Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Dark Horse (2007), Edition: First Edition, 328 pages
Description
Sunderland! Thirteen hundred years ago, it was the greatest center of learning in the whole of Christendom and the very cradle of English consciousness. In the time of Lewis Carroll, it was the greatest shipbuilding port in the world. To this city that gave the world the electric light bulb, the stars and stripes, the millennium, the Liberty Ships and the greatest British dragon legend came Carroll in the years preceding his most famous book, Alice in Wonderland, and here are buried the roots of his surreal masterpiece. Enter the famous Edwardian palace of varieties, The Sunderland Empire, for a unique experience: an entertaining and epic meditation on myth, history and storytelling and decide for yourself - does Sunderland really exist?
Media reviews
The book is incredibly wide-ranging, from prehistory to modern art to metaphysics. Some sections are more interesting than others, but each reader’s choices will differ as to which is which. Like the weather, if you don’t like one page, just wait a bit, and it’ll change. It’s a great book
Show More
to dip into and sample various sections, or to return to at different times with different interests. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member clfisha
This is a joyous mix of myths and history, stories and meta-fiction. It is deceptively about the history of Sunderland, UK and the creation of Alice in Wonderland but really its a joyous mix of history and myth across the ages and geography; Sunderland as microcosm of the world. So from the
It sounds chaotic but it hangs together so well mainly through the myriad artistic styles, so photo realism for the geographic locations, pastiches of famous comics, murals and of course Talbot's own luscious style. It really is an artistic tour de force, storytelling styles through the ages to match its eclectic topics.
I heartedly recommended this to all comics fans, as much to lovers of all odd historic titbits.
Show More
constant invasions of Britain to the first comics, from popular culture to life altering social changes. It may connect with Sunderland but really its fascinating to all. Alongside this we dip into Alice's and other storytelling creations, from ancient myth to modern rumour. It sounds chaotic but it hangs together so well mainly through the myriad artistic styles, so photo realism for the geographic locations, pastiches of famous comics, murals and of course Talbot's own luscious style. It really is an artistic tour de force, storytelling styles through the ages to match its eclectic topics.
I heartedly recommended this to all comics fans, as much to lovers of all odd historic titbits.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bobmcconnaughey
i pretty much agree w/ the both the takes that the Emperor and toohotty have on Alice in Sunderland. It IS a slow book, esp. for a graphic novel, to get through - it's very dense, in terms of information, and you really don't know how much of what you're reading is the author's fantasy/story as
Show More
opposed to "fact." I rated it a bit higher, in part because I did keep coming back to it. On the other hand our son, who's both an Alice and graphic novel fan found it tedious..and i can understand that POV too..In the wrong mood, it would be very easy to get tired of Talbot's constant self-referencing - even though the book IS about him and his place in Sunderland (among much else) Show Less
LibraryThing member wandering_star
This has to be a strong contender for the most entertaining work of local history ever written. Not only is it bursting with ideas and energy, but by the end of it I was almost convinced that Sunderland had a good case to be the unsung centre of the universe. As the book traverses the history of
The visual style of the book is just as wide-ranging, a collage of everything from medieval illuminated manuscripts (born at St Peter's monastery in... well, you can guess where) to Boy's Own cartoons to Victorian photographs. Visual references to Tenniel, Hogarth, the Bayeux Tapestry and even Tintin make an appearance.
Fascinating and fun. I only wish that someone would do the same for Iain Sinclair's work, so you could take in the interesting psychogeographical ideas without the turgid prose.
Recommended for: I would recommended this to anyone who I thought was open-minded enough to give it a go. It could be a tough sell otherwise: “Yes, it's a comic. Um... about local history. No, I've never been to Sunderland either, but it's still good...” In particular I would recommend it to any fans of psychogeography.
Show More
the Northeast through the ages, taking in everything from local myths and traditions to Sunderland's current regeneration, all sorts of people turn out to be (a) connected to the region, and (b) incredibly influential - the Venerable Bede, the only English person mentioned in The Divine Comedy, George Formby, admired by the Beatles, and of course, Lewis Carroll, who put an end to the preachy, edifying children's literature of the Victorian period and apparently inspired a vast swathe of twentieth-century culture, taking in Woolf, Kafka, the Surrealists, Dennis Potter and Monty Python among many others. The visual style of the book is just as wide-ranging, a collage of everything from medieval illuminated manuscripts (born at St Peter's monastery in... well, you can guess where) to Boy's Own cartoons to Victorian photographs. Visual references to Tenniel, Hogarth, the Bayeux Tapestry and even Tintin make an appearance.
Fascinating and fun. I only wish that someone would do the same for Iain Sinclair's work, so you could take in the interesting psychogeographical ideas without the turgid prose.
Recommended for: I would recommended this to anyone who I thought was open-minded enough to give it a go. It could be a tough sell otherwise: “Yes, it's a comic. Um... about local history. No, I've never been to Sunderland either, but it's still good...” In particular I would recommend it to any fans of psychogeography.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LauraBrook
One of my top reads for the year. It's truly kismet that I picked this book up at all. This wrist-buster (324 oversized pages) isn't just a graphic novel about [Alice in Wonderland] and [[Lewis Carroll]] - it's also a history of Sunderland, in the NE of England, and it links seemingly random parts
Show More
of British and world history in the most surprising ways. Mr. Talbot deserves many accolades for the story, and certainly for the amazing artwork. He combines watercolor-ish photographs, with illustrations, with mixed-media collages, and uses not just "traditional" comics-style drawings, but copies medieval-style lettering and graphics, some 90's Japanese comics, Fantasy-style - it's truly a work of art. Do yourself a favor and put a pillow in your lap and grab a bright light to read by when you pick it up - it's detailed and beautiful and you won't want to miss a thing. Show Less
LibraryThing member SandDune
This really is a difficult book to review. A graphic novel - no that's not right as it's not a novel, so perhaps... a graphic book? Part local history of Sunderland (an old industrial town in the North-East of England); part history of Lewis Carroll (in particular his associations with the town);
I think I loved the idea of the book rather more than I loved the book itself, but I think that maybe because I read it at the wrong time and in the wrong way. It's a complex book: picking up and putting down snippets of information, only to resurrect them a hundred pages later, and I think needs to be read quite slowly and carefully, whereas I read it straight through when I was feeling I'll and I think my brain wasn't sufficiently in gear. So for me an interesting book rather than a great one. However, I'm pretty sure that I'll revisit it more slowly and I may revise my ideas.
Show More
part history of Alice Liddell (the model for the original Alice); and part history of Alice in Wonderland itself. It touches on a huge number of topics and characters along the way and is all bound together with a wonderful mixture of styles and colours of grpahic art.I think I loved the idea of the book rather more than I loved the book itself, but I think that maybe because I read it at the wrong time and in the wrong way. It's a complex book: picking up and putting down snippets of information, only to resurrect them a hundred pages later, and I think needs to be read quite slowly and carefully, whereas I read it straight through when I was feeling I'll and I think my brain wasn't sufficiently in gear. So for me an interesting book rather than a great one. However, I'm pretty sure that I'll revisit it more slowly and I may revise my ideas.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
One word: savor. Savor this book slowly. It's only 319 pages but let every page have it's moment in time. This is a beautiful piece of art, chock full of culture, biography, history, creative use of the English language ("follow your spirit" with a picture of someone chasing a vodka truck), a comic
The premise is really quite simple. Bryan Talbot has researched his hometown of Sunderland and found every possible parallel connection to Lewis Carroll's famed The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. It's brilliant.
Show More
book inside a graphic novel, brimming with literary references (Thirty-Nine Steps and Rugby, the same school made infamous by Tom Brown's Schooldays, to name a few) and much, much more. This is a comprehensive walk through history with a myriad of people and places leading the way. In Book Lust To Go Nancy Pearl called it "one of the richest experiences of her life (p 68).The premise is really quite simple. Bryan Talbot has researched his hometown of Sunderland and found every possible parallel connection to Lewis Carroll's famed The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. It's brilliant.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jmgold
The most masterfully produced comic I've read since first discovering Alan Moore. Also the most engaging history book I have ever read.
LibraryThing member lecari
I didn't actually know what this was about before I bought it - my own fault, I guess. I was expecting a story involving Alice, and maybe information on how the book relates to Sunderland. I had a quick flick through and it seemed OK. However, taking it home and reading it - I was definitely
I didn't like the author's disjointed way of writing - he switches between topics constantly. I also found the endless local history of Sunderland very dull - as someone who has never been to Sunderland, and has no plans to go, it just didn't interest me at all. At times it did feel like a travel guide. It's a good idea, and I'm sure (judging by all these positive reviews) that if you have been there/are going there/live there, it is a great, entertaining read as you can engage with the material. As it was, I just got bored and didn't care.
My own fault for not doing research before buying, but it was an impulsive buy - I saw it in a shop and it intriuged me. I regret that now!
Show More
disappointed. I only got halfway before I got fed up and gave up. I didn't like the author's disjointed way of writing - he switches between topics constantly. I also found the endless local history of Sunderland very dull - as someone who has never been to Sunderland, and has no plans to go, it just didn't interest me at all. At times it did feel like a travel guide. It's a good idea, and I'm sure (judging by all these positive reviews) that if you have been there/are going there/live there, it is a great, entertaining read as you can engage with the material. As it was, I just got bored and didn't care.
My own fault for not doing research before buying, but it was an impulsive buy - I saw it in a shop and it intriuged me. I regret that now!
Show Less
LibraryThing member piemouth
A fascinating pastiche of history - of England, Sunderland, and Alice in Wonderland. Alice has roots in the east coast of England, not just Oxford, and this book proves it, with excursions into the history of the light bulb, the Venerable Bede and a million other things along the way.
LibraryThing member royanish
Didnt enjoy this. Too specific to events around Sunderland.
LibraryThing member dknippling
A graphic novel of the history of Sunderland, which was tied up in the history of Alice - for as nonlinear and meta as the whole thing was, it made a lot of sense.
LibraryThing member poonamsharma
A history of Sunderland that in itself involves telling of story of invasions of Britain by Celts, Romans, Saxons, Vikings and most brutal of all - the Normans. It lists trivia and achievements of antecedents of Mackham (people of Sunderland). By and large, this was also the place where Lewis
So far a very interesting read - it tells the truth about death of Sidney James onstage. Henry Irving ---
Graphic style is unconventional - a collage of sketches reproduced, reproduction of old photographs, newspaper clippings and four main character sketches. Three of the characters have been played by author himself and fourth is the pilgrim who is in theater 'Empire of Sunderland' watching the show.
There is lot of meta in the book - a comic in the comic. Pilgrim reading comic in the comic. I will come back when I finish reading the book and clean up this review.
Show More
Caroll's muse Alice Liddel lived and how story of 'Alice in Wonderland' evolved. So far a very interesting read - it tells the truth about death of Sidney James onstage. Henry Irving ---
Graphic style is unconventional - a collage of sketches reproduced, reproduction of old photographs, newspaper clippings and four main character sketches. Three of the characters have been played by author himself and fourth is the pilgrim who is in theater 'Empire of Sunderland' watching the show.
There is lot of meta in the book - a comic in the comic. Pilgrim reading comic in the comic. I will come back when I finish reading the book and clean up this review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Kissyalicekali
Absolutely wonderful reimagining of the author's home region of England. It was also Lewis Carroll's. The author uses the idea of the White Rabbit to guide the reader through that region, its history (or is it?) and some of its most famous sites and characters both historic and fictional. There are
Show More
fascinating ruminations and depictions on everything from The Venerable Beade to John Lennon . An outstanding example of what a GN can accomplish. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
And a half star. Found the content really interesting but the graphic style less engrossing. Well worth a read. Love Alice and the North East.
Awards
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2007)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007
Physical description
328 p.; 11.5 inches
ISBN
1593076738 / 9781593076733