1886 Rare 1stED - Alice's Adventures Under Ground illustrated by Lewis Carroll
Author: Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). (Illustrated by the author).
Title: Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. Being a Facsimile of the Original MS. Book Afterwards Developed Into “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
Publisher: London & New York, Macmillan and Co., 1886. First Edition, First Printing. This book is the first edition, limited to 5000 copies, of the facsimile of Dodgson's original manuscript.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Pages: viii-95 pages + publisher's catalogue
Binding: Attractive and near fine stunning and crisp original red cloth binding with double gilt-ruled borders and elaborate gilt titling on the upper cover, gilt vignette of the Mock Turtle on the lower cover, and gilt spine lettering (hinges fine - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. The gilt remains brilliant throughout. A beautifully preserved example of this iconic Victorian binding. All edges are gilt.
Content: Near fine content (bright, tight and clean, occasional light foxing to a few preliminaries - as shown). The facsimile manuscript pages and full-page illustrations remain crisp, fresh, and beautifully printed.
Illustrations: Complete with thirty-seven illustrations by Lewis Carroll, reproduced directly from the original manuscript he wrote and illustrated for Alice Liddell in 1864. Includes numerous textual vignettes and several full-page plates.
Estimate: (USD 1200 - USD 1700)
The book: A beautiful first edition, first printing of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, Carroll’s own facsimile of the handwritten and hand-illustrated story he gifted to Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Published in 1886, this edition made the original manuscript narrative — more intimate, whimsical, and compact than the later published Wonderland — accessible to the public for the first time.
The volume meticulously reproduces Carroll’s original handwriting, page layout, and illustrations, offering readers and collectors a unique window into the earliest form of the Alice tale, before it expanded into the full Wonderland adventure. Its large and elegant red cloth binding, with its distinctive gilt calligraphy and Mock Turtle vignette, has become one of the most recognizable Victorian bindings of the 19th century.
Near fine copies such as this one are increasingly uncommon, as the coated black endpapers are often cracked or replaced and the red cloth often fades heavily. This example, bright, tight, and internally clean, stands out as a superior collector’s copy.
The author: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which includes the poem "Jabberwocky", and the poem The Hunting of the Snark – all examples of the genre of literary nonsense. He is noted for his facility with wordplay, logic and fantasy. There are societies in many parts of the world dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life.
The illustrator: Though best known as an author, Lewis Carroll was also a skilled amateur artist. His illustrations in the original manuscript — lovingly reproduced here — display expressive characters, flowing ink lines, and a charming immediacy absent from later professional interpretations. These early drawings capture Alice as Carroll himself envisioned her, grounding the story in the intimacy of its origin as a gift to a child he cherished.
His manuscript imagery, from the White Rabbit’s hurried entrance to Alice’s encounters underground, has become a foundational visual layer in the Alice mythos, distinct from and complementary to the later iconic work of John Tenniel.