Alice in Wonderland - by Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland is one of the top free Kindle books. And the free Kindle edition is a good example of why free is not always worth it.

Can you imagine Lewis Carroll’s wonderful book without John Tenniel’s drawings?  No grinning Cheshire cat?  Unthinkable!  But it can be yours for free on Amazon.

There is a lively debate in the comment section for this bowdlerized edition about whether or not people should complain about something that is free.  Well of course you should.  It is a waste of time and effort to download this free edition.  That is the whole point of this blog, to steer people to the best version of a classic book.

For 89 cents, you can get  . . . well just let me quote the remarkable product description for The Complete Alice in Wonderland (Kindle Master Editions).  (£2.10 UK edition) (EUR 2,38 Deutsch edition)

AT LAST, the definitive version of Alice in Wonderland! Uniquely (and painstakingly) created for the Kindle, this volume contains the complete texts of: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; Alice’s Adventures Under Ground; The Nursery “Alice”; and The Hunting of the Snark (with Carroll’s letter revealing how the Snark belongs to the lore of Wonderland!). This edition is fully supported with extensive materials found nowhere else. Features include: all of Carroll's poems and prefatory material; Sir John Tenniel’s masterful illustrations; additional illustrations by Henry Holiday and Lewis Carroll; and a special glossary of Victorian and Carrollian terms (not merely “Jabberwock,” “vorpal” and “frabjous day,” but also such curiosities as "Wednesday week," "treacle" and “bathing-machine.”). Bonus materials exclusive to this edition include: the lost “Wasp in a Wig” chapter, with commentary; diary entries and letters from Alice and Lewis Carroll; uniquely written explanatory notes; source poetry for all of Carroll’s poems and songs; biographies for Charles Dodgson and Alice Pleasance Liddell; extensive and unique chronologies; fascinating background essays; and much, much more. This Kindle Master Edition, THE COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND, is the only complete and authoritative electronic Alice, collected, annotated and edited by Kent David Kelly to offer the perfect balance of completeness, enjoyment, and ease of use. Come experience this wonderful classic, now with an overflowing treasury of secrets which you have never experienced before!

 Whew!  How can you not buy that?

The comments are all raves, too – with a few well-deserved kicks thrown in for the free edition. 

I leave you with a rather long excerpt from Alice because I couldn’t bear to cut any of it.

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. 'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where—' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

'—so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. 'What sort of people live about here?'

'In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how do you know that you're mad?'

'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?'

'I suppose so,' said Alice.

'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'

'I call it purring, not growling,' said Alice.

'Call it what you like,' said the Cat. 'Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?'

'I should like it very much,' said Alice, 'but I haven't been invited yet.'

'You'll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished.

Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used to queer things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.

'By-the-bye, what became of the baby?' said the Cat. 'I'd nearly forgotten to ask.'

'It turned into a pig,' Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back in a natural way.

'I thought it would,' said the Cat, and vanished again.

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in which the March Hare was said to live. 'I've seen hatters before,' she said to herself; 'the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad—at least not so mad as it was in March.' As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on a branch of a tree.

'Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cat.

'I said pig,' replied Alice; 'and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.'

'All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

'Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice; 'but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!'

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