Bogspejl (Alice-føljeton e)

"He ha already shown how sensitive he was to Alice Lidell's 'awkward' physical changes, and now his plans for the presentation copy of Through the Looking-Glass took this idea a stage further. 'I want to have the presentation-copy of the Looking-Glass (I mean the one for Miss A. Liddell) bound with an oval piece of looking-glass let into the cover,' he told Macmillan; 'Will you consult your binder as to whether the thing is practicable?' He included a sketch of what he wanted, and from this it appears that the mirror was to be trimmed into an oval of roughly the same proportions as many of his photographs, like the hand-colored print of (Alice i rollen som (LB)) The Beggar Maid he presented to the Liddell family, in which she looks at the viewer form a gilt-edged hole set in a purple velvet display case. The key difference was that the cover was not going to be a mirror with a memory. It was just a mirror. Perhaps he hoped that she would see it as an invitation to jump into the story to renew her youth; or perhaps it was to remind her how much she had aged. Either way the plan proved impracticable, and Carroll had to be content with a copy bound in plain red morocco. But despite a reference to 'The pleasance of our fairy-tale' in the opening poem (a late change made in the proof), and the final acrostic on ALICEPLEASANCELIDDELL, this time there was no special dedication page inside. What the gift meant was left for her to decide.