Books

Hardback, approx 7.5 x 5 inches. Red cloth with gilt paneled boards, gilt vignettes, gilt lettering to spines. All page edges gilt. Black endpapers. In generally good conditions. Some rubbing to edges and corners, corners bumped and slightly nicked. Some handling marks to covers. Spines lightly rubbed at ends. Both volumes have been Professional rebacked. Bookseller original small label to ?Wonderland?; ?C.H. BENSBERG? Same name inscription to each half-title pages ?Julia Medlycolt.? Some foxing to front tissue guards and some minor darkening to titles/frontispeices. Some handling marks to pages, ?Wonderland? is a little more marked, with repair top edge of half tile page & newspaper article of Lewis Carroll?s death. A couple of pages have some minor darkening and rubbing to edges. Else overall clean and tight copies of very early ?Alice? editions. 192 & 224pp + cat. With 42 & 50 B&W Illustrations by John Tenniel.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" follows the escapades of a curious young girl named Alice, who, while bored on a riverbank, spots a white rabbit in a waistcoat. She follows it down a rabbit hole and finds herself in a whimsical world. Throughout her journey, Alice encounters peculiar characters like the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the grinning Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter hosting a nonsensical tea party. She experiences a series of transformations, shrinking and growing, as she navigates through the bizarre landscapes and meets creatures like the March Hare and the Dormouse. The Queen of Hearts, with her penchant for ordering beheadings, adds a touch of absurdity to the already surreal environment. Alice grapples with the nonsensical rules of Wonderland, engaging in peculiar conversations that highlight the absurd logic of this fantastical realm. As she tries to find her way home, she faces challenges, solves riddles, and discovers that the reality of Wonderland often defies logic. Ultimately, Alice's adventures culminate in her realizing that the world she encountered was a dream. She wakes up on the riverbank, pondering the strange and wonderful events she experienced in Wonderland, leaving readers with a blend of imagination, whimsy, and thought-provoking absurdity. Carroll's tale remains a classic exploration of childhood, curiosity, and the unpredictable nature of dreams.