Finding Alice’s ‘Wonderland’ in Oxford

Nov 15, 2015 · 76 comments
Well done indeed! You brought back my vivid memories of my long-ago last visit to Oxford. I was blessed to be a guest in one of the Christ Church Deanery flats for a few days. A wonderful turn through the Deanery garden revealed a magnificent tree, the home, I was assured, of the Cheshire Cat. Thank you for sharing these delightful details. I trust that you and your family will never forget the experience.
Kathleen (St Petersburg, FL)
What a lovely surprise to be browsing the travel section and find this wonderful article written by my Davidson College classmate. Well done, Charlie!
oxfdblue (Staten Island, NY)
Wonderful article! Then again, look at my screen name.... lol :)
Caroline (New York City)
I visited Oxford this past spring and found it to be extremely pleasant and charming. I went to Alice's Shop and wandered around the Christ Church area, but had no idea that she was so entangled in the history of Oxford (or even that she was a real person) I'll have to go back someday and take another look around.
Maryland mom (<br/>)
A real wonderland! Thank you!
Paul Adams (Stony Brook)
One lesson to be drawn from this marvelous piece is how important it is to retain continuity with the past in our frenetic efforts to achieve efficiency, modernity and profit. On the east coast there's already a long history (and prehistory), marked by occasional remnants, but we seem to have little regard for it, or overall policy. So many of these are wooden buildings that, without vigilance, decay rapidly, but Japan manages to keep hers alive for centuries. Others are neglected paths, gardens, estates and monuments, stifled by encroaching expediencies. We have no effective national or, often, state or town policies, and survival is more a matter of luck than wisdom, because of our mistrust of government. Investment in the past is also investment in the future.
Colin (Hexham, England)
The best Travel article I have read in the NYT for along time. Well written, inspirational, and beautifully illustrated. The piece draws you in, and encourages the reader to make travel plans!
Jill K D (Rye, NY)
The photographs are stunning. So crisp, with interesting vantage points and great use of light. Bravo to the photographer, Andy Haslam.
GWPDA (<br/>)
My first time studying in Oxford, I found my way to Alice's Shop. There amidst all the other wonderful things, I found my very own English Tinka-Belle, a yellow and white sheepskin rabbit, always called Mean Bunny. I'm looking at Mean Bunny now and remain as hopelessly delighted by Mr Dodgson's world now as I was so long ago. Thanks. (From Mean Bunny, too.)
View from the hill (Vermont)
Your piece takes me back to that wonderful place where I was fortunate enough to be a student nearly half a century ago. Thank you.
Wayne (Philadelphia)
Exceptionally well-researched and written article that is informative and entertaining.
Raymond (New York, New York)
Pure enchantment, the piece and the pics.
IrmaCMD (Plano TX)
Beautiful and such a lovely trip to take for a short time this dreary November morning. Thank you.
Willie (<br/>)
Thank you for that wonderful adventure.
Steve (Middlebury)
Oxford is a WONDERLAND. There is no where else on Earth like it.
smartalek (boston ma)
To anyone who enjoyed this excursion into the sources of the Alice books, you might also find yourself entertained and intrigued by the detailed background, references, allusions, and explications in "The Annotated Alice," by Martin Gardner, the late columnist for Scientific American magazine.
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Disclosure: I shill / sockpuppet for nobody and no firm, and receive no compensations in any form for rec's such as this. Just a reader.
uffish (North Carolina)
I'll second that, and add that there is a brand-new updated edition of the Annotated Alice--a must-have!
Jerry and Peter (Crete, Greece)
Please allow me to commend to all Alice lovers the 1985 film 'Dreamchild' directed by Gavin Millar and written by the ever-inventive Dennis Potter. The film shifts between Dodgson (a deeply moving Ian Holm) and the young Alice in Oxford and the elderly, reflective Alice (Coral Browne, astonishing) traveling to New York to receive her honorary degree from Columbia. Both Alices also interact with a number of Dodgson's fantastical characters, wonderfully brought to life by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

I return to the film again and again for the performances and the joy in seeing such imagination and inventiveness in telling Alice's story and how she comes to understand, in her later years, her relationship with Dodgson.

p.
S.R. Simon (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.)
A friend of mine who is a distinguished American lawyer spent two years at
Jane Eyrehead (<br/>)
Wonderful article about one of my favorite books and favorite places. I remember walking into the Ch Ch dining hall and looking at the andirons--I think they are really cardinals' heads--and thinking of a long-necked Alice. The university offers many study weeks of various subjects--I recommend them. The continuing education office is In Wellington, Square, Oxford.
Sarah D. (Monague, MA)
Excellent nom de plume (yours)
sarahlucia (Denver, Co)
What a wonderful reminder of my years at the University of Oxford. Great pictures, great memories. The years pass but Oxford never leaves you. NYTs has done some great articles about Oxford and one that I recommend to visitors is also http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/travel/13Journeys.html
A (NYC)
I am currently a student at Christ Church, and the article perfectly captures the awe-inspiring beauty of this historic place. So honored and privileged to be part of this great college!
Diana Wright (<br/>)
A lovely lovely article, but where is Bill the Lizard?
beergas (Land of Manhattan)
Very nice, brought back childhood memories. Once given birthday choice between ride to Statue of Liberty and seeing Alice as a film and of course she easily won out. Also had a cardboard pop out book with the characters. Simple
pleasures are hard to come by now. This piece helped.
S. Casey (Seattle)
Thank you for this lovely article--and for bringing this treasured little corner of Oxford into my home. I was a student in a summer program at Christchurch College many moons ago, but your descriptions and photos bring it all back. My classmates and I enjoyed biscuits and tea outside in the Great Quadrangle on warm afternoons--it really is that beautiful. And my dorm room window looked out onto the little garden behind the cathedral; some evenings, while I was studying with my window open, I could hear the choir practicing....It was one of the best summers of my life.
PS (Vancouver, Canada)
I was a post-doc at Oxford for five years - and not once did I step into a museum (there are several - all world class) or art exhibit or whatever . . . but I can name almost every single drinking hole and pub where I spend many hours contemplating stuff (I did pass by the Alice shop many times, once on my way to the police station to fetch a fellow student jailed for drunkenness - located near the so aptly-named Folly Bridge). Ah, how I miss those days . . .
Grossness54 (West Palm Beach, FL)
If you're looking for Alice's home and Lewis Carroll's inspiration, go to Oxford. If you're looking for Wonderland, you needn't travel nearly that far. Just go to any 'politically correct' college campus, and you're already there.
Paul (FLorida)
Whoever conceived of this article, thanks.
Susan Bruns (Manassas, Virginia)
On a visit to Oxford a couple of years ago just after Christmas, we entered the great hall to see the portraits, the set table and in front of the great fireplace, a Christmas Tree still decorated with Alice in Wonderland ornaments and playing cards tied with ribbon.
I purchased some of the ornaments in the University shop and the next year decorated a similar tree in my dining room.
I now have two grandchildren and this year they will again see Alice's magical tree and I will see the garden, the Quad, the great Hall, the meadow bathed in early morning light and all of the magic that is Oxford.
Thank you so much for this lovely article and the beautifully moving pictures which capture the place so perfectly.
Susan Florence (Santa Monica, CA)
This was a magically written article, which is apropos, meaning it wisely and adroitly sidesteps much of the reality behind the true analyses of the highly pertinent mathematical underpinnings to the story that lead me to believe this was never an impromptu story told to a child, while taking a row in a boat. It's also magical and wise in dodging the real Alice and her family's abrupt falling out with Dodgson.

I first read and loved this book, when I chose to read it as an adult. I read, "Alicia in Terra Mirabili," which certainly led one to know this was no tale told to a child. There was a definite and accurate gravitas to first experiencing this masterpiece in Latin. That depth led to my further studies about the multiple layers in this odd book. It's sad that an Alice of today would be living in mundo horribili. Or was that the cause of the fissure between Dodgson and Alice's family? Another good reason to have left that out of this story! 'Tis a tale all its own, a charming one, as beautifully illustrated as written.
Steve C (Bowie, MD)
What a wonderful trip back in time! I recently turned 79 and have been trudging along with life, reading, getting older, which is to say, doing the things that older people do.

What a surprise then, to read this beautiful, reacquaint-me, take-me-back-in-time accounting of Alice’s world.

The tragic killings in Paris make it very difficult to put our lives in perspective, but the efforts of Mr. Lovett have more than accomplished that task.

Thank you, Sir.
Mary Beth (University of Alabama)
Wonderful journey through the wonderland of Oxford! And as an aside, the original Alice manuscript is in the British Library in London where it can be viewed in their rare books room. It would be the culmination of a fabulous trip through the looking glass.
Donna De Rosa (Chicago)
Mary Beth, I too was literally upended upon viewing the original manuscript
of "Alice" with all it's colored Illustrations beautifully preserved. I recommend this stop to all London travelers. Oh yeah, also in the same room of the British Library is the Magna Carta encased in all it's glory...
Minty (Sydney)
Unfortunately you just missed it in New York, where it was in an exhibition at the Morgan Library until mid-October.
Deborah (Montclair, NJ)
New Yorkers recently had a wonderful opportunity to see that manuscript which the British Library was kind enough to loan (a rare occurrence indeed) to the Morgan Library for its recent Alice exhibit.
Katherine (Rome, Georgia)
I had the great privilege twice of participating in study courses in Oxford, magical Oxford, with its dreaming spires. I spent hours browsing in Blackwell's Book Shop and drinking tea. I walked where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien walked and had their conversations. What creates the magic most of all is just walking throughout the town amidst the colleges I loved this article and avidly looked in vain for my favorite scene, the TumTum tree, which is located back behind the garden with the little door. The TumTum tree was immortalized in the poem Jabberwocky: "He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought - So rested he by the TumTum tree, And stood a while in thought." In fact, it's the TumTum tree that first arises in my mind's eye when I think of those matchless days in Oxford.
Mike O'Brien (Portland, OR)
A wonderful article, thank you so much!

Another source of background about the author and characters is "Alice in Sunderland," a graphic novel by Bryan Talbot--very different style from this article, but replete with fascinating detail and connections.
&lt;a href= (New Hampshire)
For a deeper look at central Oxford, read Nan Quick's Diaries for Armchair
Travelers (articles free to all, with no advertising).
Here's the link

http://nanquick.com/2012/11/01/a-bit-more-london-lingering-a-long-weeken...
Scobie-Mitchell (Maui, Hawaii)
Beautiful site! Thank you
View from the hill (Vermont)
Ah, I followed the link, went to the site and may die of homesickness!
bobnathan (Nyc)
Oxford just got put on the bucket list, good stuff NYT
AnchAk (Anchorage, Alaska)
Thank you for this wonderful journey, which will tempt many to go and seek the places mentioned here. Great story illustreated with lovely photographs.
That was a pleasant journey down the rabbit hole of childhood recollection. My mother read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to me. I haven't re-read it since, but now have a desire to visit Oxford and be enchanted and perplexed once again. Great photography.
benaaron35 (CT)
It seems to me that the world divides into two classes of cildren: those who love the Alice book and those who don't. Though I do not count myself among the former I must say I adored reading this utterly charming, intelligent, and well-informed article. Would that more such pieces appeared in The Times travel section.
diogenes (Vancouver)
Knowledge of an author's sources of his devices may lessen the pleasure in reading him.
Jane Eyrehead (<br/>)
I think it is interesting to see how the author transforms everyday experience into an imaginative work. And the Alice books are so fantastic, in the true sense of the word.
L (NYC)
@diogenes: Or not!! It makes Dodgson more human to show that his creations reflect - as all art does! - an environment with which he was familiar.
Harvey Wachtel (Kew Gardens)
To the contrary, I find that an appreciation of Dodgson's ability to find the wonderful in what appears mundane heightens my enjoyment not only of his work but of my own experiences.

I concur with a few other posters to this discussion that Gardner's "Annotated Alice" is well worthwhile in this regard.
Glen (Texas)
Alice in Wonderland holds a high and special place in my heart.

At the age of 50 I returned to college was on the verge of earning a BS in computer science. Anxious to complete the degree, with credits accumulated at two previously attended communitycolleges and a university, I was short in one required area: literature. I had several literature courses behind me, but was told not all had been accepted as transfer credits. Not wanting to spend another semester for one course, I asked if there was any way I could perhaps test out of a course. The counselor informed me I would have to speak to the dean of the English department.

I called the dean's office and was given an appointment. He welcomed me in and I explained my predicament. I told him of my reading history, that my high school required Hamlet, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet; that if I hadn't read everything written by Mark Twain it wasn't for lack of trying; that when I lived in northern Minnesota I read the town library's entire collection of John Steinbeck's works; that I had read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago; that I had read and re-read Tolkien, even reading aloud The Hobbit to each of my sons when they were about six or seven. I ended by saying my most recently finished book was Alice in Wonderland and I launched into an animated recital of "Jabberwocky," in my best imitation of a Scottish brogue.

He said, "I think it's time you graduated," and wrote a letter awarding me three credits in English Lit.
Martin Cohen (90045)
That was a pleasant journey into the real Wonderland.

Extremely enjoyable.

Thank you.
gmgwat (North)
Vistors to Oxford who are interested in exploring its extraordinary history, including its literary heritage, should make the excellent Oxford Visitor Information Centre on Broad Street in the town centre one of their first stops. The Centre offers a range of information and services including themed, guided walking tours of every description, relating to Oxford's rich history and culture. Or, for those of a literary bent who prefer to discover things for themselves, a series of handy brochures are also available, each detailing specific self-guided walking tours, including walks relating to JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Lewis Carroll. A pleasurable afternoon (or series of afternoons, for the more fortunate and less time-pressed) can thus be spent walking in the footsteps of one's literary idols.
Callie (Rockbridge County, VA)
Just as I am fed up and ready to unsubscribe to the NYT, along comes this wonderful article illustrated with beautiful photographs. It was a close call, NYT. What a well done piece. I will print and slip into the bookcase next to the two books of Alice's adventures. Made my day!
srwdm (Boston)
Wonderful essay article.

This is what makes the NYTimes the NYTimes.

And in an age of books for children that deploy the standard tricks and seem cartoonish and childish themselves, we here have the background and circumstances of a great book written on multiple levels and addressing multiple generations.
Richard Luettgen (New Jersey)
Thank you, Mr. Lovett and the NY Times, for writing and publishing this. As I take time here and there from my night and day to do battle with ideological adversaries in these pages, it provided a delightful opportunity to set aside the tools and passions of war, and simply to fuguratively sit in that cathedral garden that Alice would so long to enter and contemplate with delight my childhood memories of the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Dormouse, the March Hare, the Playing Cards, the Dodo, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Red Queen, the Jabberwocky, the Bandersnatch ... and Alice.
smartalek (boston ma)
Mr Luettgen, should you return to this column, a small corrective, offered only because I get the impression you'd want to be so guided:
It appears you've fallen into the same linguistic trap into which the screenwriters and director of the recent Alice-based movie fell, which is:
the creature in the poem, "Jabberwocky," is *not* "The Jabberwocky."
It is "The Jabberwock"...
...as is clearly indicated in the poem both times it's directly referred to:
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
"The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!"
The "y" in the poem's title is the classic suffix meaning, "The Work About."
Just as "The Odyssey" is "The Work About Odysseus," "Jabberwocky" is "The Work About the Jabberwock."
Thus, referring to the beast as "the Jabberwocky" would be equivalent to referring to the King of Ithaca as King Odyssey.
Just not done.
Cheers
Donald Miller, art and architecture critic (Naples, Fla.)
This article is an impeccable delight! I recall my first visit to Oxford in 1984 during a Smithsonian program at Worcester College there. Dodgson and Alice fed ducks in Worcester's immured pond. It's wall blocks the view to the station there.
I wrote a much shorter article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, noting the well-known fact Sir John Tenniel's drawings for the Red Queen, etc., were actually taken from stone images at Oxford's Magdalen College. I enjoyed particularly learning in Mr. Lovett's article about Dodgson's 1860s' photographic requirements. He must have seen the parallels with Wonderland's peculiarities, not to mention the Wonderland of the deanery's garden.
Farnaz (Orange County, CA)
Thanks for the WONDERFUL article, NYT! This is the kind of story and reporting I wish I could see more of in the paper.
Yellow Rose (CA)
oops - in my earlier comment I wrote "the churchyard and the grave bear a marked resemblance to the grandeur of the Oxford pics" - I mean to say, a marked difference! They are not grand at all.
Yellow Rose (CA)
In the late 1970's as a child I lived in England in a house across the road from the old churchyard where Charles Dodgson is buried, in Guildford, Surrey. The churchyard and the grave bear a marked resemblance to the grandeur of these beautiful Oxford pics. I used to stop there on my way home from school to wander in the overgrown greenery. It was always totally deserted, a kind of magical place for me. At first I didn't know who Dodgson was or that he was buried there, but I knew the Alice books and loved them. When I found out I was pleased that I could spend so many happy moments in such a quiet and undisturbed place with the creator of Alice. Dodson's grave is unspectacular and in a special spot near the entrance to the churchyard. It was not overgrown as so many others were, long forgotten and obscured by weeds and time.
Shark (Manhattan)
I truly liked reading this article.

It transported me back to a time when my nice was little, and would ask me to tell her a story. I would try my best to keep her entertained and short enough to keep her from running away. The story would unfold with constant interruptions, and her adding bits to it, which would invariably end up with ‘well, whose story is this?’, and of course she would always win with a big ‘mine!’.

I bring this up, because it does not cease to amaze me how well Mr. Dogson described what goes on in the mind of a little girl, how well he understood Alice. And the author of this piece captured that so perfectly, that you feel as if you are there, trying to keep a little girl entertained with stories. The inevitable throw back left me yearning for the time when my niece was that age. She’s a grown woman now, and uncle only has his stories to remember, stories about his niece. Much like Mr. Dogson must have sat there, looking at the yard, reminiscing about the Summer days he spent entertaining Alice.
Bill (Richmond CA)
Splendid photos. Thank you.
juna (San Francisco)
Wonderful article. Just a little addendum: to those of us who study ancient Greek, Liddell is a revered name, since he and Scott created the ancient Greek-English lexicon that we all depend upon. I have detected satire referring to Greek texts in the Alice books, for instance, the scene where Alice has become so tall that her head has reached the top of a tree where a bird is nesting. The bird madly circles around Alice's head screaming, "serpent, serpent!" This recalls the horrifying serpent omen in Homer's Iliad Book 2, when a serpent actually does devour a nest of baby birds despite the screams of their frantic mother.
Zeke (Forest Hill, Md.)
Our younger daughter contemplated reading for either a M. Phil at Oxford or a JD in the states. She asked a law professor of NYU, who had obtained his JD from Harvard and his D. Phil. from Oxford, for advice. "Oxford is Disney Land," he replied. "Go to Oxford."
She took his advice and we had the great fortune to visit her in 2004 and see many of the places whose photos appear in the article. Oxford is magical, indeed.
The Thames does, indeed, flow thru Oxford, where it is called the Isis.
Katherine (<br/>)
Now, this is travel -- in every sense of the word. Absolutely exquisite.
toooldtochange (Colorado)
A magical time in a magical place.
Andrew Scholtz (Binghamton, NY)
Very interesting article! If I may, a word or two about Alice's very important father. Henry George Liddell was, as noted in the article, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, but is best known today for his co-authorship of "A Greek-English Lexicon," now in its ninth edition, and still recognized as authoritative - nothing yet has replaced it. A humorous side note. The book, whose title scholars generally abbreviate as "LSJ" (the "Liddell, Scott, Jones" lexicon), comes in three versions, or sizes, with suitably Lewis-Carroll-esque names: the "Big Liddell" (unabridged), the "Middle Liddell" (abridged), and the "Little Liddell" (extremely abridged) - thanks!
Helena (<br/>)
The article is not as interesting as the photographs, which are magnificent.
Brian T (Lexington KY)
Well, la-di-da.
william (dallas texas)
in reply to mr t . . . how unfortunate the times chose to include this comment from someone who obviously does not read well, yet . . .

William Wilson dallas texas
jept54 (New York City)
Very snarky, William!
dr.reba (Gainesville, FL)
Argh, now I'm homesick.
Daedalus (Rochester, NY)
Interesting to read this so close on the heels of a BBC Radio broadcast, available on the web, of the real origins of Wonderland in the village of Croft-on-Tees, about 200 miles to the north. The program also rubbishes the tale of the boat trip, since the weather on the day in question was recorded as cold and rainy.
uffish (North Carolina)
In fact, both are true--Lewis Carroll's youth in the North influenced Wonderland as well. This is a travel article, not "every known fact about Carroll and Alice." See Charlie Lovett's excellent book Lewis Carroll's England for a more complete account of the connections in Carroll's life between place and work.
b. lynch black (the bronx, ny)
i spent some months in Oxford, many years ago now, and i consider it the home of my heart. your article makes me "homesick". thanks for reviving so many vivid memories.
xprintman (Denver, CO)
A lovely story and photo album about the creation of an equally magical story. We passed on Oxford during a trip to England a few years ago and now I greatly regret that omission. How can someone not imagine great and wonder things in such a setting?