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The Wasp in a Wig

Lewis Carroll

First published 1977
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story
Series Alice

On the verge of crossing the last brook and being crowned a queen, Alice hears the expressive sighs of someone very unhappy, and turns aside into the wood.

  • "Suppressed episode" of Through the Looking-Glass 1977/78 publications, and probably others, include a facsimile of the purported galley proofs.
  • (If genuine) Lewis Carroll removed this episode from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, on the suggestion of John Tenniel, who rejected it for illustration. It followed the longer White Knight episode and concluded chapter eight.
  • Some publications that contain the novel may include this episode without presenting it as one of the main contents, even as "reinstated", so it is likely to be overlooked in some ISFDB and library records.
  • This is widely accepted as the wasp episode Tenniel rejected, and Carroll removed from the novel, recovered from an artifact that Sotheby's sold in 1974 as the original corrected galley proofs--not examined by experts as of 2015. --Karoline Leach (contrariwise.info), who doubts

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1977 Cover The Wasp in a Wig: A "Suppressed" Episode of Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll Society of North America Chapbook 13
November 1977 Cover The Wasp in a Wig: A "Suppressed" Episode of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There Macmillan UK Chapbook |1
February 1978 Cover The Wasp in a Wig: A "Suppressed" Episode of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There Clarkson N. Potter Chapbook |1
November 1999 Cover The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition W. W. Norton & Company Omnibus 275
2015 Cover The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition W. W. Norton & Company Omnibus 339
July 2015 Cover The Complete Alice Macmillan Children's Books Omnibus 433