What is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures? For over
125 years John Tenniel's superb illustrations for Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland have been the perfect complement to Lewis Carroll's timeless
story. In that time Alice has been illustrated by numerous artists, but not
one has come close to matching the universal appeal of the original
pictures. This is the first Alice to reproduce Ternniel's exquisite
drawings from prints taken directly from the original wood engravings.
Here, Tenniel's fine line work is far crisper, delicate shadings are
reproduced with more subtlety, and details never seen before are now
visible. Like most nineteenth-century children's books, the pictures for
Alice were created by transferring the artist's drawings to woodblocks, But
with Alice, the original blocks served as masters from which metal plates
were made for printing. Unfortunately, these plates deteriorated from the
repeated pressure applied during printing, and over time, many of the fine
lines in Tenniel's pictures simply vanished altogether.As the year-,
passed, the original woodblocks disappeared and were believed lost; then,
in 1985 they were discovered in a London bank vault. Now, for the first
time, prints from these woodblocks have been used to produce a deluxe gift
edition with clearer, more detailed images than have ever been seen before.
At last, readers can see the Alice that Carroll and Tenniel had originally
envisioned.