''A work of glorious intelligence and literary devices . . . Nonsense becomes a form of higher sense'' Malcolm Bradbury

''I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole . . . without the least idea what was to happen afterwards,'' wrote Lewis Carroll, describing how Alice was conjured up one ''golden afternoon'' to entertain a young girl. His dream worlds of nonsensical Wonderland and the back-to-front Looking-Glass kingdom depict order turned upside-down: a baby turns into a pig, time is abandoned at a disordered tea-party and a seven-year-old girl is made Queen. But amongst the anarchic humour and sparkling word play, puzzles and riddles, are poignant moments of nostalgia for lost childhood.

Edited with an Introduction and notes by Hugh Haughton