Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Алиса в Зазеркалье / Through the Looking-glass, and What Alice Found There

Адаптация текста, составление комментария и словаря Е. В. Лаптевой

© Лаптева Е. В., адаптация текста, комментарии, словарь

© Положенцева Д. В., адаптация текста, грамматический комментарий, словарь

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2016

О Льюисе Кэрролле

Настоящее имя Льюиса Кэрролла, автора известной сказки о девочке Алисе, – Чарльз Лютвидж Доджсон. Впервые автор использовал псевдоним в годы студенчества, когда отсылал в различные журналы свои первые стихотворения и короткие рассказы. Псевдоним Льюис Кэрролл был придуман по совету писателя и издателя Йетса. Он образован из настоящих имен автора Чарльз Лютвидж, которые являются соответствиями имен Карл (лат. Carolus) и Людовик (лат. Ludovicus). Автором были выбраны другие английские соответствия его имени, которые он поменял местами.

Льюис Кэрролл родился в 1832 году в Англии, в графстве Чешир. Автор был сыном приходского священника деревни Дарсбери. Помимо него в семье было 10 детей. Образованием маленького мальчика занимался его отец – человек образованный и рассудительный. С раннего возраста Льюис Кэрролл проявлял большой интерес к точным наукам и вычислениям. С детства Льюис был левшой, однако родители старательно переучивали его писать правой рукой. В возрасте 12 лет мальчик поступил в частную школу Ричмонда, а уже в 18 лет учился в престижном колледже при Оксфордском университете. Все отмечали невероятный талант будущего автора, его отличные способности к математике и философии. Получив степень бакалавра точных наук, Льюис Кэрролл в течение 26 лет читал курс математических лекций в Крайст-Чёрч. По уставу колледжа преподаватель должен был носить духовный сан, поэтому Льюис Кэрролл получил сан диакона. Богословие всегда интересовало будущего автора.

Писательскую карьеру Льюис Кэрролл начал в годы учебы в колледже. Постепенно он приобрел известность. С 1854 года его художественные произведения и миниатюры стали появляться в серьезных английских изданиях: «Комические времена», «Поезд». Помимо литературных произведений Льюис Кэрролл публиковал много научных трудов по математике под своим настоящим именем. Он занимался евклидовой геометрией, линейной и матричной алгеброй, математическим анализом, логикой и занимательной математикой (играми и головоломками). Однако, его научные публикации не оставили заметного следа в истории математики, так как его достижения в области математической логики опередили свое время.

В 1864 году Льюис Кэрролл написал свое знаменитое произведение «Алиса в Стране чудес» – сказку, в которой рассказывается о девочке Алисе, которая попадает сквозь кроличью нору в волшебный мир, населенный необычными существами. Книга стала одним из лучших образцов литературы жанра абсурд. В тексте произведения используются многочисленные математические, лингвистические и философские шутки и головоломки. Вторая сказка автора «Алиса в Зазеркалье» является сюжетным продолжением первого произведения. Прототипом главной героини сказки считается маленькая девочка Алиса, дочка декана колледжа Крайст-Чёрч, в котором автор читал лекции.

Нередко творчество Льюиса Кэрролла рассматривают как начало жанра фэнтези. Сказки автора не теряют своей популярности среди взрослых и детей. «Алиса в Стране чудес» и «Алиса в Зазеркалье» были неоднократно экранизированы.

Льюис Кэрролл умер 14 января 1898 года в Гилфорде, графстве Суррей.

Alices Adventures In Wonderland

Chapter 1. Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice was tired of^[1] sitting near her sister on the bank of the river. She had nothing to do:^[2] once or twice she looked into the book that her sister was reading. But the book had no pictures or conversations in it. “What is the use of a book,^[3]” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?”

She was thinking about making a daisy-chain^[4] but the day was hot and she felt very sleepy and lazy. Suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran past her.

The Rabbit said to itself “Oh dear! Oh dear, I shall be late!^[5]” Then it took a watch out of his waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and hurried on. Alice stood up and burning with curiosity^[6] ran across the field after it. So she was just in time^[7] to see that the Rabbit jumped down a large rabbit hole under the hedge.

Alice went down after it. The rabbit hole was like^[8] a tunnel and then it suddenly went down. It was so sudden that Alice didn’t have time to think. And the next moment she was falling down the well.^[9] The well was so deep or she was falling so slowly that she had time to look around. She saw cupboards and bookshelves, there were maps and pictures there too. But she was falling down and down. “I must be^[10] near the centre of the earth,” Alice said aloud. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth!^[11] How funny it will be to see people that walk with their heads down!

Down, down, down. “Dinah will miss me very much, I think!” (Dinah was the cat.) Dinah, my dear!” And Alice felt sleepy when suddenly, thump! And the fall was over – she was on a heap of dry leaves.

Alice jumped up on to her feet and looked up but it was all dark there. The White Rabbit was still hurrying along a corridor. Alice went after him like a wind^[12] and heard the Rabbit say^[13] “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it is!^[14]” and it turned the corner. She turned the corner too but couldn’t see the Rabbit. She was now in a long hall.

There were doors all around the hall but they were all locked. Suddenly Alice saw a little glass table with a tiny golden key on it. But the locks in all the doors were very large and the key was very small and it couldn’t open them. But then suddenly Alice noticed a low curtain with a little door behind it. To her great delight^[15] the golden key opened it!

Behind the door was a small corridor which lead^[16] to a very beautiful garden. Alice wanted so much to be among those bright flowers and cool fountains! But even her head couldn’t get through the little door. So she went back to the table hoping^[17] to find another key on it. But this time^[18] she found there a little bottle with a paper label with large letters on it: “DRINK ME”.

Alice didn’t want to do that in a hurry.^[19] Maybe it was poison. But the bottle did NOT say “poison” so Alice tasted it and it was very nice so soon she drank it all.

“What a curious feeling!” said Alice, “I must be shutting up like a telescope^[20]”. And now she was only ten inches^[21] high. And she could go through that little door! But poor Alice! When she was near the door she remembered that the little golden key was on the table. She went back and saw that she couldn’t take it from the glass table because she was too small. So she sat down and cried.

“But there is no use in crying^[22]” said Alice to herself and soon she noticed a little glass box under the table. She opened it and found in it a very small cake with the words “EAT ME” in currants. She ate a little bit but nothing happened so very soon she ate all the cake.

Chapter 2. The Pool of Tears

“Curiouser and curiouser!^[23]” – cried Alice (she was so surprised that for the moment she forgot how to speak good English); “now I’m opening out^[24] like the largest telescope! Good-bye, feet!” (she looked down at her feet and they were almost out of sight^[25]). “Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I will be too far away. But I will send you a new pair of boots every Christmas. How funny it will seem!”

“Oh dear, what nonsense I’m talking!”

At that moment her head hit the roof of the hall: now she was more than nine feet^[26] high. So she took the little golden key again and hurried to the garden door.

Poor Alice! This time she could look into the garden with only one eye. So she sat down and began to cry again.

“You must be ashamed of yourself,^[27]” said Alice, “Stop this moment, I tell you!” But she continued crying and soon there was a large pool all around her.

Suddenly she heard some sound in the distance and quickly dried her eyes to see what it was. It was the White Rabbit returning. It was beautifully dressed and had a pair of white gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He was in a great hurry saying: “Oh! The Duchess, the Duchess!” Alice needed help so much that when the Rabbit came near her she began in a low voice:^[28] “Please, sir…” The Rabbit jumped up in horror, dropped the white gloves and the fan and ran away into the darkness as fast as it could.^[29]

Alice took the Rabbit’s gloves and the fan and began thinking how strange everything was that day. “And yesterday things were just as usual.^[30] I wonder if I’ve been changed during the night.^[31] Who am I? That’s the great puzzle!” And while she was thinking about that mystery she suddenly noticed that she had put on^[32] one of the Rabbit’s white gloves. “How could I do that?” she thought. “Maybe I am growing small again.” So she went to the table to check it and found that she was now about two feet high and she was continuing to get smaller and smaller. And then she understood that it was the fan in her hand and she quickly dropped it.

“And now to the garden!” and Alice ran fast to the little door but, alas! The little door was locked again and the golden key was still on the glass table. “And I am so small now!”

As she said these words^[33] her foot slipped and in another moment, splash! She was in salt water. Her first idea was about the sea. However she soon understood that she was in the pool of her own tears.

“I am so sorry I cried so much! I will be drowned^[34] in my own tears! That WILL be strange! However everything is strange today!”

Just then^[35] she heard something splashing about in the pool and swam nearer to see what it was. At first she thought it was a walrus or a hippo but then she remembered how small she was now and understood that it was only a mouse.

“Shall I speak to this mouse?^[36]” thought Alice. “I believe it can talk. I think I will try.” So she began: “O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming here!” But the mouse said nothing.

“Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,” thought Alice; “Maybe it’s a French mouse.” So she began again this time with the first sentence in her French lesson-book: “Où est ma chatte?^[37]” The Mouse jumped up out of the water in horror. “Oh, I beg your pardon!^[38]” cried Alice, “I forgot you didn’t like cats.”

“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse. “Would YOU like cats if you were me?^[39]”

“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice; “don’t be angry about it. But I would like you to see^[40] our cat Dinah. I think you would start liking cats if you could see her.^[41] She is such a nice quiet thing.”

“No! Our family always HATED cats: nasty things! I don’t want to hear this name again!” the Mouse was trembling down to the end of its tail.

“I am sorry!” said Alice in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation.^[42] “Are you… are you fond… of… of^[43] dogs?” The Mouse didn’t answer so Alice continued speaking about dogs. But the Mouse was swimming away from her.

“Mouse dear! Come back again and we won’t talk about cats or dogs if you don’t like them!” Alice called softly. When the Mouse heard this it turned round and swam slowly back to her. “Let us^[44] get to the shore and I’ll tell you my story and you’ll understand why I hate cats and dogs,” it said.

It was high time^[45] to go because more and more animals were swimming in the pool: there were a Duck and a Dodo,^[46] a Lory and an Eaglet and several other creatures. Alice swam to the shore and everybody swam after her.

Chapter 3. A Caucus-Race^[47] and a Long Tale

The group looked very strange: the birds and the animals were all wet, angry and unhappy. The first question of course was how to get dry again: they discussed it and at last the Mouse said: “Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I’ll soon make you dry enough!^[48]” They all sat down at once, in a large ring with the Mouse in the middle.

“Are you all ready?” asked the mouse with an important look, “This is the driest thing I know. Silence, please!” and the Mouse began speaking about the history of England. After some time it asked turning to Alice: “How are you now, my dear?”

“As wet as ever,^[49]” answered Alice sadly.

“In that case,” said the Dodo, rising to its feet, “the best thing to get dry would be a Caucus-race.” “And the best way to explain it is to do it.^[50]” It added.

First it marked out^[51] a race-course in a circle and then all the party stood along the course. And they began running when they liked and stopped when they liked so it was not easy to know when the race was over. However after half an hour of running the Dodo suddenly cried: “The race is over!” and they all crowded around it asking: “But who has won?”

The Dodo couldn’t answer this question at once so it sat for a long time thinking while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said: “EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.”

“But who will give us the prizes?” The voices asked.

“Well, SHE, of course,” said the Dodo, pointing at Alice with one finger; and everybody at once crowded around her crying: “Prizes! Prizes!”

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand into her pocket, and took out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and gave them to everybody as prizes.

“But she must have a prize herself,” said the Mouse.

“Of course,” the Dodo answered seriously. “What else have you got in your pocket?” he asked, turning to Alice.

“Only a thimble,” said Alice sadly.

“Give it to me,” it said.

Then they all crowded round her again, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying “We beg you to accept this elegant thimble”; and, when it finished this short speech, they all cheered.

Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so serious that she couldn’t laugh; and she bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.

After they had eaten the comfits they sat down again in a ring and asked the Mouse to tell them something more.

“You promised to tell me your story,” said Alice, “and why you hate – C and D,” she added in a whisper.

“My tale^[52] is long and sad!” said the Mouse sighing.

“It IS a long tail of course!” said Alice looking down at the Mouse’s tail with wonder. “But why do you call it sad?” And she continued thinking about it while the Mouse was speaking.

“You are not listening!” cried the Mouse to Alice angrily. “What are you thinking of?”

“I beg your pardon,^[53]” said Alice very politely: “you had come to the fifth point, I think?”

“I had NOT!” cried the Mouse very angrily.

“A knot!” said Alice looking around. “Oh, let me help you to undo it!”

The Mouse stood up and said walking away. “You insult me by talking such nonsense!”

“I didn’t want to do it!” cried poor Alice. “But you’re so easily offended!”

The Mouse didn’t answer.

“Please come back and finish your story!” Alice called after it; and all the others repeated, “Yes, please do!^[54]” but the Mouse only shook its head and soon it was out of sight.

“What a pity our Dinah is not here!” Alice said aloud. “She would soon bring it here!^[55]”

“And who is Dinah?” asked the Lory.

Alice was always ready to talk about her pet: “Dinah”s our cat. And she’s so good at catching mice! And oh, the same about birds!^[56] Well, she’ll eat a little bird as soon as it looks at it!^[57]”

After Alice’s speech all the party hurried away on different pretexts^[58] and Alice was soon alone.

“I wish I hadn’t spoken about^[59] Dinah! “She said to herself sadly. “It seems nobody likes her here, and I’m sure she’s the best cat in the world! Oh, my dear Dinah! I wonder if I shall ever see you again!” And here poor Alice began to cry again because she felt very lonely and low-spirited. However a little later she again heard footsteps in the distance. She looked up hoping that the Mouse had changed its mind^[60] and was coming back to finish its story.

Chapter 4. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

It was the White Rabbit coming slowly back and looking around as if it had lost something.^[61] Alice heard it saying to itself: “The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! I’ll be executed,^[62] I’m sure! Where COULD I drop them, I wonder?” Alice understood that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid gloves, and she began looking for them too, but they were nowhere to be seen.^[63]

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice and asked her in an angry tone, “Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!” And Alice was so frightened that she ran immediately in the direction it pointed to.^[64]

“He took me for^[65] his housemaid,” she said to herself as she ran. “How surprised he’ll be when he finds out who I am! But I’d better^[66] bring him his fan and gloves – of course, if I can find them.” As she said this, she came to a neat little house, on the door of which^[67] was a bright brass plate with the name “W. RABBIT” engraved upon it. She went in without knocking,^[68] and hurried upstairs.

Soon she was in a tidy little room with a table in the window and on it were a fan and two or three pairs of tiny gloves. Alice took the fan and one pair and was going to leave the room^[69] when she saw a little bottle. This time there was no label on it with the words “DRINK ME” but she still put it to her lips. “I know SOMETHING interesting will happen,” she said to herself “I hope I’ll grow large again, because I’m quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!”

It happened so quickly that in the next moment her head was pressing against^[70] the ceiling. “Now I can’t get out of the door – Why did I drink so much?”

Alas! It was too late! She continued growing, and growing, and very soon had to kneel down^[71] on the floor. Still she went on growing,^[72] and at last she put one arm out of the window, and one foot up the chimney, and said to herself “What WILL become of me?”

Fortunately Alice stopped growing but she felt very unhappy. “It was much pleasanter at home,” thought poor Alice, “when nobody grew larger and smaller. When I read fairy-tales, I thought that such things never happened, and now here I am in one of them!^[73]”

“Mary Ann! Mary Ann!” she heard the voice outside. “Fetch me my gloves this moment!” Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look for her.

When the Rabbit came up to the door, it tried to open it but couldn’t because Alice’s elbow was pressed against it. Alice heard it say^[74] to itself “Then I’ll go round and get in at the window.”

But when the Rabbit was just under the window she spread out her hand and immediately heard a little shriek and a fall and a crash of broken glass. Then the Rabbit’s angry voice cried: “Bill! Bill! Where are you? Come and help me! And take that thing away from the window!”

There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers now and then^[75] and at last she spread out her hand again. This time there were TWO little shrieks, and more sounds of broken glass. “I wonder what they’ll do next!” thought Alice.

“We must burn the house down!” said the Rabbit’s voice; and Alice called out as loud as she could, “If you do. I’ll set Dinah at you!”

There was a dead silence instantly. After a minute or two, they began moving about again and the next moment a lot of little pebbles came in through the window, and some of them hit her in the face. “I’ll put a stop to this,” she said to herself. But suddenly she noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all turning into little cakes and a bright idea came into her head. “If I eat one of these cakes,” she thought, “it’ll surely make SOME change in my size; and as it can’t possibly make me larger, it must make me smaller, I suppose.”

So she swallowed one of the cakes, and began shrinking. As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house. She ran off as hard as she could, and soon she was in a thick wood.

“The first thing I must do,” said Alice to herself, “is to grow to my right size again; and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I think that will be the best plan.”

It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt; the only difficulty was: she had not the smallest idea how to start. I suppose I must eat or drink something; but the great question is, what?” Alice looked all round her at the flowers and the grass, but she did not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as herself;^[76] so she looked under it, and on both sides of it, and behind it, and then she decided to see what was on the top of it.

When she looked over the edge of the mushroom, her eyes immediately met the eyes of a large caterpillar that was sitting on the top, quietly smoking a long hookah.