Davy and the Goblin: What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

In Short

After reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, young Davy falls asleep by the fire and is whisked away on a "Believing Voyage" by a wooden clock turned boat, steered by an eccentric scarlet Goblin. Together, they navigate a dreamscape populated by transformed nursery-rhyme figures, living objects, and bizarre creatures—including a complaining featherless turkey, a cab-driving horse, and a waistcoat-wearing whale. Carryl’s classic persists because it captures the pure, illogical rhythm of childhood dreams, offering a spirited American homage to Carroll's wonderland filled with wordplay, playful verse, and absurd logic.

The Story

The tale begins on a snowy evening as young Davy sits before the fire, lost in the pages of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. When he casually responds to an unseen speaker, the Goblin on the mantelpiece comes to life, leaps down, and knocks over the family's tall Dutch clock. The clock softy falls, revealing itself to be a boat. Provisioned with warm sponge-cakes to sit upon and eat, Davy and the Goblin launch out the window into the soft night air on the "Believing Voyage."

Their journey is a cascade of rapid, unpredictable transformations. The window behind them becomes a round pantomime hole, and their vessel changes into a oversized hat that spins like a top. The Goblin frequently grows absent-minded or "absent-bodied," vanishing suddenly and leaving Davy to navigate strange encounters alone. Davy meets a Hole-keeper who inspects a book of completely blank pages to find names that ought to be left out, renaming Davy "Rupsy Frimbles" before shoving him through a sticky, burnt-sugar-scented tunnel into a room lined with slippery tin chairs.

Davy traverses the Sugar-Plum Garden and encounters the Butterscotchmen, who marvel at ordinary items from Davy's pockets protected under sugar shades. Soon after, he finds himself on Jack and the Bean-Stalk's farm, where a plucked, highly aggressive turkey named Gobobbles complains bitterly about boys' appetites and the endless approach of Christmas. Escaping Gobobbles, Davy wanders through a moving forest where paths unroll like green carpets, coming across Robin Hood operating a ordinary butcher shop.

Further along, Davy meets Sham-Sham, a gingerbread-like survivor of Ali Baba's forty thieves who fires pistols at a pot of boiling watches, and Sindbad the Sailor, who plays chess by making all moves at once on a lawn made of soft fur with feather-duster trees. Davy interacts with a cynical cab-horse named Ribsy who sings of his lost youth, attends a absurd trial on Robinson Crusoe's island, and chats with a waistcoat-wearing Whale who spouts water over his attached seals to do his laundry.

Eventually, after a chaotic encounter in a fairy stable where Davy accidentally calls out to his domestic cat, Solomon, the illusion begins to shatter. The surrounding forest dissolves back into the shapes of the hearth and mantel-shelf. The Goblin blazes like a warm coal, and the brass ornaments resolve into the fireplace's familiar fixtures. Davy wakes to find himself curled safely in his big easy-chair, summoned to dinner by his grandmother as his Believing Voyage draws to a gentle close.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins Davy climbs into a big Dutch clock cushioned with fresh sponge-cakes and flies out the living room window alongside a scarlet Goblin. The clock shifts into a spinning hat, and the Goblin vanishes, leaving Davy to embark on his dreamlike adventures.

Entering the oddities Davy meets a Hole-keeper who consults a book of blank pages to identify who isn't there, renames Davy, and pushes him into a sticky room filled with greased tin chairs. He then encounters the Butterscotchmen, who treat his everyday pocket items as rare museum exhibits.

Fairy tales turned upside down On Jack's farm, Davy confronts Gobobbles, a featherless turkey terrified of Christmas, before entering a moving forest where a green carpet path unrolls toward Robin Hood's venison shop. He meets Sham-Sham, a former thief who shoots at a pot of boiling watches.

Nonsense on sea and shore Davy journeys through Sindbad's strange lawn of feather-duster trees and carpet footstools, listens to a long musical complaint from Ribsy the cab-horse, and visits Robinson Crusoe, whose animal followers debate fractions.

The journey's end A encounter with a giant Whale in a canvas-back-duck waistcoat leads to a fairy stable; when Davy names his real-world cat, the dream breaks apart. The forest transforms back into the family fireplace, waking Davy to his grandmother's voice.

The People

• Davy: A polite, curious young boy who accepts the illogical rules of his dream environment with reasonable composure, though he frequently wishes things would stop changing so fast. He wants to navigate the realm safely and keep track of his companions, ending his journey back home in his armchair.
• The Goblin: Davy’s primary, highly unpredictable guide, dressed in scarlet with a light glowing inside his stomach. He wants constant entertainment and takes frequent "vacations" by vanishing without warning, leaving Davy to fend for himself until the final hearthside resolution.
• Gobobbles: A large, featherless turkey tied to a baby's high chair who desires nothing more than to avoid being eaten. He views boys as perpetually hungry threats and despises the endless approach of Christmas, pursuing Davy in a thumping rage.
• Ribsy: An old, opinionated cab-horse with a tail like a worn paintbrush who longs for his past glory as a hunt charger. He complains through verse about his present hard life, remaining sardonic throughout his interaction with Davy.
• Robinson Crusoe: An absurdly literal island dweller who tries to run educational exercises for his procession of domestic animals, becoming baffled by simple arithmetic and relying on Davy for answers.

In Its Own Voice

When launching their aerial journey in the clock, the Goblin explains his choice of seating:

"They make prime cushions, you know, and we can eat 'em afterwards."

Upon entering the woods, Davy expresses his frustration at the realm's constant instability:

"I do wish people and things wouldn't change about so! Just so soon as ever I get to a place it goes away, and I'm somewhere else!"

While discussing his diet, the grandly attired Whale offers an alarming preference:

"For my part I'm particularly fond of small buoys."

What It's Really About

Beneath its playful exterior, Davy and the Goblin explores the fluid nature of child logic and the transformative power of reading. The story serves as an explicit reaction to Lewis Carroll's work, examining how literary imagination refashions existing folklore, nursery rhymes, and childhood fears—such as being eaten or getting lost—into manageable, humorous absurdities. It highlights the tension between the structured rules imposed by adults (like arithmetic, grammar, and formal stories) and the chaotic, boundless freedom of a child's internal dream world, ultimate celebrating the comfort of returning safely to a familiar hearth after an excursion into pure fancy.

Why Read It Today

This book will appeal to lovers of Victorian nonsense literature, fans of classic fairy-tale parodies, and readers interested in early American children's fantasy. Reading it feels like stepping inside a warm, vintage kaleidoscope where familiar stories from Mother Hubbard to Arabian Nights are delightfully scrambled. The prose moves with swift energy, packed with clever wordplay, punning rhymes, and vivid visual gags.

Readers should note that the book reflects the literary conventions of the 1880s. Its structure is episodic and intentionally dreamlike, lacking a traditional linear plot. Some passages feature period dialect, dated theatrical tropes (such as the Goblin appearing briefly as an "Ethiopian serenader"), and whimsical nonsense logic that deliberately avoids making rational sense. For those who appreciate literary history and uninhibited imaginative play, Carryl's tale remains a charming time capsule of late nineteenth-century children's literature.