The Annotated Alice

Victorian Studies 43.3 (2001) 473-475 // --> [Access article in PDF] Book Review The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner; pp. xviii + 31. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000, $29.95. Marginal commentaries of texts are not new; they have been with us for centuries, particularly commentaries on the Bible. But those that have come to us through the ages have consistently been narrowly restricted to single disciplines, to theological, philosophical, or other specialized commentaries. The annotated text à la Martin Gardner is different in that it ranges through multiple disciplines and takes the world for its oyster.

The Annotated Alice

Gardner's first edition of The Annotated Alice (1960) was one of the most famous and best-selling annotated books of all time. His second edition, More Annotated Alice (1990), contained new notes, substituted Peter Newell's illustrations, and included "The Wasp in a Wig," a long-lost episode of Through the Looking-Glass discovered in 1974.

Martin Gardner, who writes a, column on mathematical games in the Scientific American, has annotated several well-loved texts, most notably Alice in Wonderland (The Annotated Alice) . His newest contribution is The Annotated Casey At The Bat , from which this article is taken. It will be published this autumn by Clarkson N. Potter. 041b061a72