Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll is the pen name of Charles Dodgson

January 27, 1832 - Daresbury, England

1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1871 - Through the Looking Glass

January 14, 1898

“One pill makes you larger

And one pill makes you small

And the ones that mother gives you

Don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice

When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits

And you know you're going to fall

Tell them a hookah-smoking caterpillar

Has given you the call

Call Alice when she was just small

When the men on the chess board

Get up and tell you where to go”

From “Go Ask Alice” by The Jefferson Airplane

The Alice books by Lewis Carroll are deeply imbedded in World culture.  Behind The Bible and the works of Shakespeare they are the third most quoted works in the English language.  They have been translated into languages from Arabic to Urdu.  Many more know his classic works from movies and cartoons than from his books.  They are marketed as children's books but anyone whose inner child is still kicking will love reading them.  Having of course seen cartoons of it very long ago, it was so much fun to follow Alice in pursuit of a rabbit late for a very important date down a very deep hole.  The Mad Hatter's tea party was just too much fun.  As a life long cat person, I loved the Cheshire Cat.  Then there is Twittle De and his twin brother.  Beware the Red Queen does not give an order for your decapitation.

There are lots of plays on words.  Some authorities see the books as dealing with children dealing with the seeming absurdities of the adult world.

The reading time for the combined books is under three hours.

This video below explains the origins of the Alice books and details his life as an Oxford Don.  Carroll took thousands of photographs of preadolescent girls.  Some of the photos involve nudity.  There is no evidence he was actively a pedophile but there are still unanswered questions. 

The Secret World of Lewis Carroll, from the BBC

https://youtu.be/H7mrIJCjTdc

In this recorded lecture from Oxford I learned how his work as a mathematician and a logician influenced his work.  His letters to the    "real Alice" are also quoted.

https://youtu.be/pJK_SE0mO0Q

A slide show of his photographs

https://youtu.be/AWxakRattXE

A video dealing with Carroll's relationship with the young girl who inspired his books

https://youtu.be/dhaZ9LgP7Hg

Mel u

Lewis Carroll The Man and his Circle by Edward Wakeling (forthcoming January, 2015)

Lewis Carroll The Man and His Circle by Edward Wakeling is a factoid rich highly informative work.  Edward Wakeling, per my research, is one of the world's leading authorities on Lewis Carroll, pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 to 1898), author of Alice in Wonderland, 1865, and Through the Looking Class, the 1871 sequel.  His books were an immediate tremendous success and brought him financial independence and worldwide fame.  

As I learned in the book, Dodgston was a very bright young man. Following his father he went to Oxford at 18.  At age 20, he was awarded a "studentship".  This was a grant for life of rooms at Oxford. The catch was you had to swear a lifetime oath of celibacy, which Dodgson did as far as truly known kept this vow.  He taught Mathamatics and Logic.

There is a lot of good detail on publishers, illustrators, other professors, life at Oxford and the family history in this book.  It does not focus very much on literary exegesis or on how or really even why Carroll wrote his famous books.  

Carroll lived a very sheltered life as a life time student and academic  He took his vow of celibacy seriously, per Wakeling.  He faced few of the normal challenges of life.  He lived all his life at Oxford and taught a bit of mathematics.  He lived among other single men.  He was very into photography for many years and now the big question about Carroll comes up.  What is behind the many, about 1500 photographers of young girls, including nude photographs.  Why did a mature Oxford Don love to socialize with young girls?   Wakeling tries to defuse the long raging controversary concerning whether or not Carroll was sexually interested in young girls by telling us several times he also photographed young boys and socialized with them also. I found that a tremendously poor defense!    Wakeling says, and I guess I accept his authority, nude photography of young girls was not uncommon in Victorian England.  I don't see how it being common practice,  in thirty plus years of on and off reading of Victorian literature and history I have never heard of this, is a defense.  It just means there was a market for such pictures.  As far as is known, he took no nude photographs of young boys.  I did not find Wakeling's rationalization for Carroll's activities with children convincing.  

Look at these images and let me know your thoughts please 

Lewis Carroll The Man and his Circle is a book for those very interested in the subject matter. If you want basic bio data on Carroll, start out on Wikepedia.  The planned price on this book is $49.00. I am not castigating anyone for this price but unless your book buying budget is very high and the subject fascinates you it is simply too expensive.  

I was given a review copy of this book.

Mel u

Edward Wakeling is an internationally recognized authority on Lewis Carroll. A former chairman of the Lewis Carroll Society, he edited the ten volumes of Lewis Carroll's Diaries and regularly acts as a consultant to auctioneers, television programs and exhibitions worldwide. He owns one of the finest collections of Carroll material in private hands. His books include Lewis Carroll's Oxford Pamphlets (University Press of Virginia Press, 1993), Lewis Carroll Photographer (with Roger Taylor, Princeton University Press, 2002) and Lewis Carroll and his Illustrators (with Morton N. Cohen, Cornell University Press, 2003