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Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) is famed for his magical stories, Alice in Wonderlandand Through the Looking-Glass, here illustrated throughout the inner pages by Sir John Tenniel's much loved drawings. However, inspired by the insatiable Victorian appetite for party games, tricks and conundrums, this eccentric and polymathical Englishman also wrote many other works of a humorous, witty, whimsical and nonsensical nature such as the mock-heroic nonsense verse 'The Hunting of the Snark', as well as dozens of other verses, stories, acrostics and puzzles, all of which are included in this volume. Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, University Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic, academic author of learned theses, gifted pioneer of portrait photography, colourful writer of imaginative genius and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses.… (more)
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Alice's adventures in wonderland --
Through the looking-glass --
Sylvie and Bruno --
Sylvie and Bruno concluded --
Hunting of the snark --
Early verse --
Puzzles from wonderland --
Prologues to plays --
Phantasmagoria --
College rhymes and notes by an Oxford Chiel --
Acrostics, inscriptions, and other verse --
Three sunsets and other poems --
Stories --
Miscellany --
Index of first lines of verse.
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I assumed that all of Carroll's works would be on the same level as "Alice." I have been stunned to find, in the Sylvie and
Stock characters and images - the lovely innocent little girl who is entirely self-sacrificing, the mischievous little boy who is being taught to be a man...
I was appalled at insipidity of this sort from the Alice author.
However, of much interest are his most definitive opinions about social issues which he incorporates shamelessly into these "children's stories." He disapproves of hunting, for instance.
Also, he has quite strong opinions about what true Christianity is, and puts these in too. He discusses Jesus quite naturally and has his characters not only quote the Bible but discuss scriptural and spiritual questions.
After "Slyvie and Bruno" came "Letters to Child Friends." I did not care for these very much either.
Heavy-handed attempts at humor, and, it appears, little comprehension of the fears one can evoke in children. They rather reminded me of those unpleasant occasions in public places when you hear parents or caretakers saying awful things to children.
I have learned that "Slyvie and Bruno" was one of the last things he published, so I am not certain why it appears where it does in the book.
"The Hunting of the Snark" is delightful. He struck on just the right combination of rhythm, rhyme and subject, and the nonsense aspect is very well done. I loved the 10 characters all beginning with "B", and their various subplots. And I can see how a number of phrases from this unusual work have entered the lexicon.
It includes all
These two Silvie and Bruno works were both written later in life than his better known works. The inclusion of a male child character as well as a female child character along with a first person adult narrator is a big difference from his other well known work.
Bruno talks baby talk throughout ("oo" instead of "you", etc.) which can be a bit annoying, but he does seem to have captured this very young child’s phrasing. It all reads as though they were dictations of afternoons spent with two children; all of the adventures and misadventures in their mutual play world.
While this is the unadulterated works, the full depth of most of it can best be understood by going to the "Annotated" books by Martin Gardner, the author of many pop mathematics books. He explains some of the inside jokes that were meant for the kids of the era, but also points out the mathematics that Dodgson (Carroll was a pseudonym) the mathematics professor snuck in throughout.
This book is sure to be a cherished addition to any library favoring the works of Carroll.
The bet of part of S&B is the Mad Gardener's Song, which has been done very well as a separate picture book (though that version loses a few references to the story, notably the double rule of three).
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast -
And half believe it true."
"Alice! a childish story take,
And, with gentle hand,
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a
Alice in Wonderland - 5 stars
Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' is a classic that everyone should read. Many of
Alice Through the Looking Glass - 5 stars
When I first read 'Through the Looking Glass' I really didn't like it as much as I had liked 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', but I find that it has grown on me with a number of re-readings. I think 'Through the Looking Glass' is perhaps a bit more difficult, or more 'mature' than Alice. It is also a bit 'choppier' because of the jumping between different scenes, whereas Wonderland is more of a continuous story.
Either way, I think reading it several times has opened my eyes to more of the symbolism in the novel, and has very much increased my enjoyment of it, and I think it's definitely worth the effort of getting more closely acquainted with it.
Sylvie and Bruno - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded - 4 stars
The two stories of Sylvie and Bruno really make up one continuous whole. Though there is an 'ending' to the first part, the second part is more like the second chapter than a second book.
Though still in line with the fairy tale style of Alice, Sylvie and Bruno is somewhat more serious. There still is a lot of wordplay and fantasy, but there are also more serious discussions on theology and philosophy. For Carroll, this book was supposed to be not just amusing, but also instructive.
A very enjoyable read and definitely gives you something to think about - though for children the discussion might be a bit long-winding at times.
Miscellaneous writings - 3-4 stars
Aside from his four main novels, Carroll wrote numerous poems, stories and puzzles during his lifetime. Though not all are equally great, we clearly see Carroll's style in all his works - even when discussing the wine stores of the Christchurch Common Room.
It's nice to have a more complete edition and read not only the novels, but also get to know some of his other writings. I especially enjoyed the 'Tangled Tale', with math-problems intertwined with the story, but there are many gems to be found among Carroll's Miscellany.
I’ve always interpreted “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” as a (modern) Fairytale.
In a way most of modern commercial movies are more like classical fairytales: very elemental stories set in a simplistic moral universe, with stereotypical characters. The movies
It is an interesting point though: the differences between stories that were only meant to be told and the kind of stories we have invented and/or developed the moment we could write them down. It is, for instance, suggested that the flowery & repeated descriptors in Homer (rose-fingered dawn, wine-coloured sea et cetera) were part aide-memoirs and part moments that the storyteller didn't have to think about the next word. They were, in other words, part of the mechanics/structure of the story. Something that was no longer needed when people could write the stories down.
So, stories from the oral age have, by necessity, a different shape than later stories like Alice’s. Come to think of it, in a way it's similar to watching a movie in a theatre or a DVD at home. In the theatre you can't pause or rewind: you have to follow the 'story' in the moment. Same with oral and written stories. Around the campfire both storyteller and audience are engaged in a live stream event. You can't have your audience interrupting you, asking you to explain who is who again and wasn't X killed by that cyclops or was that Y...? A written story can have more complexity, because readers can take a break. Try to do “Shogun” as an oral story...
Still, fairytales are probably among the first type of story told and lots of modern stories still carry that DNA. Yes, some modern literature has as much in common with fairytales as birds with dinosaurs but they are still related. More to the point, we wouldn't have birds without those dinos. You could argue we wouldn't have either James Clavell or Marcel Proust without those old oral stories (and fairytales) too...
I think we can discount the druggie and Freudian interpretations as modern fantasies*. But otherwise it is clearly satirical at different levels (the boring schoolroom, linguistic philosophy) while alluding to events and places and presumably people in Alice's life. In a way it's the sort of story that we all make up for our children and grandchildren, but cleverer than most.
(*) So here's mine: There is a convincing theory that Carroll emphasized his relations with little girls (which in the Victorian mindset were necessarily innocent and asexual) to distract attention from his numerous relationships with young (20ish) women which the Victorians would have thought improper for a clergyman. So he sends Alice off down a hole and prattles on about her adventures while having it away with Dinah on the surface. Mind you, it’s just a theory…
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast -
And half believe it true."
"Alice! a childish story take,
And, with gentle hand,
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a
Sylvie and Bruno are nothing like Alice. They are,
I particularly dug the Sillygisms after I had taken Logic in college, five years later.
I have had to buy a second copy and it is pretty beat up, but I'm not willing for it to be absent from my bookshelf.