The roughly contemporary fairy tales of the Danish novelist Hans Christian Andersen (available in many editions), which established a Victorian passion for fairy stories.

John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River (1851), a classic Victorian fairy tale that, like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was originally written for a little girl. Ruskin was at one time an instructor for Alice Liddell.

The Victorian wordplay of Edward Lear, contained in A Book of Nonsense (1846), Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871), More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc. (1872), Laughable Lyrics: A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, Etc. (1877), and Nonsense Songs and Stories (1895).

George Macdonald's allegorical fairy tale about growing up and coming to sexual maturity, The Golden Key (1867).

Victorian poet Christina Rossetti's famous narrative poem "Goblin Market" (1862), which, like the "Alice" books, is outwardly for children, but nonetheless deals with many...