The Nursery Alice, originally published by Macmillan & Co. in 1890, was the very first colour edition of Alice. It was intended, wrote Carroll, "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five. To be read? Nay, not so! Say rather to be thumbed, to be cooed over, to be dogs'-eared, to be rumpled, to be kissed . . ."

With this new, younger readership in mind, Carroll rewrote Alice, simplifying and abridging the original text, while Tenniel redrew, enlarged and coloured twenty of his iconic illustrations. The resulting book is a delightfully engaging experience, readers prompted to interact not only with the story but also with the images and even the physical book itself, in a way that is thoroughly modern.

Gloriously reproduced for the anniversary year, this edition retains the every word of the original The Nursery Alice and restores the exquisite delicacy of Tenniel's artwork - lost in reproductions across the decades - along with the delightful cover artwork by Emily Gertrude Thomson. This gem of a book is the perfect introduction to Alice, a delight for child and adult readers alike.

Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford, who lived from 1832 to 1898. Carroll lived with physical deformities, partial deafness, and an irrepressible tamer. His unusual appearance caused him to behave awkwardly around other adults, and his students at Oxford saw him as a stuffy and boring teacher. He held strict religious beliefs, serving as a deacon in the Anglican Church for many years. Beneath Carroll’s awkward exterior, however, dwelled a brilliant and imaginative artist. A gifted amateur photographer, he took numerous portraits of children throughout his adulthood. Carroll’s keen grasp of mathematics and logic inspired the linguistic humor and witty wordplay in his stories. Additionally, his unique understanding of children’s minds allowed him to compose imaginative fiction that appealed to young people.