Alice in Sunderland.

Talbot, Bryan (author).

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Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1872) have had an immeasurable impact on children’s literature and, indeed, the entire spectrum of popular entertainment, with Carroll’s absurdist wordplay and surreal scenarios inspiring artistic visionaries from Salvador Dalí to John Lennon. Of English writers, only Shakespeare is more frequently quoted. Such interesting literary tidbits as those abound in Talbot’s lavishly illustrated graphic “entertainment” tracing the historical and cultural influences behind Carroll’s masterpieces. The launching pad for Talbot’s alternately fanciful and didactic exposition is the Empire Theatre in Sunderland, a former shipping port in northeastern England and a favorite Carroll haunt. Talbot’s chosen stage manager–narrator is his own illustrated doppelgänger, who takes the Empire stage for an audience of one and proceeds on a breathtaking tour through Sunderland’s colorful history. Along with insights into famous battles, bridges, and ghost-infested castles, Talbot provides updates to Carroll’s biography via recent information concerning his controversial relationship to the “real” Alice, Alice Liddell (1852–1934). Talbot’s talented team of collaborating illustrators weaves a rich tapestry of artistic styles, ranging from superlative pen-and-ink drawing to colorized faux photography. They make a beautiful coffee-table volume of what may come to stand with Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice (1960; rev. ed., 1990) as an indispensable trove of Wonderland lore.