I. Down the Rabbit Hole

My childhood copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland opens with a now-familiar legend: three little girls went out in a boat with mathematics lecturer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and listened to a story. One of those girls was named Alice Liddell, and the story told of another Alice's adventure. \'Thus grew the tale of Wonderland: Thus slowly, one by one, Its quaint events were hammered out—And now the tale is done, And home we steer, a merry crew, Beneath the setting sun.\' Both idyllic origin myth and, through poetry, a frame for the final text, the story of that boat ride is one place to begin any exploration of Alice and her wonderland. The \'real\' Alice Liddell might be found on that boat, listener and protagonist, though we cannot know what she heard.
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