The left hand slide shows the chaos of the various creatures tumbling from the table when Alice pulls the tablecloth.
On the right we can see the 'Wasp in the Wig'.
Carroll was urged to drop the chapter where this insect appears.
This episode only turned up again when a pile of galley proofs were auctioned at a sale of manuscripts in 1974, at Sotheby's.
When Tenniel was illustrating Looking-Glass in 1870 he wrote to Carroll, saying –
'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'.
Tenniel also wrote: 'A wasp in a wig is altogether beyond the appliances of art'.
Well, there is a challenge I thought, so here is a wasp in a wig. |