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Foreword
ewis Carroll is the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge
3
LDodgson (1832–1898), a writer of nonsense literature
and a mathematician in Christ Church at the University of
Oxford in England. He was a close friend of the Liddell family:
Henry Liddell had many children and he was the Dean of the
College. Carroll used to tell stories to the young Alice (born
in 1852) and her two elder sisters, Lorina and Edith. One
day—on 4 July 1862—Carroll went with his friend, the
Reverend Robinson Duckworth, and the three girls on a boat
paddling trip for an afternoon picnic on the banks of a river.
On this trip on the river, Carroll told a story about a girl
named Alice and her amazing adventures down a rabbit hole.
Alice asked him to write the story for her, and in time, the
draft manuscript was completed. After rewriting the story,
the book was published in 1865, and since that time, various
versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were released in
many various languages. You are holding the first translation
3 Lewis Carroll’s real surname in Russian sources is traditionally but incorrectly
transliterated as Доджсон (Dodzhson). In English, the “g” is silent, therefore
in the Evertype editions we use the transliteration Додсон (Dodson); this is
how Dodgson himself pronounced it.—M. E.
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