Alice entering the Looking-glass World

Alice entering the Looking-glass World

Sir John Tenniel

1865

Wood-engraving by Dalziel

Illustration for the first chapter of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass

Many fantasies depict the protagonist (here Alice) leaving the real world as a way of moving the reader into a world where normal laws don't apply. Tenniel's illustration captures brilliantly the excitement of this transition, as does its companion piece, which shows Alice arriving at the world on the other side of the mirror. What pictorial details convey the necessary fantastic effect? How do they invole the kinds of effects necessary to fantasy as a genre or mode?

Student assistants from the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore, scanned this image under the supervision of George P. Landow.

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