Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Retold in Words of One Syllable facts for kids
First edition cover of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable
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| Author | Lewis Carroll |
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| Translator | J. C. Gorham |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Burt's Series of One Syllable Books |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | A. L. Burt Company |
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Publication date
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1905 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 106 p. |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable is a special version of Lewis Carroll's famous 1865 book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This simpler version was written by J. C. Gorham in 1905. It was published by A. L. Burt of New York.
This book was part of a collection called Burt's Series of One Syllable Books. These books were chosen for young people to read. They were written in very simple words for the youngest readers. The goal was to make classic stories easy to understand.
Contents
What are "Words of One Syllable"?
A "word of one syllable" is a word that has only one sound part. For example, "cat," "dog," "run," and "jump" are all one-syllable words. Longer words like "adventure" (ad-ven-ture) have more than one syllable.
The idea behind these books was to help kids learn to read. By using only short, simple words, the stories became less complex. This made it easier for new readers to follow along.
The Burt's Series
The Burt's Series of One Syllable Books included many well-known tales. Some of these were Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales. There were also stories like Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. The series aimed to bring classic literature to a wider, younger audience.
About the Reteller, J. C. Gorham
J. C. Gorham was the person who rewrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in simple words. He also retold other famous books. For example, he wrote a one-syllable version of Gulliver's Travels in 1896. In 1905, the same year as Alice, he also retold Black Beauty.
The book keeps the original drawings by John Tenniel. These drawings are very famous and help tell Alice's story.
Comparing the Stories
Let's look at a part of the story to see how the one-syllable version is different from the original. Both parts describe Alice finding a bottle marked "DRINK ME."
Gorham's Simple Version
Here is how J. C. Gorham wrote the part: "There seemed to be no use to wait by the small door, so she went back to the stand with the hope that she might find a key to one of the large doors, or may-be a book of rules that would teach her to grow small. This time she found a small bot-tle on it ("which I am sure was not here just now," said Al-ice), and tied round the neck of the bot-tle was a tag with the words "DRINK ME" printed on it. It was all right to say "Drink me," but Al-ice was too wise to do that in haste: "No, I'll look first," she said, "and see if it's marked 'poi-son' or not," for she had been taught if you drink much from a bot-tle marked 'poi-son,' it is sure to make you sick. This had no such mark on it, so she dared to taste it, and as she found it nice (it had, in fact, a taste of pie, ice-cream, roast fowl, and hot toast), she soon drank it off."
Carroll's Original Version
Now, here is the same part from Lewis Carroll's original book: "There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, ("which certainly was not here before," said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters. It was all very well to say "Drink me", but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. "No, I'll look first," she said, "and see whether it's marked 'poison' or not"; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked "poison", it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later."
Spot the Difference!
You can see how Gorham changed some words to be shorter and simpler. For example, "little door" becomes "small door." "Certainly" becomes "sure." He also broke some words like "bottle" into "bot-tle" to show their single-syllable parts. This makes the text easier for young readers to sound out and understand.
