Editing Through the Looking-Glass (section)

== The Wasp in a Wig ==
Lewis Carroll decided to suppress a scene involving what was described as "a wasp in a wig" (possibly a play on the commonplace expression "bee in the bonnet"). A biography of Carroll, written by Carroll's nephew, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, suggests that one of the reasons for this suppression was a suggestion from his illustrator, [[John Tenniel]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://listverse.com/2013/01/14/deleted-book-chapters/|title=10 Deleted Chapters that Transformed Famous Books|author=Symon|first=Evan V.|date=18 June 2014|website=Listverse|orig-year=2013}}</ref> who wrote in a letter to Carroll dated 1 June 1870:<ref>{{cite book|last=Gardner|first=Martin|title=The Annotated Alice|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|year=2000|isbn=978-0-393-04847-6|page=283|author-link=Martin Gardner}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I am bound to say that the '' 'wasp' '' chapter doesn't interest me in the least, and I can't see my way to a picture. If you want to shorten the book, I can't help thinking{{mdash}}with all submission{{mdash}}that ''there'' is your opportunity.|title=|source=}}

For many years, no one had any idea what this missing section was or whether it had survived. In 1974, a document purporting to be the [[galley proof]]s of the missing section was auctioned at [[Sotheby's]]; the catalogue description, in part, read, "the proofs were bought at the sale of the author's…personal effects…Oxford, 1898". The document was won by John Fleming, a [[Manhattan]] book dealer, for a bid of about {{US$|832|1974|link=|round=0}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://exhibitions.lib.umd.edu/alice150/alice-in-wonderland/early-editions/wasp-in-a-wig |title=The Wasp in a Wig: A 'Suppressed' Episode of Through The Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There [exhibit item] |quote=Alice 150 Years and Counting…The Legacy of Lewis Carroll |publisher=[[University of Maryland Libraries]] |access-date=12 January 2023}}</ref> The contents were subsequently published in [[Martin Gardner]]'s ''[[The Annotated Alice|More Annotated Alice]]'' (1990),<ref>[[Gardner, Martin]]. (1990) ''[[The Annotated Alice|More Annotated Alice]]''. New York: [[Clarkson N. Potter (publisher)|Clarkson N. Potter]]. {{ISBN|0-394-58571-2}}.</ref> and are also available as a hardback book.<ref>Carroll, Lewis (1977). ''The Wasp in a Wig: A Suppressed Episode of 'Through The Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There''. New York: [[Lewis Carroll Society of North America]].</ref>

The rediscovered section describes Alice's encounter with a wasp wearing a yellow wig, and includes a full previously unpublished poem. If included in the book, it would have followed, or been included at the end of, Chapter 8{{mdash}}the chapter featuring the encounter with the White Knight. The discovery is generally accepted as genuine, but the proofs have yet to receive any physical examination to establish age and authenticity.<ref name="Leach">{{cite web|url=http://contrariwise.info/articles/TheCuriousCaseOfTheWaspInTheWig.pdf|title=The Curious Case of the Wasp in the Wig|last1=Leach|first1=Karoline|date=2015|website=Contrariwise|access-date=17 January 2019}}</ref>

The missing episode was included in the 1998 TV film adaptation ''[[Alice through the Looking Glass (1998 film)|Alice through the Looking Glass]]'', with the character being portrayed by [[Ian Richardson]]. It was also included in the 2010 graphic novel "The Complete Alice in Wonderland".