In 1969 Salvador Dalí illustrated a limited edition of the classic 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (commonly referred to as Alice in Wonderland), written by Lewis Carroll.
It is said that the mock turtle’s name was inspired by the name of a dish that was popular during the Victorian period, mock turtle soup. In Carroll’s fairy tale, the mock turtle is melancholy in character. This is because he was once a real turtle. In Dalí’s Alice in Wonderland – The mock turtle’s story artwork, the turtle hovers above the sea in reference to the story that he tells Alice about living and going to school under the sea.