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Clara in Blunderland

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This article is about the 1902 novel by Caroline Lewis. Not to be confused with Alice in Blunderland, the 2003 novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, or Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream, the 1907 novel by John Kendrick Bangs.
Clara in Blunderland
First edition cover of Clara in Blunderland
AuthorCaroline Lewis (Edward Harold Begbie, J. Stafford Ransome, and Michael Henry Temple)
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy novel, parody
PublisherWilliam Heinemann
Publication date
1902
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pagesxvi, 150
Followed byLost in Blunderland 

Clara in Blunderland is a novel by Caroline Lewis (a pseudonym for Edward Harold Begbie, J. Stafford Ransome, and Michael Henry Temple), written in 1902 and published by William Heinemann of London.[1] It is a political parody of Lewis Carroll's two books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). The book was followed a year later by a sequel, Lost in Blunderland.

The book is critical of the British Government's engagement in the Second Boer War and its subsequent domestic and foreign policy choices.[2] Prime Minister Arthur Balfour is represented by Clara, the equivalent of Alice, who "can get in a hole when no one else would have found it possible."[3] A number of other prominent politicians are represented by other characters from the "Alice" books: the Red Queen is Joseph Chamberlain, the Duchess is Lord Salisbury, Crumpty-Bumpty is Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Walrus is William Vernon Harcourt, the Dalmeny Cat is Lord Rosebery, and the Caterpillar is Winston Churchill.[4][verification needed]

The book features 40 drawings by journalist J. Stafford Ransome (credited as "S.R.") after the originals by John Tenniel.

Clara in Blunderland ran to ten editions.[3] It and its sequel were among a number of satirical works drawing on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published around the turn of the century; others included Saki's The Westminster Alice (1902) and Charles Geake and Francis Carruthers Gould's John Bull's Adventures in the Fiscal Wonderland (1904), which also featured representations of Balfour and Chamberlain.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Room, Adrian (2010). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5th ed.). McFarland & Company. p. 286. ISBN 9780786457632.
  2. ^ Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert (2015). The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland. Harvard University Press. p. 228.
  3. ^ a b Jenkins, Emily (1998). The Reading Public and the Illustrated Novel, 1890–1914 (PhD thesis). Columbia University. p. 188. ProQuest 304446470.
  4. ^ Dickinson, Evelyn. 1902. "Literary Note and Books of the Month", in United Australia, Vol. II, No. 12, June 20, 1902
  5. ^ Scully, Richard (2013). "The Lion and the Unicorn—William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli through William Empson's Looking-Glass". International Journal of Comic Art. 15 (1): 331.
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