Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), by Lewis Carroll

Alice is a fictional character and protagonist of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A mid-Victorian era child, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after accidentally falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into the Looking-Glass Land. Alice's character has her origins in stories told by Carroll to entertain the Liddell sisters while rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth, and on subsequent rowing trips. Although she shares her name with Alice Liddell's given name, it is controversial among scholars as to whether or not she can be identified as being strictly based upon Liddell. Carroll characterised her as "loving and gentle," "courteous to all," "trustful," and "wildly curious". His illustrations of her in Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the first version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists