Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by
Lewis Carroll
Full book summary Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
After calming the fury of the Queen of Hearts and sparing numerous gardeners from her wrath, Alice joins the Queen in a peculiar game of croquet. The croquet court is mountainous, the mallets and balls are real flamingos and hedgehogs, and the Queen hastily orders the other players to be executed while she runs around the court. In the middle of all of this insanity, Alice runs into the Cheshire Cat once again, who inquires about how she is doing. The King of Hearts interjects himself into their chat and makes an effort to intimidate the Cheshire Cat, but the Cheshire Cat brushes him off in an impudent manner. The King takes offense and makes arrangements for the Cheshire Cat to be executed; but, due to the fact that the Cheshire Cat is now simply its head floating in midair, no one can decide how to behead it.
The Duchess walks up to Alice and makes an effort to become her friend, but the Duchess’s presence causes Alice to feel uncomfortable. After driving away the Duchess, the Queen of Hearts informs Alice that she must pay a visit to the Mock Turtle in order to listen to his narrative. Alice is escorted to see the Mock Turtle by the Gryphon after being sent there by the Queen of Hearts. Alice confides in the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon about her peculiar experiences, and they listen with compassion and make observations on the peculiar nature of Alice’s exploits. After hearing the narrative told by the Mock Turtle, they overhear an announcement that a trial is about to commence, and the Gryphon takes Alice back to the croquet area.
The Knave of Hearts is put on trial for stealing the tarts that belonged to the Queen. The hearings are led by the King of Hearts, and a number of witnesses take the stand in order to offer their testimony. Both the Mad Hatter and the Cook provide their statements, none of which can be understood for the life of them. Alice is summoned to the stand as a witness by the White Rabbit, who is playing in the role of a herald. The King’s line of inquiry leads nowhere, but the King takes heart when the White Rabbit reveals further proof in the shape of a letter written by the Knave. The letter turned out to be a sonnet, which the King interprets as an admission of guilt on the part of the Knave. Alice is opposed to the King’s interpretation since she considers the message to be meaningless drivel. The Queen loses her cool and issues an execution order for Alice, but before she can carry it out, Alice swells to enormous proportions and destroys the Queen’s deck of playing cards.
Back at the riverside, Alice is startled awake by the unexpected realization that she is sitting on her sister’s lap. She then proceeds to tell her sister about her dream before going inside for some tea as her sister continues to think about Alice’s exploits.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (annotated)
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