Political Parodies of Alice

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My ‘Alice in Wonderland’ book collection, mainly consists of different editions of Carroll’s books. Another part of my collection, that I love dearly, is the parodies of Alice in Wonderland.
As with Alice in Wonderland films, the parodies started off early. The earliest were published at the turn of the 20th century. Since then, there are news Alice parodies published every few years or so. I’ll go over the few I have in my personal collection. This post will be dedicated solely to the political parodies, and I’ll dedicate another post for other types of Alice parodies. If you own, know of other political Alice parodies, please mention them in the comments section below. To review more works based on Alice in Wonderland, head to page. Let’s go over them:

The Westminster Alice – “Saki” H. H. Munro, illustrated by F. Carruthers Gould, 1902. (My copy is a later 1927 printed edition)
The Westminster Alice criticizes the Boer war, by using the Alice storyline and Tenniel’s illustrations. Every illustration in this book carries a formal apology to Tenniel, and everyone concerned.
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Clara in Blunderland – Caroline Lewis (pseudonym of Edward Harold Begbie, J. Stafford Ransome, and Michael Henry Temple), illustrated by S. R. (J. Stafford Ransome), 1902.
This book also criticizes the Boer War, with the British PM, Balfour, as Alice. A year later, the same team, published a sequel ‘Lost in Blunderland’.
*On a side note, isn’t it amazing that in 1902, two separate Alice parodies came out, criticizing the same subject?!
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Malice in Kulturland – Horace Wyatt
Illustrated by W. Tell. 1914
‘Malice in Kulturland’, WW1 anti-German pro-British parody, that utilizes Lewis Carroll books, and Tenniel’s illustrations.
The whole thing, text and illustrations are online here.

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Frankie in Wonderland – “A Tory”, 1934
An anti- Franklin D. Roosevelt, anti-new deal, uncredited, republican party propaganda piece, with a short storyline very loosely based on Alice, with a printed apology to Lewis Carroll.
Frankie-in-Wonderland-1934


Adolf in Blunderland – James Dyrenforth & Max Kester
Illustrated by Norman Mansbridge. 1939
An Anti-Hitler & Nazi Germany political parody from the beginning of WW2. With illustrations and storyline that follows Carroll’s story in general.

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2 comments

  1. I have a small collection of Alice based on favourite illustrators. I also have a German translation, Alice im Wunderland, which is amusing. Alice with its puns and homophones presents quite a task for translation. On the first page the translator falls foul of the false friend “Bank” which in German signifies a bench and the illustration duly endorses this with Alice and her sister sitting on a park bench. Later in the Pool of Tears the appropriate word “Ufer” for river bank, shore is discovered. Tail and Tale are the beginning of many difficulties, tortoise and taught us etc. There are two translators a prose translator and a free renderer for the puns and idioms. I find this another way of enjoying Alice. I wish I had more languages than my scant German, and less Latin.
    I also enjoy a Caedmon Audio of Looking Glass with Joan Greenwood and Stanley Holloway but Joan’s husky seductive tone is I think inappropriate for sensible child Alice.

    1. Thank you David! Alice is surely a very challenging translation. I myself am originally from Israel,
      and there are 4 or 5 translations made over the last 100 years or so. Honestly, I havent read them, as
      ultimately it’s a sort of a lame duck, in comparison to Carroll’s words, and playfulness with the English langauge.
      I see the 1st German edition dates back to 1869. That’s extremly early! I think I have a few Alice’s in German.
      Personally, I like to collect them by the odd illustrators, and there are so many out there, that it builds up nicely over time.
      All the best to you buddy. Yonatan

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