Description

By the time of Lewis Carroll’s death in 1898, Macmillan had printed over 150,000 copies of Alice in Wonderland and over 100,000 of its companion Through the Looking Glass. The Alice books remain the most translated into foreign languages after the Bible and Shakespeare. It has
become one of the most widely quoted books in the Western world. There were already 75 editions in over 70 languages, including Swahili and Yiddish, available by 1993. Yet, in some ways, the popularity of Alice has worked against her in recent decades as she has faded from the bookshelves to become most prominent as a familiar figure on anything from throw-pillows to dishware. Alice has been lost to advertising and the most common sentiment that faces readers of the Alice books today is one of confusion. What was it then, that prompted generations of readers to feel that Alice was essential to their libraries? What quality enabled writers as diverse as Walter de la Mare, G.K. Chesterton, Christina Rossetti, James Joyce and Northrop Frye to write in praise and defense of her presence among the giants of English literature? Undoubtedly, we have lost Alice, but it remains to be seen if Alice has lost us. The aim of this webinar is to make a step towards rediscovering the wonder of the Alice books and to open the door onto the grand conversation that Nonsense has been carrying on with all other stories. Perhaps it is true that, as G.K. Chesterton writes, Nonsense has its own vision of the cosmos to offer us, and that while Faith can be called Nonsense, it is more true to say that Nonsense is a kind of Faith.

Join Addison Hornstra with Angelina Stanford January 29th at 7:00 PM Eastern time for this exciting new webinar!