Described by The Times on its first publication in 1865 as an excellent piece of nonsense, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has gone on to become one of the most popular books ever written, loved by children and adults alike and translated into over 125 languages.
In Tove Jansson, Carroll's classic finds an illustrator worthy of its enchantment and surreal beauty. Jansson is renowned worldwide for her hugely successful books about the inhabitants of Moomin Valley. What is less well known is that in 1966 she devoted her unique gifts to illustrating Alice's extraordinary adventures.
Over forty years after her interpretation of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece was first enjoyed by Scandinavian readers, Tove Jansson's beautifully realised edition of the original text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is finally made available to an English-speaking audience.
The Hunting of the Snark tells the story of how the Bellman and his eccentric crew, who include a butcher, a baker, a beaver and a tailor, set off in quest of that most mysterious and elusive of creatures, the Snark.
In 1959 Tove Jansson, the author and illustrator of the Moomin books, was commissioned to illustrate a Swedish language edition of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece. She proved an inspired choice, the enigmatic charms of her illustrative style bringing the beauty and strangeness of Carroll's tale to life, as the minds of two of the greatest children's authors of the past 150 years met on the page.
Remarkably, amid the huge, worldwide success of her stories from Moominvalley, Jansson's unique edition of The Hunting of the Snark was forgotten, remaining un-available for over fifty years. Now, for the first time, her beautiful illustrations are matched with the original English text in this facsimile edition, so that readers can enjoy this wonderful adventure afresh through the eyes of one of Europe's finest illustrators.
