Alice's Adventure In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (top 10 novels to read .TXT) 📗

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Lewis Carrol

 

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

 

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

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Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

 

Author: Lewis Carroll

 

Release Date: June 25, 2008 [EBook #11]

Last Updated: February 22, 2020

 

Language: English

 

Character set encoding: UTF-8

 

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND ***

 

 

 

Produced by Arthur DiBianca and David Widger

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

 

by Lewis Carroll

 

THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION 3.0

CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

CHAPTER I. Down the Rabbit-Hole

CHAPTER II. The Pool of Tears

CHAPTER III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale

CHAPTER IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

CHAPTER V. Advice from a Caterpillar

CHAPTER VI. Pig and Pepper

CHAPTER VII. A Mad Tea-Party

CHAPTER VIII. The Queen’s Croquet-Ground

CHAPTER IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story

CHAPTER X. The Lobster Quadrille

CHAPTER XI. Who Stole the Tarts?

CHAPTER XII. Alice’s Evidence

 

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

A/Note: I did not finish reading this. But I can soon do that.

Rumor is...as wrong as it sounds...this book is about a "drug trip"?

I don't think so. But I'm wrong sometimes. Can some one tell

me if they ever heard of witness the kind of "hallucinations"

in this ebook? And by the way, this book is not by me.

It is a children's classic by author Lewis Carroll.

CHAPTER I.

Down the Rabbit-Hole

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the

bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into

the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or

conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice

“without pictures or conversations?”

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the

hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of

making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and

picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran

close by her.

There was nothing so _very_ remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it

so _very_ much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh

dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” (when she thought it over afterwards,

it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the

time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually _took a

watch out of its waistcoat-pocket_, and looked at it, and then hurried

on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she

had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a

watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the

field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a

large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how

in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then

dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think

about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very

deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had

plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what

was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out

what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she

looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with

cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures

hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she

passed; it was labelled “ORANGE MARMALADE”, but to her great

disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear

of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the

cupboards as she fell past it.

“Well!” thought Alice to herself, “after such a fall as this, I shall

think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they’ll all think me

at home! Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if I fell off the

top of the house!” (Which was very likely true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall _never_ come to an end? “I wonder how

many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be

getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would

be four thousand miles down, I think—” (for, you see, Alice had learnt

several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and

though this was not a _very_ good opportunity for showing off her

knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good

practice to say it over) “—yes, that’s about the right distance—but

then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Alice had no

idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice

grand words to say.)

Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right _through_

the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk

with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—” (she was rather

glad there _was_ no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all

the right word) “—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the

country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?”

(and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy _curtseying_ as you’re

falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) “And what

an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do

to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began

talking again. “Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I should think!”

(Dinah was the cat.) “I hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at

tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are

no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that’s

very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?” And here

Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a

dreamy sort of way, “Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?” and

sometimes, “Do bats eat cats?” for, you see, as she couldn’t answer

either question, it didn’t much matter which way she put it. She felt

that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was

walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly,

“Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?” when suddenly,

thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and

the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment:

she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another

long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down

it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind,

and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, “Oh my ears

and whiskers, how late it’s getting!” She was close behind it when she

turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found

herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging

from the roof.

There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when

Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every

door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to

get out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid

glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice’s

first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall;

but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small,

but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second

time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and

behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the

little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not

much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the

passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get

out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright

flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head

through the doorway; “and even if my head would go through,” thought

poor Alice, “it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh,

how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only

knew how to begin.” For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had

happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things

indeed were really impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went

back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at

any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this

time she found a little bottle on it, (“which certainly was not here

before,” said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper

label, with the words “DRINK ME,” beautifully printed on it in large

letters.

It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was

not going to do _that_ in a hurry. “No, I’ll look first,” she said,

“and see whether it’s marked ‘_poison_’ or not”; for she had read

several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and

eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they

_would_ not remember