New essay series on this blog coming in October...

for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them.

I know it isn't anywhere near October yet but in October a new essay series will crop up occasionally on this blog.

"Several nice little histories: Cautionary tales" will look at the most popular genre of children's literature in Dodgson's lifetime: the cautionary tale. 

This will tie in with another essay series which I hope to do early next year, which will look at children's literature before Carroll's Alice.

"several nice little histories..." will look at tales ranging from the 17th century, through the Victorian era and to the present day (well, the 1990s) 

I've had a longstanding love of this genre so its great to finally share it with you all! 

For bilingual readers, only Slovenly Peter by Heinrich Hoffmann has been translated into other languages. hopefully I can do my best to convey what the others are like! 

The books I'll be looking at are Vice in Its Proper Shape by Anonymous, Chapbooks the Pink Slippers and The Old Man's Story, Slovenly Peter by Heinrich Hoffmann and Jamie Rix's Grizzly Tales for gruesome Kids. 

This will start on October 1st with an essay each week until Halloween! 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy July the 4th!

Here's some of Dodgson's first sketches for Alice's adventures Underground. 

Summer of  1862. 

Charles Dodgson  is telling the ‘Alice’  story to the three famous sisters, Ina, Alice and Edith Liddell,  while  on their famous river-trips.  Indications are the girls  loved  the tale and were always begging for new instalments, but that Dodgson was less enthusiastic (on one occasion he calls  it the ‘interminable’ Alice’s Adventures, and is peeved because he wants to sing them a new song he just made up instead). At around the same time Alice asks him to write her story down. He promises he will do so.

(Essay quote from Karoline Leach) 

 

I have great respect for many biographers and a high regard for a few. But some just didn't do their homework.

Dodgson himself must take some of the blame. His rigorous attempts to protect his privacy and to shun all forms of publicity made successive generations suspect that he had something to hide - some dark secret that if revealed would tarnish his reputation for ever - some dreadful error of judgement that would cause society to shun him - or some awful characteristic that would repel even the most broad-minded of souls. He had a public name but not a public face.
After his death, the custodians of his literary estate did little to release the truth. They followed the social sensitivities of the late Victorian and early Edwardian age - the private life of Lewis Carroll was not for public consumption. His literary legacy fared badly - many of his papers and personal effects were destroyed in the name of haste and expediency, but other motives were in play. Highly important documents were removed from the scope of future research - his 24 volume letter register containing summaries of all correspondence received and sent since 1860, his complete photographic catalogue of all pictures taken from 1856 to 1880, the drafts and proofs of many publications, and parts of his thirteen volume diary.

So biographers are bereft of key primary source material. But to indulge in highly spurious speculation is not the way forward.

Edward Wakeling, 2003. 

Alice Liddell was a gifted little model, as she succeeded triumphantly in engaging with the viewer and compelling attention to her role. Those who see nothing in this picture but a provocative, scantly clad nympet, are perhaps imposing their own modern anxieties and preoccupations on the image, (…)

“The Mystery of Lewis Carroll”, Jenny Woolf (2010)

Jenny Woolf quote via my good friend Ravenwitch, photography by Charles Dodgson.