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The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and The Secret History of Wonderland
* BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week *
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage – a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years.
But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject: of Charles Dodgson, the quiet academic, and his second self, Lewis Carroll – storyteller, innovator and avid collector of 'child-friends'. And of his 'dream-child', Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.
This is their secret story: a history of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man’s need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.
Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape – the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds.
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage – a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years.
But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject: of Charles Dodgson, the quiet academic, and his second self, Lewis Carroll – storyteller, innovator and avid collector of 'child-friends'. And of his 'dream-child', Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.
This is their secret story: a history of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man’s need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.
Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape – the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds.
496 pages, Paperback
First published March 26, 2015
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2041 people want to read
About the author
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
19 books36 followersDouglas-Fairhurst is Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His books include Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist and The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 89 reviews
April 10, 2015
BOTW
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qfj15Description: Where did Alice stop and 'Alice' begin?
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage - a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years.
But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. The story of Charles Dodgson the quiet academic, and his second self Lewis Carroll - storyteller, innovator and avid collector of child-friends. And also of his dream-child Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.
This is their secret history - one of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man's need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.
Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape - the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality, and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds.
1: On a river trip with the Liddells, Carroll makes up a story about a girl called Alice. 2: Lewis finds a publisher for his Alice story, now all he needs is a title. 3: Following publication of his two Alice stories, Carroll continues to collect 'child-friends' 4: Oxford gossip is catching up with Carroll, and the real Alice begins married life. 5: Illness begins to take its toll on the author.Read by Simon Russell Beale
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
June 28, 2015
Of the biographies of Lewis Carroll I've been reading, this one is definitely one of the best. It's very clearly written, with good explanations of things like Oxford studentships and interesting discussions of things going on at the time. For instance, I appreciated the discussion of what children's books were like when Dodgson was writing Alice, and it really gives you an idea of how revolutionary and refreshing it must have been. Even today there's a real modern quality to Alice--the books not only aren't didactic but Alice herself is flawed and independent and wonderfully concerned with her own self. That is, even in Through the Looking Glass where she wants to be queen, she's not trying to do it by marrying a king. She just wants to get to that square.
Of course there's the inevitable discussion about exactly how disturbed we should be by the books since even though they're not creepy at all, LC himself seems a bit creepy. No evidence that he ever did anything inappropriate with children, but the conviction that he on some level wanted to (even if he himself wasn't aware of it) has come to overshadow everything about the guy.
Of course there's the inevitable discussion about exactly how disturbed we should be by the books since even though they're not creepy at all, LC himself seems a bit creepy. No evidence that he ever did anything inappropriate with children, but the conviction that he on some level wanted to (even if he himself wasn't aware of it) has come to overshadow everything about the guy.
February 25, 2016
This took a long time to read mostly because I didn't make it a priority, but also because it's not the easiest book to read. My one, serious complaint is that the chapters are given only numbers, not headings. I really would have loved some guideposts for the chapters, which all ended up being themed or coming to a central point. I had to blindly trust the author to show - eventually - the importance of the numerous details presented to me. Though this book's main title is The Story of Alice, this is a book about Lewis Carroll. His famous Alice books and Alice Hargreaves herself do come up quite a bit within this, but it's a book primarily about Carroll. It follows him from his birth to his death and slightly beyond and is VERY thorough. I cannot say this was an enjoyable read as most of the time it had a bit too much detail for my tastes, but it was a well written, researched and put together book.
October 18, 2016
Fascinating biography of a book, a genre I am intensely interested in right now, as I am writing one myself (on Little Women). This is a great example, thoroughly absorbing and full of fascinating detail. Mine is going to be quite a bit different, but it did inspire me.
April 29, 2019
As someone who is Alice-obsessed, I'm amazed that I had not ventured into the backstory until now. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst does a wonderful job of balancing the biographies of both Carroll and Alice Liddell/Hargreaves, as well as presenting all of the information he has within the context of the period; I appreciated that he does not definitely try to fill in the gaps of his narrative and, instead, merely presents theories and likelihoods with each detail he presents. I now have a much broader appreciation for 'Alice' and the many joys that it creates for both myself and the world.
August 18, 2018
A fantastic biography which helpfully reminded me that Lewis Carroll was, like many other Victorian men, Just The Worst. (14+)
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. If you use it in any marketing material, online or anywhere on a published book without asking permission from me first, I will ask you to remove that use immediately. Thank you!*
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. If you use it in any marketing material, online or anywhere on a published book without asking permission from me first, I will ask you to remove that use immediately. Thank you!*
April 16, 2016
Like many children, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” were books I loved as I was growing up and I have since read Alice’s adventures to my own children. As I got older, I gradually became aware of their author – Lewis Carroll, pseudonym of Oxford academic, Charles Dodgson. This book tells the story of Dodgson’s life and interweaves it with that of Alice Liddell; who inspired that story so many years ago.
I was fascinated to read of Charles Dodgson’s life and of the ‘hinge’ moment (as the author puts it) in almost the middle of his lifespan, when he wrote Alice. The story of that sunny afternoon when he went punting with Alice and her sisters and began telling them of the little girl who tumbled down a rabbit hole gradually became re-told and enshrined in myth. Interestingly, not only by the author, but in later years by Alice herself. It was interesting to read how Alice (later, Mrs Hargreaves) was taken by her younger son, Caryl, on a trip to the United States; where she was uncomplaining, and you feel slightly mystified, at being feted by complete strangers. Even her harmless questions about what the Statue of Liberty was made newspaper headlines and she certainly profited from the sale of items given to her by the author – including the original manuscript of, “Alice in Wonderland.” Indeed, a signed and beautifully bound of every Alice incarnation was dutifully sent to her and, even if the relations between Charles Dodgson and the Liddell’s changed over the years, he obviously felt the need to acknowledge her. She certainly dealt with being “Alice” better than the man she once met at an opening, who had been the “Peter” that “Peter Pan” was based upon and who suffered endless bullying at Eton and ended up committing suicide. It cannot be easy to have your life blurred by a fictional character…
At the heart of this biography though, is the obviously contentious issue of Charles Dodgson’s procession of ‘child friends.’ The author puts his behaviour in context of the time and is generally sympathetic to his, now extremely uncomfortable, desire to photograph young girls – often unclothed – and take them on jaunts to the theatre or out to tea. Interestingly, even while at Oxford, his behaviour was looked upon askance by others – with undergraduates often poking fun at him and a pattern of him retreating if his behaviour was questioned. What is obvious is that Dodgson was a very complicated character, while, after his death, his family were keen to protect his image and control how he was written about.
I really did enjoy this book. It is not a quick, or easy, read. Indeed, it has taken me a few weeks to finish – and I usually do read quickly. However, I found myself responding to the quieter, Victorian pace of life and needing to concentrate and think about what I was reading. Dodgson was a man who loved wordplay, who delighted in the companionship of children (however questionable his motives) and who suffered self doubt and a desire to always make fresh starts. I enjoyed reading of his constant wish to improve the world he lived in with, often considering people more like mathematical formula than the unpredictable beings they actually are – such as his letters suggesting ways people could exit crowded theatres, or ways in which you could make notes in the dark. He constantly amended his writing, involved himself in any Alice adaptations, such as theatre productions, with an endless stream of improvements and suggestions and, you feel, would have been proud that Alice still has such an important place in so many readers hearts.
I was fascinated to read of Charles Dodgson’s life and of the ‘hinge’ moment (as the author puts it) in almost the middle of his lifespan, when he wrote Alice. The story of that sunny afternoon when he went punting with Alice and her sisters and began telling them of the little girl who tumbled down a rabbit hole gradually became re-told and enshrined in myth. Interestingly, not only by the author, but in later years by Alice herself. It was interesting to read how Alice (later, Mrs Hargreaves) was taken by her younger son, Caryl, on a trip to the United States; where she was uncomplaining, and you feel slightly mystified, at being feted by complete strangers. Even her harmless questions about what the Statue of Liberty was made newspaper headlines and she certainly profited from the sale of items given to her by the author – including the original manuscript of, “Alice in Wonderland.” Indeed, a signed and beautifully bound of every Alice incarnation was dutifully sent to her and, even if the relations between Charles Dodgson and the Liddell’s changed over the years, he obviously felt the need to acknowledge her. She certainly dealt with being “Alice” better than the man she once met at an opening, who had been the “Peter” that “Peter Pan” was based upon and who suffered endless bullying at Eton and ended up committing suicide. It cannot be easy to have your life blurred by a fictional character…
At the heart of this biography though, is the obviously contentious issue of Charles Dodgson’s procession of ‘child friends.’ The author puts his behaviour in context of the time and is generally sympathetic to his, now extremely uncomfortable, desire to photograph young girls – often unclothed – and take them on jaunts to the theatre or out to tea. Interestingly, even while at Oxford, his behaviour was looked upon askance by others – with undergraduates often poking fun at him and a pattern of him retreating if his behaviour was questioned. What is obvious is that Dodgson was a very complicated character, while, after his death, his family were keen to protect his image and control how he was written about.
I really did enjoy this book. It is not a quick, or easy, read. Indeed, it has taken me a few weeks to finish – and I usually do read quickly. However, I found myself responding to the quieter, Victorian pace of life and needing to concentrate and think about what I was reading. Dodgson was a man who loved wordplay, who delighted in the companionship of children (however questionable his motives) and who suffered self doubt and a desire to always make fresh starts. I enjoyed reading of his constant wish to improve the world he lived in with, often considering people more like mathematical formula than the unpredictable beings they actually are – such as his letters suggesting ways people could exit crowded theatres, or ways in which you could make notes in the dark. He constantly amended his writing, involved himself in any Alice adaptations, such as theatre productions, with an endless stream of improvements and suggestions and, you feel, would have been proud that Alice still has such an important place in so many readers hearts.
August 28, 2015
As Carroll would have likely appreciated, this is more accurately the story of three Alices--the books, their eponymous inspiration, and the fictional character, who went on to have quite a life of her own. The books' origin story is well known--as is Dodgson's admittedly icky fascination with little girls--and Douglas-Fairhurst trots out enough sad evidence that in another time and place would have landed Dodgson in court if not jail. It's painful to read his woefully misguided correspondence to his "child-friends" and, in some cases, their parents (asking permission to photograph them without clothes, for example. Even more odd was the number of mothers who didn't mind.). His self-deluding protestations of purely innocent thoughts are not helped by the "mysterious disappearance" of a number of his journals following his death.
So we have Dodgson/Carroll, so brilliant, so clever, and yet so disappointing. Then we have Alice Liddell (later Hargreaves), who for all her childhood winsomeness grew up to be a wholly conventional and pretty dull upper-middle-class Englishwoman with ironically little tolerance for adventure or worlds other than her own: her travel journals and correspondence attest to boredom, colonial imperiousness, and an utterly parochial mindset. She also had a decidedly ambivalent relationship with Carroll, although (through her son's indefatigable encouragement) she cashed in magnificently on their association when she found herself widowed and in need of money. Funnily enough, the fact that said son was named Caryl is the one potentially provocative through-line this book lets pass unremarked.
And that's my third disappointment/peeve: Douglas-Fairhurst's narrative is marred by too many (sometimes overdrawn) analogies between the Alice texts and their real-life progenitor(s), while the later chapters on the books' enduring influence into the 20th century grow tiresome, arbitrary, and at times suspect--I mean, if you're going to trace every permutation of the term [Blank]land back to Carroll's ur-text, where would it stop? In his determination to create a serious study of the Alice books, their context, and their cultural impact, Douglas-Fairhurst falls prey to a kitchen-sink approach that winds up suffocating his worthy project and his often sprightly prose. That said, his throwaway observation of possible parallels between Alice in Wonderland and Dante's Inferno is a breadcrumb I would have snapped up in a heartbeat for an undergraduate paper topic.
So we have Dodgson/Carroll, so brilliant, so clever, and yet so disappointing. Then we have Alice Liddell (later Hargreaves), who for all her childhood winsomeness grew up to be a wholly conventional and pretty dull upper-middle-class Englishwoman with ironically little tolerance for adventure or worlds other than her own: her travel journals and correspondence attest to boredom, colonial imperiousness, and an utterly parochial mindset. She also had a decidedly ambivalent relationship with Carroll, although (through her son's indefatigable encouragement) she cashed in magnificently on their association when she found herself widowed and in need of money. Funnily enough, the fact that said son was named Caryl is the one potentially provocative through-line this book lets pass unremarked.
And that's my third disappointment/peeve: Douglas-Fairhurst's narrative is marred by too many (sometimes overdrawn) analogies between the Alice texts and their real-life progenitor(s), while the later chapters on the books' enduring influence into the 20th century grow tiresome, arbitrary, and at times suspect--I mean, if you're going to trace every permutation of the term [Blank]land back to Carroll's ur-text, where would it stop? In his determination to create a serious study of the Alice books, their context, and their cultural impact, Douglas-Fairhurst falls prey to a kitchen-sink approach that winds up suffocating his worthy project and his often sprightly prose. That said, his throwaway observation of possible parallels between Alice in Wonderland and Dante's Inferno is a breadcrumb I would have snapped up in a heartbeat for an undergraduate paper topic.
April 10, 2015
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Where did Alice stop and 'Alice' begin?
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage - a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years.
But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. The story of Charles Dodgson the quiet academic, and his second self Lewis Carroll - storyteller, innovator and avid collector of child-friends. And also of his dream-child Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.
This is their secret history - one of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man's need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.
Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape - the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality, and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds.
Read by Simon Russell Beale
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Where did Alice stop and 'Alice' begin?
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage - a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years.
But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. The story of Charles Dodgson the quiet academic, and his second self Lewis Carroll - storyteller, innovator and avid collector of child-friends. And also of his dream-child Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.
This is their secret history - one of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man's need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.
Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape - the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality, and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds.
Read by Simon Russell Beale
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
May 20, 2015
I don't read nearly as much non-fiction as I should, and hardly any biographies. Usually when I do read biographies I start off with enthusiasm only to flail and fall flat about 70-100 pages in (aka. get bored).
Not so with this all to readable new biography of Lewis Carroll, which I chanced upon when I heard it serialised on the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week strand. It's actually more, the story of the real Alice (or Alices) behind the Wonderland book, and through her the life of the man who wrote, photographed, and adored her.
Lewis Carroll was clearly an odd kind of character, and there has been much that has been speculated about what his motives and actions were, particularly when it comes to the blanked out and removed sections to his journals. That he loved children, it is without doubt, but through reading this account of his life, I think it is clear that he loved children only so far as either in relation to the time in which he lived (girls married much younger often to older men), or to that he was still very much a child himself in the world. To read anything further or untoward, is I think wrong.
Particularly in the first two parts of this book which deal with Before, and During Alice, it is packed with the most quoteable lines and insights, to feed your own Oxford/Alice/Wonderland stories. It's a biography to make you want to read or re-read the two Alice books, time, and time again.
Not so with this all to readable new biography of Lewis Carroll, which I chanced upon when I heard it serialised on the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week strand. It's actually more, the story of the real Alice (or Alices) behind the Wonderland book, and through her the life of the man who wrote, photographed, and adored her.
Lewis Carroll was clearly an odd kind of character, and there has been much that has been speculated about what his motives and actions were, particularly when it comes to the blanked out and removed sections to his journals. That he loved children, it is without doubt, but through reading this account of his life, I think it is clear that he loved children only so far as either in relation to the time in which he lived (girls married much younger often to older men), or to that he was still very much a child himself in the world. To read anything further or untoward, is I think wrong.
Particularly in the first two parts of this book which deal with Before, and During Alice, it is packed with the most quoteable lines and insights, to feed your own Oxford/Alice/Wonderland stories. It's a biography to make you want to read or re-read the two Alice books, time, and time again.
May 4, 2015
A thoughtful and sympathetic treatment of Carroll - his life and work. I had not realised that he had written other works for children besides the 'Alice' books. The author has done a lot of research, though better informed judges than I say he has sometimes accepted dubious hearsay - I thought it thorough and well balanced. Carroll's attitude to children has seemed more questionable to later generations than it was to him, although he was aware of possible disapproval of his nude photographs, which he kept in an envelope labelled 'Evil comes to him who evil thinks'. Most interesting is why the 'Alice' books are so successful and Douglas-Fairhurst is good on this, following the varied reactions to them from Carroll's time to our own.
July 19, 2015
I am really glad that I read this book, but it was a tedious read at times. The life of Lewis Carroll is indeed a fascinating one and his unusual infatuation with young girls has long been a debate of appropriate behavior. Douglas-Fairhurst does an excellent job describing the setting and circumstances of how the lives of Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll intersect at Oxford. The book also does a good job of describing Carroll's odd personality and how his eccentricities clearly result in the wonderful tale of Alice. The author tends to digress a bit too much for my taste into how other books evolved from the original "Alice in Wonderland". It is this digression that made some chapters tedious and repetitive to read. Overall an interesting book.
May 28, 2017
As well as being a biography of Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson, this is also the story of his most famous book and a biography of his muse Alice Liddell. This was really well-written and very interesting. I liked how the author didn't automatically jump on the paedophile bandwagon but instead presented the information in an unbiased manner. The evidence does suggest though that Carroll had paedophilic tendencies, even if he didn't go any further with his little girl-friends than kisses and words of adoration.
May 23, 2022
Very long, very dense but ultimately brilliant book about Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson and the life of his Alice books, as well as some on the life of Alice Liddell - to become Alice Hargreaves, the original little Alice. It has taken me a while to read this one, but it's not a rush job and there's so much detail to take in. Douglas-Fairhurst has really done his homework and gone to town on this book.
I love the Alice in Wonderland books and original illustrations by Tenniel, so it was worth reading to learn the history of how it came to be, the publication with Dodgson's OCD attention to detail as well as its life afterwards, and how many spin offs and shameless copies and rip offs of the books were published by other people, even during Dodgon's lifetime. It's also interesting to read about his life, although it is mostly focused on the Alice connections. Curious that Ripon doesn't get a mention in this book. Ripon tourist board and cathedral will have you believe that their wooden misereichord carvings in the cathedral from the middle ages inspired some of the characters and scenes that were to later appear in Wonderland. Is this an utter fabrication of the tourist board or did Douglas-Fairhurst completely miss this little gem?
I suppose the shocking element for today's readers is the adult-children relationships. Dodgson never married and had a lot of child-friends, which are two completely different and seperate statement, but I suppose in popular imagination all of this has gotten mixed up. He doesn't shy away from it in his book, but neither does he fall prey to hysteria and putting two and two together and getting six. Bottom line we'll never know because Dodgson remained illusive, and what survives of letters, diaries etc don't give a categoric answer. He seemed to have some terror/horror of time moving forward, children growing up and the relentless onwards movement of time. He also seemed to love a lot of mansplaining and being the expert with adoring faces looking up at him, and I guess this worked best with kids. I was surprised by how many photos of children he took, posed in scenes, and that parents willingly okayed this. And I didn't realise that a lot of people were doing this, so Dodgson wasn't special in this sense. The small percentage of his many photos that were child nudes do leave you uncomfortable reading about, although again, parents agreed, and it was all done on an artistic level. But the integrity of the children as individuals seemed very lacking. It was just about preserving idealised representations of childhood to his mind. Patronising children as not real people, just as women in the 1800s were infantialised. But anyway...
Alice Liddell, to become Alice Hargreaves, didn't grow up into a likeable person from my viewpoint - an elitist snob of the old order, although some sympathy is there, for she lost two of her three boys in the first world war - and to be honest, I can't say Dodgson comes out of this as a person I would have liked. Does this affect how I look at the Alice books? Maybe, maybe not, but good works of art can move on and get an identity of their own.
Learned a great lot, thought and reflected much about Alice. Well worth the read.
Borrowed from the library.
I love the Alice in Wonderland books and original illustrations by Tenniel, so it was worth reading to learn the history of how it came to be, the publication with Dodgson's OCD attention to detail as well as its life afterwards, and how many spin offs and shameless copies and rip offs of the books were published by other people, even during Dodgon's lifetime. It's also interesting to read about his life, although it is mostly focused on the Alice connections. Curious that Ripon doesn't get a mention in this book. Ripon tourist board and cathedral will have you believe that their wooden misereichord carvings in the cathedral from the middle ages inspired some of the characters and scenes that were to later appear in Wonderland. Is this an utter fabrication of the tourist board or did Douglas-Fairhurst completely miss this little gem?
I suppose the shocking element for today's readers is the adult-children relationships. Dodgson never married and had a lot of child-friends, which are two completely different and seperate statement, but I suppose in popular imagination all of this has gotten mixed up. He doesn't shy away from it in his book, but neither does he fall prey to hysteria and putting two and two together and getting six. Bottom line we'll never know because Dodgson remained illusive, and what survives of letters, diaries etc don't give a categoric answer. He seemed to have some terror/horror of time moving forward, children growing up and the relentless onwards movement of time. He also seemed to love a lot of mansplaining and being the expert with adoring faces looking up at him, and I guess this worked best with kids. I was surprised by how many photos of children he took, posed in scenes, and that parents willingly okayed this. And I didn't realise that a lot of people were doing this, so Dodgson wasn't special in this sense. The small percentage of his many photos that were child nudes do leave you uncomfortable reading about, although again, parents agreed, and it was all done on an artistic level. But the integrity of the children as individuals seemed very lacking. It was just about preserving idealised representations of childhood to his mind. Patronising children as not real people, just as women in the 1800s were infantialised. But anyway...
Alice Liddell, to become Alice Hargreaves, didn't grow up into a likeable person from my viewpoint - an elitist snob of the old order, although some sympathy is there, for she lost two of her three boys in the first world war - and to be honest, I can't say Dodgson comes out of this as a person I would have liked. Does this affect how I look at the Alice books? Maybe, maybe not, but good works of art can move on and get an identity of their own.
Learned a great lot, thought and reflected much about Alice. Well worth the read.
Borrowed from the library.
Read
March 19, 2016I read (or attempted to read) this for my book club. We wanted to choose a biography and the shortlists for the Costa Book Awards had just come out, so we picked one from there. This one sounded interesting to most people, so we went with it.
As the title indicates, this is the story of Alice in Wonderland. It's the story of the book, but also of its author and of the girl that inspired it.
I did not get on with it at all and neither did my fellow book clubers... so much so that we had to cancel the meeting because there really wasn't a quorum.
My main problem was that I found the author's style incredibly annoying. I felt he read much too much into the most minor details. He would draw really fanciful conclusions that weren't reasonable or plausible. Even worse: he would present them in an overly assured way. It's hard to convey just how preposterous it all was, so probably best to let Douglas-Fairhurst himself do the work for me. I'll give you just a couple of random examples, but I can assure you, there are bits like this in practically every page.
Speculating about why Carroll zeroed in so much on Alice Lidell (the young girl, daughter of the college's Dean, to whom Carroll told the proto version of the story):
I'm sorry, but WTF? He goes on later in that section:
Huh? Do you see why I found myself so annoyed by this crap?
I was also uncomfortable with how the author dealt with the controversial issue here, which is the nature of Carroll's relationship with Alice Lidell. He was clearly drawn to children, especially young, pre-pubescent girls, to an extent which is very disturbing and creepy to the modern reader. People seem to take all sorts of positions on the issue, from thinking it was all innocent and simply a product of a man who was a bit socially awkward, to assuming full-blown paedophilia (interpretations closer to the latter end of the spectrum seem supported by the fact that Carroll's family members cut out and destroyed several pages of his diary which seem clearly to be about the relationship in question). I have no idea where on this spectrum I am, mainly due to ignorance of the subject, and this book didn't particularly help dispel that. Douglas-Fairhurst seems to mostly be on the "innocent" part of the spectrum, but rather than convince me, the way he would twist himself into knots trying to argue this made me suspicious.
In this section, he speculates on something Alice's sister Ina says about a time when Carroll distanced himself from the Lidells:
Sorry, but what about "as you grew older" bit on the accusation that Carroll's manner towards Alice became too affectionate? That seems obvious that it wasn't the second interpretation.
And then there's this:
This bit combines all I disliked about this book. How the hell do you go from Carroll saying the expedition had a "pleasant conclusion" to interpreting this means that the conclusion involved a kiss? And "spontaneous muddle of mouths"? Euwwww!! This is a little girl we're talking about!
I pushed through almost to the halfway point, but when it became clear there wasn't going to be much of a discussion at book club, I gave up.
MY GRADE: A DNF.
As the title indicates, this is the story of Alice in Wonderland. It's the story of the book, but also of its author and of the girl that inspired it.
I did not get on with it at all and neither did my fellow book clubers... so much so that we had to cancel the meeting because there really wasn't a quorum.
My main problem was that I found the author's style incredibly annoying. I felt he read much too much into the most minor details. He would draw really fanciful conclusions that weren't reasonable or plausible. Even worse: he would present them in an overly assured way. It's hard to convey just how preposterous it all was, so probably best to let Douglas-Fairhurst himself do the work for me. I'll give you just a couple of random examples, but I can assure you, there are bits like this in practically every page.
Speculating about why Carroll zeroed in so much on Alice Lidell (the young girl, daughter of the college's Dean, to whom Carroll told the proto version of the story):
"...in any case there were plenty of other things about Alice that Carroll would have found attractive. She was born on 4 May 1852, a year which happened to fall exactly halfway between the first recorded uses of ‘nonsense poetry’ (1851) and the adjective ‘no-nonsense’ (1853), and if the close conjunction of those phrases neatly sums up a much larger struggle in the Victorian imagination, between a sensible but rather straitened approach to life and a much zanier alternative, it also hints at the mixture of qualities in Carroll’s potential new friend."
I'm sorry, but WTF? He goes on later in that section:
"Clearly Alice Liddell’s personality was a significant attraction, as was her proximity in Christ Church, which made her friendship convenient as well as genuinely enticing. [OK, that kind of makes sense...] But another and much simpler reason may have been her name.
Some years later Carroll invented the word game Doublets, in which players were supposed to turn one word into another, making the dead live (DEAD, lead, lend, lent, lint, line, LIVE) or mice rats (MICE, mite, mate, mats, RATS). Transforming ALICE LIDDELL into LEWIS CARROLL, or performing the same trick the other way round, is impossible without falling into gobbledygook, although meeting someone whose name had the same shape may still have appealed to a writer who only a few weeks earlier had published ‘Solitude’."
Huh? Do you see why I found myself so annoyed by this crap?
I was also uncomfortable with how the author dealt with the controversial issue here, which is the nature of Carroll's relationship with Alice Lidell. He was clearly drawn to children, especially young, pre-pubescent girls, to an extent which is very disturbing and creepy to the modern reader. People seem to take all sorts of positions on the issue, from thinking it was all innocent and simply a product of a man who was a bit socially awkward, to assuming full-blown paedophilia (interpretations closer to the latter end of the spectrum seem supported by the fact that Carroll's family members cut out and destroyed several pages of his diary which seem clearly to be about the relationship in question). I have no idea where on this spectrum I am, mainly due to ignorance of the subject, and this book didn't particularly help dispel that. Douglas-Fairhurst seems to mostly be on the "innocent" part of the spectrum, but rather than convince me, the way he would twist himself into knots trying to argue this made me suspicious.
In this section, he speculates on something Alice's sister Ina says about a time when Carroll distanced himself from the Lidells:
"Looking back on events in 1930, Ina told Alice that the biographer Florence Becker Lennon had asked her why Carroll stopped coming to the Deanery. ‘I think she tried to see if Mr. Dodgson ever wanted to marry you!!’ Ina wrote, with a double exclamation mark that perhaps indicated how ridiculous the idea was, or alternatively how close Lennon had come to stumbling upon the truth. Her next letter to her sister was equally ambiguous. ‘I said his manner became too affectionate to you as you grew older and that mother spoke to him about it,’ she explained, ‘and that offended him so he ceased coming to visit us again, as one had to find some reason for all intercourse ceasing.’ But this could indicate either that ‘his manner became too affectionate towards you’ (i.e. he behaved inappropriately), or ‘his manner became too affectionate towards you’ (i.e. I was jealous of the attention you were getting, or glad that you were attracting it rather than me). Even her final comment that ‘Mr. Dodgson used to take you on his knee. I know I did not say that!’ is not straightforward. Was she reminding Alice of a childhood secret they had shared, or complaining that Lennon had tried to put words into her mouth?"
Sorry, but what about "as you grew older" bit on the accusation that Carroll's manner towards Alice became too affectionate? That seems obvious that it wasn't the second interpretation.
And then there's this:
"Mrs Liddell might have been even more nervous if she had read Carroll’s diary entry after his final boat trip with her daughters: ‘A pleasant expedition,’ he wrote, ‘with a very pleasant conclusion.’ Was this a kiss? And if so, was it a ceremony conducted with the chaste solemnity of the Dodo giving Alice a thimble, or was it just a spontaneous muddle of mouths?"
This bit combines all I disliked about this book. How the hell do you go from Carroll saying the expedition had a "pleasant conclusion" to interpreting this means that the conclusion involved a kiss? And "spontaneous muddle of mouths"? Euwwww!! This is a little girl we're talking about!
I pushed through almost to the halfway point, but when it became clear there wasn't going to be much of a discussion at book club, I gave up.
MY GRADE: A DNF.
April 7, 2018
Here's what the book offers:
A study and a combined biographies of Lewis Carroll and Alice Lidell with the background to the Alice books and its afterlife.
Insight to Lewis Carroll: He was an oddity, a scholar of mathematics, lecturer of Christ Church, Oxford, had a curious habit of always wearing cotton gloves, extremely shy, terrified of being photographed, collected musical-boxes, liked little girls in a sentimental way, obessessed with number forty-two, made a lot of fuss about tea, bread & butter etc. etc.
A literary criticism (the author doesn't automatically jump on the paedophile bandwagon but instead present the information in an unbiased manner).
An exploration of Victorian values in relation to childhood and child eroticism and how they differ from ours, observing without judging, looking deeply into both text and lives.
Here's the controversial photo of Alice (dressed as a beggermaid) taken by Carroll:
Here's what happens to children now:
(The world gets weirder and weirder...)-------------------------------------------
January 20, 2020
Enjoyable and informative, but slightly worrying in a voyeuristic way mainly because of Mr Carroll's slightly unnerving activities. However, the activities of the subject should not be a cause to not praise the author and I found this knowledgeable without being sensational.
April 9, 2017
As a little girl, my parents read me Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it instantly became my favourite book. I was enthralled by the absurdity and madness of wonderland. I literally dreamed of talking animals and of finding the garden of live flowers. I regularly puzzled over the impossibility of crying enough tears to swim in; a baby morphing into a pig; a cat disappearing all but its smile. Undoubtably, though, the most significant thing in the book was Alice herself. I grew my hair long and put a bow in it. I repeated her phrases as I played. I related to her, and saw her as a role model.
Thirty years on, I have revisited my childhood favourite countless times and have become a collector of sorts. I have read modern reworkings, purchased souvenirs, played the computer game. And I am far from the only one. Alice remains one of the most iconic and enduring literary characters, still adored the world over. Douglas-Fairhurst's The Story of Alice goes a long way to providing a context for all this, and some way to explaining it, too.
This meticulously-researched true story works like one of Carroll's puzzles. As Douglas-Fairhurst provides the intricate pieces, we are left to make sense of them. The 'pieces' consist of Carroll's movements, art and private records before, during and after his time spent with Alice Liddell. Or, as Carroll puts it, "Memory's odd corners and shelves." The chapters are well-written, comprehensive and fascinating. Although, like the "raven and writing desk" conundrum, the 'pieces' don't conveniently slot together, and there are innumerable missing links.
Facing Carroll himself, I found myself starstruck by his fame, intimidated by his intelligence, disgusted by his snobbery yet intrigued by his psyche. Obviously a very conflicted man, some of his private thoughts and correspondences were downright uncomfortable, but necessary, to read.
From a literary perspective, I was particularly interested in Carroll's magpied influences and the way he manipulated systems of language. As Douglas-Fairhurst recognises, he was a master of "The strange being made to look familiar and the familiar becoming strange," which was, and is, of universal appeal.
On a personal level, I began delving into understanding the possible reasons for my passion and devotion to Alice. Reading The Story of Alice was like an elongated psychotherapy session, and rather cathartic.
As Alice continues to prove herself as "Victorian and modern, old and young", The Story of Alice is essential reading for anyone with a library of Carroll's works, a "We're All Mad Here" sign or a white rabbit tattoo.
Thirty years on, I have revisited my childhood favourite countless times and have become a collector of sorts. I have read modern reworkings, purchased souvenirs, played the computer game. And I am far from the only one. Alice remains one of the most iconic and enduring literary characters, still adored the world over. Douglas-Fairhurst's The Story of Alice goes a long way to providing a context for all this, and some way to explaining it, too.
This meticulously-researched true story works like one of Carroll's puzzles. As Douglas-Fairhurst provides the intricate pieces, we are left to make sense of them. The 'pieces' consist of Carroll's movements, art and private records before, during and after his time spent with Alice Liddell. Or, as Carroll puts it, "Memory's odd corners and shelves." The chapters are well-written, comprehensive and fascinating. Although, like the "raven and writing desk" conundrum, the 'pieces' don't conveniently slot together, and there are innumerable missing links.
Facing Carroll himself, I found myself starstruck by his fame, intimidated by his intelligence, disgusted by his snobbery yet intrigued by his psyche. Obviously a very conflicted man, some of his private thoughts and correspondences were downright uncomfortable, but necessary, to read.
From a literary perspective, I was particularly interested in Carroll's magpied influences and the way he manipulated systems of language. As Douglas-Fairhurst recognises, he was a master of "The strange being made to look familiar and the familiar becoming strange," which was, and is, of universal appeal.
On a personal level, I began delving into understanding the possible reasons for my passion and devotion to Alice. Reading The Story of Alice was like an elongated psychotherapy session, and rather cathartic.
As Alice continues to prove herself as "Victorian and modern, old and young", The Story of Alice is essential reading for anyone with a library of Carroll's works, a "We're All Mad Here" sign or a white rabbit tattoo.
February 23, 2017
A frustrating book to review. On one hand, the writing style is clear and engaging. The author has a lively interest in his subject and his enthusiasm comes through.
On the other, the book is so full of guess-work, supposition, occasional inaccuracy and stretching a point beyond reason that it was impossible to read without yelling every few pages. (Although, to be honest, I quite enjoyed the yelling.)
However, this book would have been much better had the writer said "it might have been," rather than "it was".
On the other, the book is so full of guess-work, supposition, occasional inaccuracy and stretching a point beyond reason that it was impossible to read without yelling every few pages. (Although, to be honest, I quite enjoyed the yelling.)
However, this book would have been much better had the writer said "it might have been," rather than "it was".
Read
February 1, 2023DNF liked so far
August 22, 2025
This is a very good book, a bit longer than it needs to be, but quite revealing and interesting. The author combines a close reading of the two "Alice" books with a deep look at the life of its author and his relationship with the 7-year-old girl who inspired the stories and scores of other young girls. What emerges is a portrait of a strange man, a genius with a frightening propensity to chase after preteen girls, and his very unconventional life and the groundbreaking, unconventional books he produced.
Most people are familiar with the "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass," the two imaginative, surreal, pun-filled satiric, fantastical children's books written in the 1860s. They have endured since then and are staples in every family's bookshelf and movie memories. Figures such as the Mad Hatter and Red Queen, as well as Alice herself, are cultural fixtures, as are lines from the books. The first book was an instant hit when published, and it became a cultural touchstone in England within a couple of years, and its fame spread rapidly to the US and then in translations across Europe. There was nothing quite like it --- an absurdist take on the world that spun your expectations upside-down over and over, dispensing an alternative wisdom throughout. The drawings that accompanied the original edition are remarkable as well, and the author of this biography says they are arguably the first illustrations ever that are integrated with text and propel it forward. That's how perfect this book is.
How it was created is as bizarre as the book itself. Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a respected Oxford math professor. A lifelong bachelor, Dodgson was also an ordained and practicing minister, not with a congregation but with responsibilities at Oxford. He was an excellent mathematician, not a genius, but a top scholar who earned lifelong housing at Oxford (though he had to pay rent) for his achievements. He was destined for a solid, if forgettable, academic career as a lecturer. ... Except he had another side to him. From an early age, he wrote poems and short stories, and he put on puppet plays for his siblings. As a young man, he was published in periodicals on a regular basis, mostly with deeply religious pieties about needing to be good and getting a reward in heaven. He loved reading, plays and puns, all of which would seem out of place for everything else he was.
So, Dodgson got in the habit of taking the little kids of his friends and acquaintances (girls and boys) on outings, or playing with them at people's homes. He told them stories, took them boating, played word games, invented games (!), had dozens of puzzles and dolls, and in general got down on the kids' level in a way that was rare for a Victorian-era adult. No kid captured his attention more than Alice Liddell, one of three daughters of the dean of Oxford. Carroll took the girls singly or together on numerous outings, and on one famous day he told them a story of a girl who fell down a rabbit hole and had adventures. Alice Liddell begged him to put it down on paper as a permanent record, and over the next couple of years he fashioned it into the tale that we know. It was hard for him, as he was inventing something new, not producing a genre he was familiar with. And the rest is history, sort of.
That is a sweet enough story and remarkable. But then you overlay the other thing that the author of this biography covers: Dodgson's/Carroll's obsession with little girls. Not only did he have lots of "friends" of preteen years, but he started photographing them soon after photography was invented. (Yes, he also became a rather accomplished photographer at a time when making even a single photo was an effort of several hours. Amazing range of accomplishments!) Sometimes, these girls were nude, with their parents' permission that he negotiated in advance. Sometimes they were figures from mythology. Sometimes they were their charming or petulant selves. The nudes raised comment when discovered, and stopped after a while. But the book makes the point that nudity of kids, especially girls, was considered an homage to Ancient Greece and also the Bible, with reference to angels, cherubs, etc. It wasn't until the 1870s or 1880s that the idea that little children had sexual thoughts became developed, and then adults started to think that seemingly innocent poses were maybe harmful to the children and inspiring wrong thoughts in other children or adults. And Carroll was swept up in some gossip about that, though there's no evidence he molested anyone. My personal take is that this author thinks Carroll knew he was uncomfortably attracted to little girls, but his integrity as a religious believer and his reticence as a man in general kept him on the right side of conduct.
Anyway, this book details all the stuff above, with lots of examples from Carroll's diaries and letters between him and others. The book also goes through the "Alice" books and Carroll's other writings with great care, pulling out so many wonderful lines and images. You feel the duality of Carroll, that he would have been charming to you as a little kid, but then tiresome and weird as you got older and more worldly. And there's evidence this is what happened, both as kids tired of him and as parents began to wonder why he was coming around so often to see their children.
I don't think that a person like Lewis Carroll could exist in many cultures except 19th century England. It was the perfection set of conditions of material wealth that allowed people leisure to create, a time of great technological and cultural change that encouraged the imagination with limitless possibilities, a repression of sexuality that had to find outlets, the emergence of Charles Darwin's theories (1859) that called so many assumptions into question and created an understanding of the world as endless competition for life (that sense of malice is evident throughout "Alice"), and a tolerance for eccentricity and love of humor. Think about America today. You couldn't have a man acting towards kids like Carroll did -- instead you have Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump as child predators. You can't live in genteel comfort, as our economy is too unstable. You can't make jokes or build a fantasy land without someone challenging you on social media. And so on. The world isn't the forgiving, naive place it was in the 19th century (despite the huge hardships and cruelties of the time as well), but the success of fantasies such as "Harry Potter" show that we wish it was.
Most people are familiar with the "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass," the two imaginative, surreal, pun-filled satiric, fantastical children's books written in the 1860s. They have endured since then and are staples in every family's bookshelf and movie memories. Figures such as the Mad Hatter and Red Queen, as well as Alice herself, are cultural fixtures, as are lines from the books. The first book was an instant hit when published, and it became a cultural touchstone in England within a couple of years, and its fame spread rapidly to the US and then in translations across Europe. There was nothing quite like it --- an absurdist take on the world that spun your expectations upside-down over and over, dispensing an alternative wisdom throughout. The drawings that accompanied the original edition are remarkable as well, and the author of this biography says they are arguably the first illustrations ever that are integrated with text and propel it forward. That's how perfect this book is.
How it was created is as bizarre as the book itself. Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a respected Oxford math professor. A lifelong bachelor, Dodgson was also an ordained and practicing minister, not with a congregation but with responsibilities at Oxford. He was an excellent mathematician, not a genius, but a top scholar who earned lifelong housing at Oxford (though he had to pay rent) for his achievements. He was destined for a solid, if forgettable, academic career as a lecturer. ... Except he had another side to him. From an early age, he wrote poems and short stories, and he put on puppet plays for his siblings. As a young man, he was published in periodicals on a regular basis, mostly with deeply religious pieties about needing to be good and getting a reward in heaven. He loved reading, plays and puns, all of which would seem out of place for everything else he was.
So, Dodgson got in the habit of taking the little kids of his friends and acquaintances (girls and boys) on outings, or playing with them at people's homes. He told them stories, took them boating, played word games, invented games (!), had dozens of puzzles and dolls, and in general got down on the kids' level in a way that was rare for a Victorian-era adult. No kid captured his attention more than Alice Liddell, one of three daughters of the dean of Oxford. Carroll took the girls singly or together on numerous outings, and on one famous day he told them a story of a girl who fell down a rabbit hole and had adventures. Alice Liddell begged him to put it down on paper as a permanent record, and over the next couple of years he fashioned it into the tale that we know. It was hard for him, as he was inventing something new, not producing a genre he was familiar with. And the rest is history, sort of.
That is a sweet enough story and remarkable. But then you overlay the other thing that the author of this biography covers: Dodgson's/Carroll's obsession with little girls. Not only did he have lots of "friends" of preteen years, but he started photographing them soon after photography was invented. (Yes, he also became a rather accomplished photographer at a time when making even a single photo was an effort of several hours. Amazing range of accomplishments!) Sometimes, these girls were nude, with their parents' permission that he negotiated in advance. Sometimes they were figures from mythology. Sometimes they were their charming or petulant selves. The nudes raised comment when discovered, and stopped after a while. But the book makes the point that nudity of kids, especially girls, was considered an homage to Ancient Greece and also the Bible, with reference to angels, cherubs, etc. It wasn't until the 1870s or 1880s that the idea that little children had sexual thoughts became developed, and then adults started to think that seemingly innocent poses were maybe harmful to the children and inspiring wrong thoughts in other children or adults. And Carroll was swept up in some gossip about that, though there's no evidence he molested anyone. My personal take is that this author thinks Carroll knew he was uncomfortably attracted to little girls, but his integrity as a religious believer and his reticence as a man in general kept him on the right side of conduct.
Anyway, this book details all the stuff above, with lots of examples from Carroll's diaries and letters between him and others. The book also goes through the "Alice" books and Carroll's other writings with great care, pulling out so many wonderful lines and images. You feel the duality of Carroll, that he would have been charming to you as a little kid, but then tiresome and weird as you got older and more worldly. And there's evidence this is what happened, both as kids tired of him and as parents began to wonder why he was coming around so often to see their children.
I don't think that a person like Lewis Carroll could exist in many cultures except 19th century England. It was the perfection set of conditions of material wealth that allowed people leisure to create, a time of great technological and cultural change that encouraged the imagination with limitless possibilities, a repression of sexuality that had to find outlets, the emergence of Charles Darwin's theories (1859) that called so many assumptions into question and created an understanding of the world as endless competition for life (that sense of malice is evident throughout "Alice"), and a tolerance for eccentricity and love of humor. Think about America today. You couldn't have a man acting towards kids like Carroll did -- instead you have Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump as child predators. You can't live in genteel comfort, as our economy is too unstable. You can't make jokes or build a fantasy land without someone challenging you on social media. And so on. The world isn't the forgiving, naive place it was in the 19th century (despite the huge hardships and cruelties of the time as well), but the success of fantasies such as "Harry Potter" show that we wish it was.
August 6, 2015
How much you enjoy this book will be directly in proportion to your interest in the subject matter. If, like me, you are slightly obsessed with Alice and all things Carroll, then you will find much to love here. If not...well, you've been warned.
But if you are interested, there's so much great stuff in here. It does an admirable job at trying to parse out the life and times of Charles Dodgson, Oxford professor, author, and unusual person. Douglas-Fairhurst doesn't shy away from any potential controversies, and puts everything into the proper historical context.
But this is the story of Alice, not just Carroll, and so even after Dodgson's death, the book continues, completing first the life of Alice Hargraves, and then the continuing life of her fictional counterpart.
As I said, if any of this interests you, expect to enjoy the book a great deal. I can't say that I would recommend it to anyone otherwise.
But if you are interested, there's so much great stuff in here. It does an admirable job at trying to parse out the life and times of Charles Dodgson, Oxford professor, author, and unusual person. Douglas-Fairhurst doesn't shy away from any potential controversies, and puts everything into the proper historical context.
But this is the story of Alice, not just Carroll, and so even after Dodgson's death, the book continues, completing first the life of Alice Hargraves, and then the continuing life of her fictional counterpart.
As I said, if any of this interests you, expect to enjoy the book a great deal. I can't say that I would recommend it to anyone otherwise.
June 5, 2016
I should propbably start my review by stating that I have never read a biography before. I think it may have been the case that I was put off by their inevitable endings. However, when this book turned up at work, I just had to get it.
I have always had a fascination with Alice in Wonderland. The stories have been with me since I was very young and still hold great interest for me in my 20's as I imagine they always will. Naturally curiosity pulled me in.
I have a love of victorian literature but Lewis Carroll holds a special interest for me.
Unfortunately, most of what I know of his life has been based off hearsay or gossip until this point. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has compiled a wonderfully written account of the lives of both author and muse. It was a fascinating read and, although it took me a while to get through, I'm so glad I did.
I look forward to exploring more of his work in the future.
I have always had a fascination with Alice in Wonderland. The stories have been with me since I was very young and still hold great interest for me in my 20's as I imagine they always will. Naturally curiosity pulled me in.
I have a love of victorian literature but Lewis Carroll holds a special interest for me.
Unfortunately, most of what I know of his life has been based off hearsay or gossip until this point. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has compiled a wonderfully written account of the lives of both author and muse. It was a fascinating read and, although it took me a while to get through, I'm so glad I did.
I look forward to exploring more of his work in the future.
February 1, 2016
I have long had a love affair with all things Alice in Wonderland and while I had a passing knowledge of Lewis Carroll, most of the history of the books was unknown to me.
I'm not a huge biography fan, or non fiction reader but this book was enthralling. It is do much more than a simple biography. It is a history of the book, the author's life that led to it, and how the books built their place in the world.
It was fascinating to discover all of the links to the books that exist. This book was very obviously well researched and it was a fascinating insight into a very interesting author, and his creations.
I can highly recommend this book of you have any interest in Alice in Wonderland.
I'm not a huge biography fan, or non fiction reader but this book was enthralling. It is do much more than a simple biography. It is a history of the book, the author's life that led to it, and how the books built their place in the world.
It was fascinating to discover all of the links to the books that exist. This book was very obviously well researched and it was a fascinating insight into a very interesting author, and his creations.
I can highly recommend this book of you have any interest in Alice in Wonderland.
July 14, 2015
A very slow read. Lots of detail but also lots of speculation as the early like of the author we know as Lewis Carroll which was not very well documented. This lets the author guess as to some of the motivations and rationalizations of why / how Carroll developed his style. We learn of his quirks and habits and how these formulated his tales for Alice and her family and friends. We learn a good deal about Alice and her influence upon and reaction to the Carroll stories she plays a role in. Dry at time and then very humorous as we get a picture of this man and Victorian times that he was sometimes the best example of and at other times at odds with.
July 28, 2015
If I had been an English lit major I would have enjoyed parts of this more but the detail on Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass was more than I wanted to know. However, the personal lives of Carroll and the real Alice were very interesting and worth the time to read the book. I had no idea the influence Carroll's works had on literature both Victorian and modern as well as the careers of Roy and Walt Disney.
August 17, 2015
I cannot understand how someone can take the story of the writing of Alice in Wonderland and make it so tedious and uninteresting, with an overload of unnecessary information. After describing historical events coinciding with the life of Lewis Carroll in a flat journalistic style, the author then makes fanciful remarks like, "It must have seemed like a WONDERLAND," and other speculative theories about inspirations for different aspects of the Alice Adventures.
October 15, 2019
A very in depth and unbiased exploration of Rev. C Dodgson. Not a casual biography, but for people with a genuine interest. Occasionally waxes lyrical when it could be more succinct, and lacking in detail in some surprising areas (although this may be as much dur to lack of existing information as anything else)
February 15, 2016
Excellent book - very thought provoking. Paints a(n incomplete) picture of an elusive man & asks more questions of the reader than it answers! That given, it really is a fascinating insight into his life & also to the era in which he lived.
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