Alice in Wonderland - the missing Star review 1865
Alice in Wonderland: Alice in OZ | Australian books | Australian books (presentation) | Christian Yandell's Alice | Alice on Film | Poster 1968 | Pre-Raphaelite photographer | Poster 1977 | Star review 1865 | Whitcombe's Alice |
Contents
- When and where?
- Alice Downunder
- The Australian search
- Star search
- References
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Abstract: A search of Australian newspapers from the period December 1865 through 1866 with the word Star in their title has failed to locate a missing December 1865 review of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as noted in the author's diary. It is therefore likely that the review is to be found in a similarly titled, though elusive, United Kingdom publication.
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1. When and where?
During April 2025 the present writer was contacted by the secretary of the British Lewis Carroll Society seeking information on a missing 1865 review of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as noted in a previously blank page of Carroll's diary adjacent to an entry for 2 October 1864. The listing (illustrated below) referred to nineteen reviews from 12 November 1865 through to 1 October 1866.
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| Lewis Carroll diary extract. |
As of April 2025 all the reviews had been located, excepting the undated Star review. With his usual mathematical precision, Carroll had listed the title and date of the other eighteen reviews. What newspaper, magazine or journal did this Star reference come from? Carroll had placed it between Dec.23 and Dec.25 [1865], suggesting Christmas Day as the date of publication, or when he received a copy. It is also possible that the Star was a magazine or journal which compiled reviews, and was therefore not dated in the same manner as daily or weekly newspapers.
During April 2025 a number of Carroll scholars were pondering the fate of the missing review, with one strand of inquiry taking them Downunder and the possibility that the reference was to an Australian newspaper. Prior to this, researchers had suggested it may have come from the Guernsey Star, or other British newspaper. However, no copy of the review had been located. Therefore, the Australian search request came to the present writer, a resident of OZ with a known interest in Carroll and the Alice books.
Lewis Carroll's famous stories featuring the young girl Alice's adventures in an alternate world known as Wonderland were originally issued in two separate volumes at the end of 1865 and 1871. The first - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published by Macmillan & Co. of London, in an octavo (8mo) edition with 42 line drawings by Punch artist John Tenniel - went on sale in Britain during December 1865. It bore an 1866 imprint on the title page and Carroll, in his diary reviews summary, noted which some which had appeared earlier, as in the Reader on 12 November and the Press on 25 November. This pointed to the early release of copies. An even earlier (July 1865) print run, financed by Carroll, had been withdrawn due to quality issues and Tenniel's dissatisfaction with the presentation of his drawings. Whether Carroll had distributed some of these withdrawn copies to friends and reviewers, both in the UK and overseas, is unknown to the present writer.
The second book - Through the looking glass, and what Alice found there, Macmillan & Co., London, 1872, octavo (8mo), with 50 illustrations by Tenniel - was available for purchase and review in December 1871.
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2. Alice Downunder
Alice: "Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?' (Carroll 1866)
Notice of the December 1865 London publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland appeared in Australian newspapers during February 1866, with, for example, the Brisbane Courier on 27 February 1866 reproducing a London newspaper correspondent's December 1865 'New Books' notice thus:
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", with 42 drawings by Tenniel, a beautiful and attractive book (Macmillan).
The three month delay between British publication and the Australian notice reflected the average time taken for correspondence and the shipping of copies of newspapers and publications between the two countries. The book's actual arrival in Australia did not apparently occur until two months later, with an advertisement in the Melbourne Argus of 28 April 1866 announcing that copies of the original UK Macmillan edition - the only one then in print - had "just landed" and were available for purchase from George Robertson's bookshop, Collins Street, for 8s 6d. This rather princely sum is equivalent to roughly Aus$160 in 2025.
The present writer had previously investigated the history of the Alice books in Australia, and reported on the topic in the Australian magazine Biblionews in an article entitled Alice in OZ - "Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?' - The Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland Books in Australia (Organ 2013). This was later expanded upon, with illustrations, in the blog The Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland books in Australia (Organ 2016). As noted in the latter, the article 'Liliput Literature' by 'Laureate' from the Sydney Morning Herald of 16 March 1868 is the earliest identified review of the December 1865 publication to appear in Australia. It makes reference to the popularity of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland just two years after the Australian release around April 1866.
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3. The Australian search
Given the above timeline, it seems at the outset most likely that a review of the book would not have been published in Australia during December 1865, or early 1866. It could also be asked: why did a review not appear during, or shortly after, April 1866? The answer appears to be that local book reviews were not common in Australia at that time, though reproduction of overseas (mostly English and American) reviews did appear.
As regards a mid-nineteenth century publication call the Star, or similar, in a search of the National Library of Australia TROVE database, containing a substantial collection of digitised and indexed copies of local publications, some twelve different newspapers with the word Star in the title were identified. None appeared to contain an early 1865 or 1866 review of Carroll's book, despite a thorough search by the present writer, both during the period 2013-16 and in April 2025. The opinion of the present writer therefore formed that the Star in Carroll's list likely referred to a British publication. This could have included publications such as the Evening Star, Guernsey Star or Sheffield Star newspapers, or one of a number of non-book, serial-type publications with the word Star in the title. Despite initial searches in this area, research in the UK during April 2025 suggested that an Australia newspaper referred to as The Star in a clipping within a Carroll scrapbook may contain the missing review. The possible reference was outlined by the aforementioned secretary in an email as follows:
I have now found the scrapbook online, and I find pages 147 -148 of the Melbourne Australia Illustrated Post - the article is about the Rev. Augustus Short of Christ Church - I wonder if he was receiving financial support from CLD? BUT - page 147 mentions “The Star” - I assume the weekly Melbourne Star? If there was a review in that weekly, perhaps cut out, then there might not have been a date attached? - perhaps with [a] bit more detective work we might find the missing review in the Melbourne Star archives? (email, SK to CP and SR, 19 April 2025)
The reference in the scrapbook clipping to The Star was likely sourced from the News and Notes - Warrenhelp Correspondent section of the Victorian Ballarat Star of 2 October 1867, though such reports were reproduced in other regional Australian newspapers. The newspaper had commenced publication in 1855 as The Star, changing its name on 1 January 1865 to the Ballarat Star. Copies of the paper from that year through to its cessation on the 12 September 1924 had been digitised and made available in TROVE, though no review was located therein of the Lewis Carroll work during 1865-6. The earliest reference in that paper to Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland dated from 1901. There were also eighteen references to the author Lewis Carroll in the paper between 1883-1923, testament to his local notoriety in regards to both the Alice books and other publications.
The only scenario whereby a review of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland could have been published in the Ballarat Star, or a similarly named Australian newspaper, sometime during December 1865 would have been if Carroll had despatched a copy of the July 1865 abandoned print run to a correspondent in Australia, perhaps with subsequent correspondence that it should appear around the time of the British publication of the revised edition in December. As there is no evidence that this took place, we must return to the search within the United Kingdom for the missing Star review, which is undoubtedly the most likely scenario.
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4. Star search
The search for Carroll's UK Star has proven uncommonly difficult, for both bibliographic and practical reasons. Firstly, identifying a publication called simply Star from library catalogues and databases has not been a simple task, exacerbated by title variations and inconsistencies. Secondly, whether a copy of Carroll's Star from December 1865 has survived is also open to question, and the lack of the existence of one in the various Carroll archives is telling. As such, elements of this unsuccessful-to-date task are outlined below. Firstly, what are the likely contenders, based on library catalogue searches? The following is a list of possibilities.
* Star (as mentioned by Carroll in his diary) - bibliographic details unknown, with no specific publication date or location provided by the usually precise Carroll.
* Star - An 1872 British book on wheat includes a review from Star, followed by a review from the Guernsey Star, indicating that the two publications were distinct (Le Couteur 1872). No further details are available on the Star publication therein, though it is likely the same one as that containing Carroll's December 1865 review.
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| Page from Le Couteur, Wheat....., 1872. |
* The Star - London evening newspaper, 1788-1831. Wikipedia entry. Not applicable as out of date range.
* Guernsey Star, also called The Star by the British Library - weekly newspaper, 1813-1965. Digitised copies available from within the time period 1869-1900, though not in a complete run. It is not known if earlier copies survive undigitised. This appeared the most likely candidate for Carroll's review, but no copies have been located for 1865, and the aforementioned 1872 wheat publication suggests it may not be the source of the review, as that review distinguished it from the publication simply called the Star.
* The Evening Star - London daily newspaper except Sunday, 1856 - 1869. National Library of Australia entry. Possible, as in date range, though it seems that Carroll would likely have given it its full name and date, as with other newspapers. Nevertheless, it is the most likely candidate at present.
* The Star / Sheffield Star - newspaper, 1887 - Present. Wikipedia entry. Not applicable as out of date range.
* The Star - London evening newspaper, 1888 - 1900. Wikipedia entry. Not applicable as out of date range.
* Star - London daily newspaper, 1916 - 1960. National Library of Australia entry. Not applicable as out of date range.
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5. References
Anonymous, New Books (From our London correspondent, December 1865), Courier, Brisbane, 26 February 1866.
-----, New books just landed ex Great Britain, The Argus, Melbourne, 26 April 1866, page 7.
-----, News and Notes - Warrenhelp Correspondent, Ballarat Star, 2 October 1867.
-----, Victorian Country News, Illustrated Adelaide Post, 23 September 1867.
-----, [Victorian Country News], Illustrated Melbourne Post, 26 October, 1867.
Carroll, Lewis, [Diary extract], 2 October 1864 / 1866, manuscript. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York.
-----, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Macmillan & Co., London, 1866, with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel.
-----, Through the looking glass, and what Alice found there, Macmillan & Co., London, 1872, octavo, with 50 illustrations by Tenniel.
Le Couteur, John, On the varieties, properties and classification of wheat, W.J. Johnson, London, second edition, 1872, 189p.
Organ, Michael, Alice in OZ - "Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?' - The Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland Books in Australia, Biblionews and Australian Notes and Queries: Journal of the Book Collectors' Society of Australia, 379, September 2013, 71-86.
-----, The Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland books in Australia, blogger.com, 13 July 2016.
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Alice in Wonderland: Alice in OZ | Australian books | Australian books (presentation) | Christian Yandell's Alice | Alice on Film | Poster 1968 | Pre-Raphaelite photographer | Poster 1977 | Star review 1865 | Whitcombe's Alice |
Last updated: 29 April 2025
Michael Organ, Australia
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