The Mock Turtle
From Carroll’s armored creature to Tenniel’s perfect pun
Carroll’s early sketches
Carroll’s earliest sketches (above) of the Mock Turtle show a creature with faceted armature that looks very little like a turtle. His depiction of the Gryphon is likely based on a finished drawing by his brother, Wilfred (below).
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Preliminary sketches of the Mock Turtle and Gryphon
Drawing (pen-and-ink on paper), 1862-1864
Photography: Christ Church Library
© Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford
Wilfred Dodgson (1838–1914)
GryphonDrawing (pen-and-ink on paper), ca. 1862-1864
Photography: Christ Church Library
© Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford
Carroll’s final drawing in the manuscript
For his final drawings in the manuscript, Carroll refined his depiction of the Mock Turtle and gave him the furry head of a calf, picking up on his own pun about mock turtle soup.
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
Illustrated manuscript, completed 13 September 1864
© The British Library Board, Add MS46700
Carroll’s presentation drawing
Carroll typically used pencil for his earliest sketches; this later pen-and-ink drawing shows his most refined depiction of the Mock Turtle. Captioned “On the lone sea-shore” it does not depict a specific scene in the manuscript but may have been intended as a gift.
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
“On the lone sea-shore”
Drawing (pen-and-ink on paper), ca. 1862-1865
Photography: Christ Church Library
© Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford
The first edition
The Mock Turtle sobs constantly throughout his story (indeed, it has trouble pausing its weeping long enough to begin). Tenniel follows the text, and shows large tears streaming down the character’s face.
Image credit:
Lewis Carroll (1832—1898)
John Tenniel (1820—1914), illustrator
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
London: Macmillan, 1865
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. PML 352027.
Photography by Graham S. Haber 2014.
Tenniel’s color version for The Nursery “Alice”
In the color-printed version, the Mock Turtle’s companion the Gryphon becomes vibrantly red and green, a detail not described in the text.
Image credit:
John Tenniel (1820—1914)
Gryphon and Mock Turtle Dance Round Alice
Hand-colored proof, 1885
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1987, 2005.202.
Photography by Steven H. Crossot, 2014.
Alice in Bumbleland
Tenniel regularly mined his own work for parody in the pages of Punch. In this cartoon, Alice becomes the conservative politician Arthur Balfour bumbling through a reading of the London Government Bill. Alice retains her own features here, but in the published version, her face becomes lined, and she squints at the paper through a pair of pince-nez.
John Tenniel (1820–1914)
Alice in Bumbleland
Drawing (watercolor over graphite on paper), ca. 1899
Private Collection. Photography by Graham S. Haber 2015.