The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.

The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay - over two years - he eventually did so and on 26 November 1864 gave Alice the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate there was an earlier version that was destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand (Gardner, 1965), but there is no known prima facie evidence to support this.

But before Alice received her copy, Dodgson was already preparing it for publication and expanding the 18,000-word original to 35,000 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was destroyed because Tenniel had objections over the print quality. (Only 23 copies are known to have survived; 18 are owned by major archives or libraries, such as the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, while the other five are held in private hands.) A new edition, released in December of the same year but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed.

The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. Among its first avid readers were young Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria. The book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages, including Esperanto and Faroese. There have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.

英文内容有音频文件在线朗读

故事讲述的是一个叫爱丽丝的小女孩和姐姐在河边看书时睡着了，梦中她追逐一只穿着背心的兔子而掉进了兔子洞，从而来到一个奇妙的世界。在这个世界里她时而变大时而变小，以至于有一次竟掉进了由自己的眼泪汇成的池塘里；她还遇到了爱说教的公爵夫人、神秘莫测的柴郡猫、神话中的格里芬和假海龟、总是叫喊着要砍别人头的扑克牌女王和一群扑克士兵，参加了一个疯狂茶会、一场古怪的槌球赛和一场审判，直到最后与女王发生冲突时才醒来，发现自己依然躺在河边，姐姐正温柔地拂去落在她脸上的几片树叶——在梦里她把那几片树叶当成了扑克牌。
　　书中充满了有趣的文字游戏、双关语、谜语和巧智、因此有时是难以翻译的，比如第二章章名里的“Tale（故事）”因为被爱丽丝听成同音的“Tail（尾巴）”而闹出了笑话。由于开始时是一部给朋友的孩子讲的自娱之作，故事里的很多角色名都影射了作者身边的人，如第三章里的渡渡鸟（dodo）是作者自己（因为他有口吃的毛病，听起来像dodo这个词）、鸭子（duck）是朋友Duckworth、鹦鹉（Lory）是爱丽丝的姐姐Lorina，小鹰（Eaglet）是爱丽丝的妹妹Edith。