Alice in Wonderland & Alice Through the Looking Glass, boxed set illustrated by Mervyn Peake

Very Fine, Mint condition in dust jackets and in a fine slipcase with one small bump on the slipcover backside as can be seen in the photograph, two Volumes: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, as issued 8 vo, illustrated by Mervyn Peake, published by Bloomsbury editions, 2001. Clean as new hardcover copies in perfect dust jackets, beautiful very fine examples of this boxed set are scarce.

Lewis Carroll’s classic stories reunited with Peake’s unusual and celebrated illustrations, restored for the first time to their original glory.

In the 1940s, Gormenghast trilogy author Mervyn Peake was commissioned to produce a series of seventy pen-and-ink drawings to accompany Lewis Carroll’s two classics, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Previously admired for his illustrations of Treasure Island and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Peake set to work, producing such luminous, eccentric images that Graham Greene would later refer to him as ‘the first artist since Tenniel to recast Alice in a contemporary mould.’

In these editions, Peake’s marvelous illustrations, many of them originally drawn on poor quality wartime paper, have been meticulously reproduced as they were meant to be seen. Thanks to a combination of old-fashioned craft and cutting-edge computer technology, the delightful images shine for the first time in over two decades alongside Carroll’s fantastically eccentric text. With introductions by modern literary masters Will Self and Zadie Smith, these beautifully designed and printed books are the perfect gift for adults and children alike.

$ 350.00