-known illustrator by that time, it was he who took up Alice in Wonderland. He was also known for his political cartoons. His drawings were originally printed on paper, then carved on wood, then became metal reproductions. They were used in the printing process.
8. Miracles didn't seem so absurd to the real Alice.
Some things that seem like nonsense to us made some sense to the Liddell sisters. Remember, Turtle says in the book that he gets drawing lessons, sketching and "fainting rolls" from an old sea eel who comes once a week. The sisters probably saw in him their own tutor, who gave the girls lessons in drawing, drawing and oil painting. Most of the nonsense from the book, as well as the characters, have real prototypes and stories.
9. Dodo bird - the prototype of Carroll
In the book, Carroll repeatedly alludes to a tour of the Thames with the girls, which inspired him to create this masterpiece. Perhaps the Dodo bird became the prototype of Lewis himself, whose real name is Charles Dodgson. According to one version, the author suffered from stuttering. Perhaps this is what prevented him from becoming a priest, directing his fate into a mathematical direction.
10. The original manuscript almost never leaves London.
The original illustrated manuscript, titled Alice's Underground Adventures, was given by Carroll to Alice Liddell. Now the book is an exhibit of the British Library, very rarely leaves the country.
11. Alice's Adventures is a kind of pioneer in the field of licensing
Carroll was an experienced marketer of his story and characters. This is perhaps the main reason why the story is so famous today, even for those who have not read the book. He designed a postage stamp with images of Alice, these pictures adorn cookie cutters and other products.
For readers wishing to learn more about the origins of the book, he has produced a facsimile of the original manuscript. He later created an abridged version of the book for even the youngest readers.
12. The book has not been published for a long time - this is a fact
The work has been translated into 176 languages. All parts of the book were sold out within seven weeks of publication.
Greg Hildenbrandt © kinopoisk.ru
Today, July 4 , book lovers around the world celebrate the birthday of the legendary adventure story "Alice in Wonderland". On this day, more than 150 years ago, the British publishing house "Macmillan" printed and presented the first edition of the legendary book by Lewis Carroll. This fabulous story has become a real legend, a favorite book of millions of readers. We invite you to learn interesting facts about your favorite book, as well as remember catchphrases.
Lewis Carroll © vk.com
The fairy tale about the travels of the girl Alice in the amazing Wonderland was written by the English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. In 1862, during a picnic, Charles began to tell an invented fairy tale to Alice Liddell, the daughter of the dean of the faculty at Christ Church College, Oxford, where Carroll taught mathematics. A ten-year-old girl was so carried away by a fairy tale that she began to persuade the narrator to write down this story. Dodgson followed the advice and, under the name of Lewis Carroll, wrote the book "Alice in Wonderland", which appeared exactly three years after the fateful picnic. She was destined to become one of the most popular books of all time, which for many years has been fascinated by both adults and children.
Alice in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages. But the translators had to work hard on the text. The fact is that if you translate the fairy tale literally, then all the humor and all the charm created by the author disappears. The original version has a lot of puns and witticisms based on the peculiarities of the English language.
Alice in Wonderland has been filmed 40 times including animated versions. The first film adaptation was made in 1903. Just a few years after Carroll's death, directors Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stowe made a 12-minute film based on the story. At that time - the beginning of the century - it was the longest film made in the UK.
It is interesting that in the first version of the tale there were no such bright characters as the Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.
In one of the most popular translations, the Hatter was called the Hatter. All this because in English "hatter" meant not only "hatter". This word was called people who do everything wrong. The English even have a saying: "Mad as a hatter" ("mad as a hatter").
There are more than a million paintings created by artists from all over the world, which depict episodes from the legendary fairy tale. Salvador Dali painted 13 watercolors for different situations from the book.
The poem "Jarmaglot", which is included in the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland", consists almost entirely of non-existent words. However, these words obey the laws of English - and are very similar to real ones.
Top 10 best quotes from the book "Alice in Wonderland":
- You know, one of the most serious losses in a battle is the loss of a head.
- Tomorrow is never today! Is it possible to wake up in the morning and say: "Well, now, finally, tomorrow"?
- The best way to explain is to do it yourself.
- If everyone did their own thing, the Earth would spin faster.
- From mustard - they are upset, from onions - they are disingenuous, from wine - they are guilty, and from baking - they become kinder. What a pity that no one knows about this ... Everything would be so simple. Eat a muffin - and dobrel!
- The more you learn right away, the less you suffer later.
- You are beautiful. Only a smile is missing.
- Don't be sad. Sooner or later everything will become clear, everything will fall into place and line up in a single beautiful scheme, like lace. It will become clear why everything was needed, because everything will be right.
- I saw cats without smiles, but a smile without a cat ...
- Alice was surprised how she was not surprised, but the amazing day had just begun and there was nothing surprising in the fact that she had not yet begun to be surprised.
