Navigational Chessboard
Click on squares labled with
to go to one of the scenes mentioned in the chess prologue; mouseover to see where the link goes.
Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter One: Looking Glass House
- Chapter Two: The Garden of Live Flowers
- Chapter Three: Looking-Glass Insects
- Chapter Four: Tweedledum and Tweedledee
- Chapter Five: Wool and Water
- Chapter Six: Humpty Dumpty
- Chapter Seven: The Lion and the Unicorn
- Chapter Eight: It's My Own Invention
- Chapter Nine: Queen Alice
- Chapter Ten: Shaking
- Chapter Eleven: Waking
- Chapter Twelve: Who Dreamed It?
Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.
I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter:
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life’s hereafter--
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.
A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing--
A simple chime, that served in time
The rhythm of our rowing--
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say “forget”.
Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread,
With bitter tidings laden,
Shall summon to unwelcome bed
A melancholy maiden!
We are but older children, dear,
Who fret to find our bedtime near.
Without, the frost, the blinding snow,
The storm-wind’s moody madness--
Within, the firelight’s ruddy glow,
And childhood’s nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast:
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.
And, though the shadow of a sigh
May tremble through the story,
For “happy summer days” gone by,
And vanish’d summer glory--
It shall not touch with breath of bale,
The pleasance of our fairy-tale.
White Pawn (Alice) to play, and win in eleven moves.
| 1. | Alice meets R.Q. | R.Q. to K.R's 4th |
| 2. | Alice through Q's 3d (by railway) to Q's 4th Tweedledum and Tweedledee |
W.Q. to Q.B's 4th (after shawl) |
| 3 | Alice meets W.Q. (with shawl) | W.Q. to Q. B's 5th (becomes sheep) |
| 4 | Alice to Q's 5th (shop, river, shop) | W.Q. to K. B's 8th (leaves egg on shelf) |
| 5 | Alice to Q's 6th (Humpty Dumpty) | W.Q. to Q.B's 8th (flying from R. Kt.) |
| 6 | Alice to Q's 7th (forest) W. Kt. takes R. Kt. | R. Kt. to K's 2nd (ch.) |
| 7 | W. Kt. takes R. Kt. | W. Kt. to K. B's 5th |
| 8 | Alice to Q's 8th (coronation) | R. Q. to K's sq. (examination) |
| 9 | Alice becomes Queen | Queens castle |
| 10 | Alice castles (feast) | W.Q. to Q. R's 6th (soup) |
| 11 | Alice takes R. Q. & wins |
Preface to 1896 Edition
As the chess-problem, given on the previous page, has puzzled some of my readers, it may be well to explain that it is correctly worked out, so far as the moves are concerned. The alternation of Red and White is perhaps not so strictly observed as it might be, and the “castling” of the three Queens is merely a way of saying that they entered the palace; but the “check” of the White King at move 6, the capture of the Red Knight at move 7, and the final “checkmate” of the Red King, will be found, by any one who will take the trouble to set the pieces and play the moves as directed, to be strictly in accordance with the laws of the game.
The new words, in the poem “Jabberwocky”, have given rise to some difference of opinion as to their pronunciation: so it may be well to give instructions on that point also. Pronounce “slithy” as if it were the two words “sly, the”: make the “g” hard in “gyre” and “gimble”: and pronounce “rath” to rhyme with “bath”.
For this sixty-first thousand, fresh electrotypes have been taken from the wood-blocks (which, never having been used for printing from, are in as good condition as when first cut in 1871), and the whole book has been set up afresh with new type. If the artistic qualities of this re-issue fall short, in any particular, of those possessed by the original issue, it will not be for want of painstaking on the part of author, publisher, or printer.
I take this opportunity of announcing that the Nursery “Alice”, hitherto priced at four shillings, net, is now to be had on the same terms as the ordinary shilling picture-books--although I feel sure that it is, in every quality (except the text itself, in which I am not qualified to pronounce), greatly superior to them. Four shillings was a perfectly reasonable price to charge, considering the very heavy initial outlay I had incurred: still, as the Public have practically said, “We will not give more than a shilling for a picture-book, however artistically got-up,” I am content to reckon my outlay on the book as so much dead loss, and, rather than let the little ones, for whom it was written, go without it, I am selling it at a price which is, to me, much the same thing as giving it away.
Christmas, 1896