The novel opens with a bored and sleepy Alice sitting with her sister on the riverbank on a hot day. Suddenly she notices a White Rabbit with pink eyes run close by her. She hears him say "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" as he pulls a watch out of his waistcoat-pocket. He scurries down a rabbit-hole under a hedge. Alice follows him and falls into Wonderland.

Carroll immediately situates readers in Wonderland's setting. As Alice tumbles down, down, down, she sees cupboards and bookshelves, maps, and pictures hung on pegs. She thinks the fall may never end.

Then she plops, without a scratch, onto a pile of sticks and dry leaves. She follows White Rabbit as he hurries down a long passage, and the tale's magic unfolds.

Although Wonderland is a place where anything can happen, the events are nonetheless grounded in a realistic...