Lewis Carroll: Looking-Glass Letters

by Thomas Hinde

Guiding the reader through the period surrounding the production of Carroll's best-known works, this book contains extracts from his letters to family, friends and colleagues, to Alice Liddell, the inspiration behind the original "Alice", and to other young girls he befriended, to his illustrator, Tenniel, and to eminent writers and artists such as Tennyson and Rossetti. Excerpts from Carroll's diaries, plus many of his own photographic portraits, give further insights into this complex man, while the illustrations, which include many of his own photographs, suggest the visual sources that might have fired his imagination and depict the Victorian world in which he lived.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Classics

160 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 1992

About the author

Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet better known by his pen name Thomas Hinde, was a British novelist. He wrote under the name Hinde to avoid upsetting his father with his much acclaimed first novel.

His first novel, Mr Nicholas, was published in 1953. His second, Happy As Larry, the story of a disaffected, unemployable, aspiring writer with a failed marriage, led critics to associate him with the Angry Young Men movement. An excerpt from Happy As Larry appeared in the popular paperback anthology, Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men.

Hinde published thirteen further novels before turning to non-fiction. After 1980, he also published books on English stately homes and gardens, English court life, and the forests of Britain, as well as histories of English schools.

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a huge Lewis Carroll fan, I absolutely loved Looking-Glass Letters. This collection of Carroll’s personal correspondence gives such a vivid glimpse into his mind—his humor, his wordplay, and even his more serious, intellectual side. Reading his letters feels like stepping into Wonderland in a different way, but this time, through the real thoughts of the man who created it.

Some letters are playful and filled with the same kind of clever nonsense that makes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland so special, while others show his deep curiosity about the world. It’s fascinating to see how he interacted with children, friends, and colleagues, always blending kindness with sharp wit.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to see a more personal side of Lewis Carroll.

[Amanda McFall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this very much. The illustrations and images that were included were excellent choices. I couldn’t help but read some of the letters with a hint of disgust. Even if Carroll’s intentions were pure, the way he worded things to his “child-friends” gave me the willies and made me doubt the purity of his intentions.

[Mieneke · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his Lewis Carroll: Looking-Glass Letters, Thomas Hinde gives a nice summation of Lewis Carroll's life, though far less in depth than the Bakewell biography. As such this isn't a work that should be read as the definitive source of information on Lewis Carroll, then again, that isn't what the book sets out to do. Instead the book gives us glimpses of the complicated man that was Lewis Carroll, through letters and diary entries. While it does give us a window into Carroll's inner life, at the end of the book Carroll is still a mystery and the reader as only encountered the tiniest fraction of the facets to the man's personality.

A plus of the book is the large number of illustrations, not just drawings but also paintings and photographs. They provide further background to locations described in the book, gives some of the people mentioned faces and shows us what photography, the medium closed to Carroll's heart next to writing, looked like in the late nineteenth century. We also see the different iterations of the Alice illustrations, both by Carroll himself and the official illustrator, John Tenniel.

The letters and diary fragments are certainly interesting, if at times a little random. While the letters in the sections regarding his early school life and his academic career are mostly relevant and to the point, the letters and fragments included in the later sections are sometimes not as relevant to the subject, or the point they are meant to illustrate isn't really clear. This is a shame as it can be a little distractive from the narrative flow, if you can speak of such in a work of non-fiction.

In my opinion, while the author takes no overt stance on the matter, the issue of Carroll's little girl friendsis treated in an ambivalent manner. On the one hand the tone of the Carroll letters to little girls is mostly avuncular, on the other hand when the matter of Carroll's nude photography is discussed, the author posits that Lewis must have derived some pleasure from it. While this is no more explicit than any of Bakewell's remarks, the contrast of the author's remarks and the selected letters, to me, is rather marked.

In all, it's an entertaining read, which serves as a look into Carroll's inner world and as a nice addition to the information I found in the Bakewell biography. However, if you're really looking to learn about Lewis Carroll, I'd recommend reading the Bakewell.

[Jose A. Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I read this one quite a time ago, but still, it continues with one more magical world in the other side of the mirror. Alice in wonderland was based on a card game, this one goes all they way with chess, the characters, the world, the way the story develops, it just awsome xD

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at life through a chess game. Sorta.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some delightful letters and photos to match. Carroll comes across as very interested in those he wrote the letters to.