Earlier biographies of the man who became Lewis Carroll,
author of many books including Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, tend
to emphasize the friendships he had with young girls and
cast a sleazy shadow over his life, perhaps in search of
sensationalism and thus a greater readership. Those authors
saw Carroll's life through the filter of their own time
period without making the slightest attempt to reconcile
their beliefs with what is known about the era and culture
that birthed him or even acknowledging any facts or ephemera
that might have challenged their thesis. The books seem to
be all about the authors' sensibilities and were more
flights of fancy than a simple discovery of Carroll's life.
Jenny Woolf has taken the innovative and sensible approach
of examining the documents and facts of the Reverend Charles
Lutwidge Dodgeson's (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll's) life through
the lens of what we know of Victorian English culture and
mores. The result is illuminating. In the process of her
research she discovered new documentation that is beyond
reproach and that provides a glimpse into what was truly
important to Reverend Dodgeson. THE MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL
examines his family life, the very real restrictions his
position at Christ Church put around his world, as well as
the interest he had in photography, then a very new medium
of artistry. His lesser-known works are also discussed, the
existing diaries examined, and some hypotheses are
constructed regarding why some of his papers were destroyed
by his siblings after his death.
Woolf has laid out a clear-cut and eminently readable
portrait of a man who was never clearly understood; not by
his contemporaries, and certainly not by those of us who
only know him through his beloved children's books.
Refreshing, engrossing and extremely well-documented, any
lover of the Alice in Wonderland stories will delight in
this book and being able to learn more about the man who
created them. The subtitle says it all: "Discovering the
Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created
Alice in Wonderland."
Lewis Carroll was secretive and self contradictory,
revelling in double meanings, false reflections and
puzzles. From "Alice in Wonderland"'s first appearance in
1865, he shunned personal publicity, and used the
Victorian equivalent of "spin" to conceal himself from the
world. After his death, his huge family censored and
destroyed many private documents.
This book shines a light onto the living, breathing,
unusual and sometimes exasperating human being that they
tried to hide.
Although the elusiveness and strangeness of Carroll's
personality is acknowledged, he is shown as a real human
being who lived, breathed and had a life.
The book contains a chapter on Carroll's personal bank
account - material discovered by the author. This
document, covering over forty years, casts hitherto unseen
and unconsidered light upon Carroll's life.
The book also uses previously unpublished letters from
Alice's sister to help unravel the reason why Carroll's
friendship with the Liddell family came to an end.
THE MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL shows that Alice Liddell was
not the "Alice" of the books, although she was the reason
that they were written.
•It gives clues to a secret which dominated (and in some
ways ruined) Carroll's personal life.
•It shows how a man previously thought to be a minor
acquaintance got Carroll into major trouble - trouble
which was never mentioned in his diaries.
•It illuminates and sets into historical context the topic
of Carroll's love of little girls, which, though unusual,
was not paedophiliac.
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