2018-06-19 Tue

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 this 2nd class stamp beside is the White Rabbit. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Alice encounters him again when he mistakes her for his housemaid Mary Ann and she becomes trapped in his house after growing too large. The Rabbit shows up again in the last few chapters, as a herald-like servant of the King and Queen of Hearts.

The Rabbit seems to have the most logic out of all the Wonderland characters. Thus, he is often the straight man for their zany antics. Isn’t it a beautiful stamp? Stay tuned for rest of the characters!

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