Vintage Books from my Bookshelf - The Wasp in a Wig

I didn’t read a lot while I was on my blogging break, but I did take a look at this rather strange “suppressed” episode from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Back in 1898 Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, a nephew of Lewis Carroll published a biography of his uncle in which he wrote;  

A facsimile of the letter also appeared in the biography.; 

“My Dear Dodgson 

Don’t think me brutal, but I am bound to say that the ‘wasp’ chapter does not interest me in the least, and I can’t see my way to a picture. If you want to shorten the book, I can’t help thinking – with all submission – that this is your opportunity.  

In an agony of haste, 

Yours sincerely, J. Tenniel

Portsdown Road,June 1, 1870”

Then in 1974 Sotheby's listed the following item in their auction catalogue of July 3rd;

This was an important discovery. Carroll left no record of his own opinion of the episode, but he did preserve the proofs and after his death in 1898, they were bought by an unknown person. Then in 1974 they were put up for auction at Sotheby's and purchased by John Fleming, a Manhattan rare book dealer, for Norman Armour, Jr., also of New York City. Eventually, the excised passage came into the hands of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, who prepared a private edition of the book for their members. The copy I have was published by Macmillan, London in 1977. 

The excised passage is quite short, but the book still manages to run to forty pages most of which are taken up with notes, a preface and an introduction by Martin Gardner.
  

The episode itself is all rather odd. In it, Alice meets an elderly and very crotchety wasp who is none too pleased to speak to her. “Worrity, Worrity! There never was such a child!” he declares and feeling rather offended Alice very nearly walks away but being a kind child she stays and gradually the wasp tells her his story. "You'd be cross too, if you'd a wig like mine," the Wasp tells her "When I was young, you know, my ringlets used to wave ---" As the wasp talked a curious idea came into Alice's head. Almost everyone she met had repeated poetry to her, and she thought she would try if the Wasp couldn't do it too. "It aint wat I'm used to," said the Wasp : "however I'll try; wait a bit."

“When I was young, my ringlets waved

And curled and crinkled on my head:

And then they said ‘You should be shaved,

And wear a yellow wig instead.’

But when I followed their advice,
And they had noticed the effect,
They said I did not look so nice
As they had ventured to expect.

They said it did not fit, and so

It made me look extremely plain:

But what was I to do, you know?

My ringlets would not grow again.

So now that I am old and grey,

And all my hair is nearly gone,

They take my wig from me and say

‘How can you put such rubbish on?’

And still, whenever I appear,

They hoot at me and call me ‘Pig!’

And that is why they do it, dear,

Because I wear a yellow wig.”

As I said previously, all rather odd but then much of Lewis Carroll’s writing is. If you would like to read the episode in its entirety, please visit: The lost chapter at Alice-in-wonderland.net

There is some controversy surrounding this ‘missing’ episode with questions raised about its authenticity. I have no idea if it’s genuine or not, but if you would like to read more, please visit Contrariwise; The Blog  

Have you read The Wasp in a Wig or any other books by Lewis Carroll?

References:

Lewis Carroll's The Wasp in a Wig. A "Suppressed" Episode of Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Preface, Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner. Published in Great Britain in 1977 by Macmillan London Limited.
Sotheby's auction catalogue for a sale on the 3rd July, 1974.

The Curious Case of the Wasp in the Wig.” Contrariwise: the Blog. Contrariwise: the Association for new Lewis Carroll Studies, 16 Jun 2010.  Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

de Rooy, Lenny. “The Lost Chapter.” Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland Site. N.p., 20 Nov 2010.

Gardner, Martin. The Annotated Alice. Definitive. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.  

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These two little girls probably thought they were in Wonderland the other evening;

This is Lilly our five-year-old granddaughter watching Frozen On Ice at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre

and this is her big sister Zoe 

This (in case you don’t know) is Marshmallow an enchanted snowman, and personal bodyguard of Elsa the Snow Queen.

Elsa and Anna

Kristoff and Sven the reindeer

Olaf 

Face painting and photographs by Karen (our lovely daughter in law and mum to the girls). We are planning a trip to Australia in 2018 and can't wait to see everyone. The photos from their last visit to England are here and here