2018-06-15 Fri

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, popularly known as Alice in Wonderland, is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It’s a story of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures.

We all grew up reading these wondrous adventures of Alice. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It won’t be an exaggeration to say, Alice actually heralded our childhood journey through the fantasy world. The books’ narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.

The book has inspired numerous film and television adaptations. Not just that, Alice and her “friends and foes” from the underground have been a vibrant subject of design on philatelic issues too! In 2015, Royal Mail launched ten new stamps to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll’s classic book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Depicted in the £1.28 stamp beside is the White Rabbit’s House. The house has two floors and the bedroom is upstairs. The front door has a sign with "W. Rabbit" engraved on it. Inside, Alice eats a growth cake and ends up growing to giant size, with her arms and feet poking out the windows and also the doors. Terrified of the "monster" that has now taken over his house, the White Rabbit asks Dodo, who is passing through, for assistance. Dodo decides the best solution is to start a fire and smoke the monster out of the house, using the White Rabbit's furniture as kindling. Reaching for the carrots in the White Rabbit's garden, Alice manages to shrink herself back down and escapes while Dodo keeps trying to get the fire going even with the monster problem being solved.

Isn’t it a beautiful stamp? Stay tuned for rest of the characters!

Image Courtesy: https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/