My only regret is that I didn't write the story - כתב המאייר והקריקטוריסט הבריטי ראלף סטדמן במבוא לגרסה המהוללת שלו לאליס בארץ הפלאות של לואיס קרול, שראתה אור לראשונה באנגליה ב-1967.
בספר שלפנינו, בכריכה רכה, הכולל את הטקסט המקורי של קרול, עוצבו מחדש ושוחזרו בקפידה 47 איורי העט והדיו של סטדמן, שבהם הוא מעניק את פרשנותו לאירוניה ולסאטירה של היצירה המקורית. עוד בספר, הקדמות שכתב סטדמן למהדורה האנגלית מ-1967 ולמהדורה נוספת מ-1986.
מתוך המבוא לספר:
It is difficult to explain in words what the pictures are trying to say, and therefore my explanations are not precisely what I had in mind because they add shades of meaning which are not there. The reader can only interpret them in his own way, bringing his own observations to bear on the image he is looking at, so that he may agree or disagree with what I have tried to convey. When I set out to draw an idea, part of that idea is not yet formed and only takes shape and reveals itself as the drawing progresses. Consequently, the drawing acquires a life of its own and virtually takes over the direction it will follow -- or so it seems.
I have made a few notes about some of the pictures. The rest are self explanatory or purely illustrations.
THE WHITE RABBIT. Worried by time, hurrying and scurrying. Sane within a routine, slightly insane but more engaging when the routine is upset. Today's commuter.
THE DODO in this picture reminded me of an Archbishop and being as "dead as a dodo" it fitted perfectly. The other animals remind me of people I know, rather as Lewis Carroll apparently created them around friends and associates. The reader can place his own interpretation on them. It was never my intention to set everything in concrete.
I rather hate dogs. They seem to have soaked up all the worst in human nature. They are more human and even more stupid. In place of Tenniel's pug dog which perhaps was the fashionable dog when he drew the pictures, the poodle seems the most apt substitute. The dog is the perfect feed for the man who wants his ego pumped. He can take for granted the dog's blind loyalty and obedience. The dog fouls the pavement and the man fouls the rest of the world.
THE YOUNG INTELLECTUAL. Smoking hash, pedantic, who thinks he has something to say and sheds his opinions aseasily as his skins.
THE FATHER WILLIAM set to me is the arrogance of youth versus the certainty of an old man's memories.
The young man reinforces his arrogance by using the old man's experience as a crutch. Whilst throwing past standards out of the window the young man may often come back in through the door if he finds his yardstick less than three feet. An old man can become intense talking about right and wrong, and a youth can become bored as a result. The old man showing he hasn't lost his touch but the young man finds it is all a big joke.THE DUCHESS is an ex-starlet who married the aristocrat. A high-class tart gone to seed. Her tiny mind has developed a home-spun philosophy within a cultured environment in an effort to keep up appearances.
THE COOK found fame in the kitchen and enjoys her prima donna tendencies.
THE CHESHIRE CAT makes an ideal TV Announcer whose smile remains as the rest of the programme fades out.
The growth of the tea party tree turns logic upside down. It begins in a puzzle at its top and grows down to its roots.
