Amazon.com
This beautiful, 868-page leather-bound volume contains a delightfulcollection of stories from one of history's most beloved children's authors.Lewis Carroll's stories are still as fresh and appealing as when they were firstpublished more than a century ago. John Tenniel's original illustrationsaccompany the Alice stories and bring to life the wildly popular characters sowell known to us all: the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, and apassel of others.

Carroll, one of 11 children, knows his audience well. His stories--clever,provocative, and bizarre--capture the imaginations of children worldwide. Thougha prolific storyteller from childhood, he went on to become a mathematician, a fact evidenced by the Tangled Tales serial, which contains amathematical equation in each installment.

Other stories included in this collection are "The Hunting of theSnark," which was composed backward, in a sense, when inspiration for thetale came by way of the last line; "Rhyme? And Reason?"; the Sylvieand Bruno books; and the original Alice story, "Alice's AdventuresUnderground," penned and illustrated in Carroll's own hand. Two never-before-printed poems, originally inscribed in two storybooks and presented asmementos to a little girl and boy, conclude this enchanting collection.Book Description
This deluxe edition includes all of Carroll's major fiction and poetry, including Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, the facsimile of the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground in Carroll's handwriting and with his own drawings.Also included are a biographical chronology of Lewis Carroll's life, and a selected biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

...down the rabbit hole
This book is really for the person who is really into Carroll and will read through all of his works. It's a thick volume and is useful to me, but this is because i am writing a book so i'm probably not the best judge since i have to read all of the collected works.

Another astute reviewer said, "Do you really want all of the collected works?" But for the price, i say, you may as well buy the book, then you can see what you like and skip around. Who is to say or dictate that you must read cover to cover. You may find there are writings of Caroll thatyou didn't know about before - such as his poetry and so on.

I own the book and find it very handy for reference but also as a genral book of interst. It's also a good gift book for adults and children alike and is a handsome volume and is not muddled up with annotations like many of Carroll's books are these days, which is fine, but more for the scholar. This is the perfect book to dip into and again, a good gift book and as a former publisher i can tell you that the price-point is excellent for what you get here. A bargain.

If you like Carroll's Alice books, you may as well buy this since it will cost you more or as much to buy both of them. This way, you get both Alice books and then some. There is an argumnt right there.


sadi ranson-polizzotti

Very poor service from Amazon
I This ordered this item back in Oct.It is now Feb, and I have not yet gotten my book.I just keep getting email telling me that the deliver date has been moved back.This has to be among the worse service I have ever got from from a retailer.As for the book, I really can't say anything about it because I haven't got it yet.

item not available
I ordered this item in September 2005, and after multiple extensions, Amazon let me know last week (Feb 2006) that this item was no longer available. They should be taking this item off their listing -- it is a great book to have, but regrettably unavailable.

Do you really want the complete works!
'The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works, Deluxe Edition' of lewis Carroll's works may actually be more than you really want. While three of Carroll's works, the two Alice fantasy novels and the long poem, 'The Hunting of the Snark' are major classics of English literature, Carroll wrote an equal or greater amount of pretty dull stuff, primarily the two 'Sylvia and Bruno' novels, which I have never been able to finish.

On the plus side, the fact that this edition is 'fully illustrated', meaning that it has both John Tenniel's illustrations for the Alice stories AND Henry Holiday's illustrations for 'Snark'. Even so, you may just be better off buying just the annotated versions of the Alice stories and the annotated Snark.

Forewarned is forearmed!

Kinda disappointed
Of course, it is very nice to have pretty much every Carroll work you could want in one volume, however there is one major drawback here.While the blue leather binding and gold gilt text and page edges are quite nice, I found the actual pages to be a very low quality thin paper.Also, the margins are very small, cramming alot of text on each page, while the paper and print quality actually take away a minor of the illustration detail.Overall, not a bad collection, yet I think "The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll"thru B&N is superior even without the bells and whistles.

MK ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

More gems from a master
Lewis Carroll was of course one of the greatest and most influential children's writers who ever lived.He was also a mathematics lecturer at Oxford who wrote excellent books on logic.It has been said that these were two halves of a split personality, but this book is proof that they were not.Here are some wonderful puzzles that unite the children's writer and the mathematician, and will appeal to everyone who has the slightest trace of mathematical ability.Edward Wakeling, a noted authority on Lewis Carroll and himself a mathematician, has done a good job assembling this book. ... Read more

Book Description
Under the pen name Lewis Carroll, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson became a legend for his children's books, which broke the constraints of Victorian moralism. Thirty years in the writing and drawn from a voluminous fund of letters and diaries, this exemplary biography conveys both the imaginative fancy and human complexity of the creator of Alice in Wonderland. Photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Curiouser and Curiouser
Lewis Carroll: A biography

Morton Cohen's biography of Charles Dodson ("Lewis Carroll") is an insightful examination of a complex and flawed man.Dodson (1832-1898) was an English clergyman, mathematician, writer and photographer.He is better known to us as the author of "Alice and Wonderland."A prolific correspondent, Dodson wrote thousands of letters and kept extensive diaries, many of which are included in Cohen's book. But there are several gaps in the narrative: his diaries from 1858-1862 are missing, and many pages have been excised with a razor from the remaining ones.
Dodson apparently was a man whose conscience bothered him; his diaries contain countless references to "impure thoughts" and temptations, which might be traced to his inordinate fondness for pre-pubescent girls.
Dodson made no secret of his affection for children, spending hours in their company, buying them gifts, and photographing them "au naturel."Cohen writes: "ever in the company of children as he grew, he became accustomed not only to their presence but also to their childish ways.In time, perhaps through a combination of biological, spiritual, and psychological forces, this interest developed into a need, an essential component of his own happiness."But this affection, which in today's world would be ascribed to nascent pedophilia, was apparently chaste and innocent. Whatever its origin, it made for memorable literature."Alice" stands as a monument to the Victorian idealization of the child and to the imagination of one man.

What now?
This book seems dated now and we need a new edition as another reviewer has said. The commentary on Alice Liddell needs to be updated following Leach's work.Some of the claims he makes have been shown to be based on dubious data or to be mistaken, and he needs to modify his text to take account of that. But in many other ways this book is indispensible.

A 5-star portrait with 4-star information
The only real negative about this beautiful and compassionate portrait is the fact that there is some newer information that conflicts with some of what is present in this book.Another edition of the book to address these issues would be welcome, but that doesn't mean this book is obsolete!It is still a very interesting and well-written account of the life of C. L. Dodgson, the man who would become better known as Lewis Carroll, and this book shouldn't go overlooked.If you are only mildly interested (or perhaps not very much at all) in the subject, you will likely find that this book is capable of holding your attention until the end.An excellent starting point for budding Carrollians, but less an excellent *ending*.

Cohen has so many questions to answer
Cohen's book was seriously challenged by the publication of Karoline Leach's 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild'. WeCarrollians have been waiting for five years now for Cohen to update his book in response. He needs to do so.

Is he going to rebut Leach's claims that the whole in-love-with-Alice-story is a myth? What is his response to the amazing discovery of the 'cut pages in diary' document? What does he say to Leach's claims that Dodgson befriended numerous adult women and was probably sexually normal?

I for one and many like me are very keen to know where this debate is going. Mr Cohen has promised a reply 'soon'. But when is 'soon?'

We need an updated version of this book. Until then I have to give the book just two stars, though I'd like to give more.

a lyrical work on a complex man
I first picked up this book from the local library as a ninth grader not even particularly fond of the Alice books- I think I just liked the cover. I ended up checking the book out many times afterwards, reading and rereading it. This book is beautifully written, and paints a fair and thorough picture of a quietly tormented genius. I would recommend this book to anyone, not just "Alice" lovers. ... Read more

Book Description
The Mad Hatter, the Ugly Duchess, the Mock Turtle, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat-characters each more eccentric than the last, and that could only have come from Lewis Carroll, the master of sublime nonsense. In these two brilliant burlesques he created two of the most famous and fantastic novels of all time that not only stirred our imagination but revolutionized literature.

• Featuring the exquisite line drawings created for the original edition ... Read more

Customer Reviews (77)

Excellent Book
This is a book I loved as a child and when I read it now, I find I still enjoy it as much. Great for children and for grown ups as well. Well worth buying.

Boring
I dont get why old books like these are called "classics". I've seen the cartoon as a kid and wanted to read the original book to see what made it so special. Now I know that its not special. Its a lot of nonsense, thats a little creative, but nothing that really takes you away from reality. A lot of the characters are unique, but only appear for a brief period and aren't fully developed (or even partialy).
Usually I'm a bad critic because its easy for me to enjoy anything, but I've had a tough time getting through this one, I dont even think its a good childrens book, they'll say the same thing I do. BORING. Save the $3 and buy yourself a cup of coffee, you'll find yourself more entertained with measuring out the sugar and cream and more satisfied to sip on that than to power through this.

One of the best books ever
I am fonder of Through the Looking Glass than Alice in Wonderland, perhaps because of less exposure (e.g., Disney and other commercial venues). The drawings by Tenniel are brilliant and add the right flavor to the story. The book is well-written, surreal with bizarre, fascinating characters (whom a little girl has to figure out), unique situations, word play, puzzles and a mocking irreverent tone towards high society.Whenever as an adult I'd hit a snag and couldn't read, I would always pull out this one and it would put me back on track again. Another I will treasure for the memories of sharing it with my kid.

alice review
I thought it was funny and entertaining, but to be honest I was expecting something in the line of a masterpiece and I'm a little disappointed. The story is amazingly childish and crude and the worthwhile parts are very distinct and separate from the rest of the lackluster story. Still, the wordplay is ingenious and the book is an all around treat.

"If You Believe in Me, I'll Believe in You!"
When Charles Ludwig Dodgson first began to tell the story of Alice's adventures underground to the three Liddell sisters, he had no idea whatsoever the impact that his work would one day have in the cultural history of humanity. Is there a person alive in Western civilization that *doesn't* know of Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat? I seriously doubt it. Writing under the pen name of Lewis Carroll, Dodgson's quirky fairytale soon became a publishing sensation in Victorian England, quite an unusual feat for a dour mathematician who had no interest whatsoever in boys, women or most other human beings, and instead lavishing his attention on little girls - particularly one Alice Liddell, to whom he presented the original manuscript to. The story of Lewis Carroll is just as fascinating as his fictional Alice, so I would suggest following up the "Alice" books with a good Carroll biography.

In a story that is so random (basically made up of one little girl wandering about in a dream) there is plenty of room for all sorts of crazy theories as to exactly what everything means. Does "Alice" have a deep subtext, filled with hidden meaning and messages? Is it Freudian? Elaborate satire? Does it reflect the deep internal frustrations, anxieties and wish-fulfillment of a slightly-disturbed mathematician obsessed with little girls? Or is it simply a series of weird and wonderful events dreamed up for the enjoyment of children? The fact that nobody is really sure *what* to make of this story is probably the reason why it's still published, read and discussed today.

The other reason is its historical value. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was the first book designed for children that was entirely void of any sort of moral, and instead written solely for pure entertainment purposes. Before "Alice", children were stuck with stories that preached goodliness and virtue, something that Carroll himself pokes fun at during the course of the story, when he refers to "several nice little stories 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 told them." His stories came like an unexpected breath of fresh air amongst Victorian society, and it was little wonder that adults as well as children helped to make "Alice" a bestseller during its day.

Another crucial feature to the tale is Alice herself, often considered the first realistic representation of a child in literature. She's curious, but sometimes a little shy. She's polite, but manners often give way to frustration and temper tantrums. She's intelligent, but not as intelligent as she would like to think she is (relying heavily on an education that often fails her). She often holds her own against the contradictory natures of the people she meets, but more often than not is baffled and belittled by them. She possesses some degree of common sense, but often does some remarkably stupid things. She's likeable, but she's also a bit of a show-off and a snob. In other words, she's the first (and perhaps the best) example of a three-dimensional child character in literature geared toward either children *or* adults.

"Alice in Wonderland" begins with the infamous sight of a white rabbit with a waistcoat and pocket-watch muttering to himself: "I'm late! I'm late!" Abandoning her sister and the dull book that she's reading, Alice follows the rabbit down a rabbit hole and unexpectedly finds herself drifting deep down underground. What follows is a series of weird and wonderful meetings with the likes of the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat and the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle, as poor Alice - the only sane person in the madhouse - struggles to make herself heard against this twisted parody of the adult world.

Nearly every page contains a clever pun, nonsensical poem or mathematical puzzle, and there's plenty here to keep you fascinated, whether it be Alice's abrupt shrinking and growing (brought on by eating Wonderland food, and perhaps reflecting Carroll's desire to control the growth of his young protagonist), the beautiful garden that Alice cannot seem to reach (and when she does, she finds it not quite to her liking, perhaps suggesting a reverse-Eden, in which children desiring adulthood soon realize that it's not quite what they expected it to be) or Alice's internal crisis in which she debates whether the surreal circumstances she's found herself in have resulted in her loosing her own identity (I won't even try to open the jar on *that* one!) No wonder scholars can go mad trying to untangle this tale! Even the fact that the story succumbs to the ultimate cliché in fantasy-fiction, the ending that will reward you with an F if you use it in a creative-writing exercise at school (I am of course, referring to the fact that Alice wakes up at the conclusion of the story to find that it was just a dream), doesn't damage the power of Carroll's imaginative force.

"Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There" is a little more structured in terms of its storyline, perhaps because Carroll was not simply making most of it up on the spot, as he had done with its predecessor. This time, when Alice falls asleep, she crawls through the mirror on the top of the mantelpiece and into the room on the other side. There she finds a land organized into the shape of a giant chessboard, in which Alice herself is a little pawn that must journey to the end of the board if she wishes to become a Queen. On the way she meets several chess pieces, including the Red and White Queen, and the White Knight (widely believed to represent Carroll himself), as well as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, a garden of living flowers, and the Lion and the Unicorn, the latter of whom famously tells Alice: "If you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you." My favourite chapter would have to be the one that involves the ludicrously pompous Humpty Dumpty (who is really the one who coined the term "un-birthday", not the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as the Disney version would have you believe), though equally memorable is the intriguing episode when Alice happens upon the sleeping Red King, and is told that he's dreaming of her. Is Alice in the Red King's dream, or is the Red King in Alice's dream? What should happen if one of them should wake up before the other? It's a disturbing metaphysical conundrum, and hints at the depths with which a scholar (or deep-thinking child) could delve into these stories.

Of course, not every child will enjoy the "Alice" stories. What was once vividly imaginative and innovative for a stifled Victorian audience has long since become commonplace in children's fiction, and the randomness with which the adventures take place can often unsettle young listeners (as they certainly did me, as I always felt that Alice was caught inside a nightmare). However, others will delight in the madness that abounds throughout the story, and others still will learn to appreciate the work as they get older. There are hundreds of editions out there, most probably quite as good as the next, but I would encourage buyers to track down an edition with John Tenniel's famous illustrations - you simply cannot read the "Alice" books when they are not accompanied by Tenniel's portrayal of his demure little Alice, with her hooded eyes and large forehead. It would be like reading C. S. Lewis without Pauline Baynes, or Roald Dahl without Quentin Blake. Unthinkable! ... Read more

Book Description
Everything that Lewis Carroll ever published in book form appears in this volume. In addition, at least ten of the shorter pieces have never appeared in print except in their original editions. Included are: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" "Through the Looking-Glass" "Sylvie and Bruno" "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded" "The Hunting of the Snark" & all of the poetry, essays, phantasmagoria along with a substantial collection of the miscellaneous writings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Do you really need 'complete'
'The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works, Deluxe Edition' of lewis Carroll's works may actually be more than you really want. While three of Carroll's works, the two Alice fantasy novels and the long poem, 'The Hunting of the Snark' are major classics of English literature, Carroll wrote an equal or greater amount of pretty dull stuff, primarily the two 'Sylvia and Bruno' novels, which I have never been able to finish.

My suggestion to all but the Carroll scholar and people who want to see his logical works is to buy the annotated versions of the two Alice novels and the annotated 'Snark', all annotated by Martin Gardiner. This way, you are also guaranteed of getting Henry Holiday's illustrations for 'The Hunting of the Snark', which are not in all 'Complete' collections.

Good but not complete
On the plus side, this book contains loads of stuff by Lewis Carroll as well as the two Alice books.Not much is of the same quality, but quite a lot is well worth having.However, be aware that the title is misleading.Quite a lot that Lewis Carroll wrote is not here, as can be seen by doing a search for books by "Carroll, Lewis" and comparing that with the contents.It includes some material that appeared under his real name or pseudonyms other than Lewis Carroll, but few will grumble at that.Although all the wonderful illustrations by Tenniel for the Alice books are here (albeit not always clearly reproduced), no other illustrations are included.For some works, such as The Hunting of the Snark, the illustrations commissioned by Carroll are excellent and their omission is a serious drawback.However, for all lovers of the Alice books who want to read more by the author, this is a fair and inexpensive starting point.

wonderful
All of Lewis Carroll's books are great. And finaly you can have all of them together in one big book. A must have for everybody! ... Read more

Amazon.com
Yes, this is the Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice in Wonderland, and these two works show the same quirky humor. Here you see Carroll the mathematician at his playful best. Don't let the title of the first work mislead you--this isn't about modern symbolic logic but about ways of expressing classical logic with symbols. It's loaded with amusing problems to delight any mathematical puzzler. In the second work he turns logic into a game played with diagrams and colored counters, giving you hundreds of challenging and witty syllogisms to solve. Great mind-stretching fun.Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Symbolic logic still useful
Probably is not often taught any more as it has been replaced by other methods, still has use because it teaches alternate methods and formats of solving logic problems.Since this book was not written recently the language can be a bit confusing, but otherwise is a quick and somewhat enjoyable read.

This ain't Wonderland

Some books you read to relax, some to learn, and some...well, some will make you think and wonder and grow. This is one of those.

The problems here have been around for more than a century, and yet they are still as effective in teaching logic as the day they were written.

If you are getting ready for the LSAT, this is not a bad place to start. If you just want to tease your intellect, this is a great source for hours of amusement.

Reminds us that math can be FUN
Math is fun, but the rhetoric of most 'taught' (probably an overstatement) math (and, by extension, logic) is so incredibly dry that the forest is rarely seen for the bark on the trees. But here Carroll, with tongue lodgedfirmly in cheek, turns the rhetoric (and by extension, the way we thinkabout math problems) on its ear, and the result is an often incrediblyfunny approach to math and logic problems which stays with you andultimately worms its way into your quotidian. I'll also say that, as anatrociously poor student in high school, this book allowed me to ace theSATs, and then ten years later the GREs.

great book to teach logic to children
This book by Lewis Carroll is a wonderful source to learn the basics of logic in a funny and natural way. It can be used as a self-study guide or as a manual for educators teaching elements of logic to schoolchildren. It is very clear and consequent and gives the basic idea of propositionsand syllogisms. The theory is framed in an unusual game that makes it muchmore understandable.As always Carroll's examples are a little bitabsurdic but this is exactly what makes them humorous, attractive andinvolving. The book is also a great brain teaser for readers of all ages. Unfortunately it is not as well known as Alice in Wonderland but it hasbeen translated into many foreign languages. I widely used the Russaintranslation when teaching logic to schoolchildren in St. Petersburg,Russia. Currently being a doctoral student in the States I try to introduceit to my colleagues. ... Read more

Book Description
Contained in this volume are the two classics by Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass." We are first introduced to Alice in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" where we find Alice idly passing away the time next to a river when she sees a white rabbit pass by in a waistcoat. She follows the rabbit down the rabbit hole and ends up in the fantasy world of Wonderland. Alice's adventures are continued in "Through the Looking Glass" when Alice passes through a mirror to find herself in yet another magical place. Carroll's Alice novels are ripe with fantastical imagery that will delight readers both young and old. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If you could give 6 stars, this book would have it!
This book is my all time favorite book! In the beginning it's a little hard to follow, but keep reading and you're hooked! I love how the childern are the stars of the book. The way Bruno talks is soo cute! This booktouches on very natural things, but it presents them in a wonderfullydifferent view. It has a feel to it that no other book has. The plot isthere, but it's very vague so that the book is very relaxed andopen-minded. If you like Sylvie and Bruno, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded is amust! My favorite part of the book is how wonderfully it concludes andleaves you perfectly content, yet a little bit of wonder still lingers.From all angles, this book is one of a kind! ... Read more

Book Description
This commemorative oversized volume of the complete collection of stories and poems of Lewis Carol showcases his ingenious use of word play, inverted logic and satire. Lewis Carroll was the pen name and, it could be claimed, the alter ego of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematician, writer and photographer. His creations, especially Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, have been translated into countless languages and are as loved now as they have ever been. His neologisms ("curiouser and curiouser") and turns of phrase have forever infiltrated and enriched our language and culture. ... Read more

Book Description

Long before he published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll" to the world) took up photography as a hobby. Unlike most of the other amateurs in his circle, he persevered to become a dedicated, prolific, and remarkably gifted photographer, creating approximately 3,000 images during his twenty-five years of photographic activity. This handsomely designed volume makes clear the remarkable extent and complexity of Carroll's photographic art. It publishes for the first time the world's finest and most extensive collection of Carroll photographs, many of which have never been reproduced before and are unknown even to committed Carroll enthusiasts.

Roger Taylor's thorough and sophisticated discussion of Carroll as a photographic artist and as a prominent member of Victorian society reveals the man as never before, illuminating his relationships with the children he photographed in light of the idealism and social conventions of the day. This text, illustrated with exquisite tritone plates, is followed by Edward Wakeling's fully illustrated and thoroughly annotated catalogue of the entire Princeton University Library collection. It features, in addition to a trove of loose prints, four rare albums made by Carroll himself to showcase his work to friends, family, and potential sitters. Reproduced in album order, these images offer new insight into how Carroll thought about his work--and how he wanted it to be seen.

Compelling portraits of Alice Liddell and other children are presented alongside those of eminent Victorians such as Alfred Tennyson and William Holman Hunt, as well as evocative landscapes, narrative tableaux, and wonderfully strange studies of anatomical skeletons. The catalogue is followed by a chronological register of every known Carroll photograph--a remarkable resource for anyone studying his career as a photographer.

This sumptuous volume is the definitive work on Carroll's photography. All who admire Carroll and his writing, as well as everyone interested in Victorian England or the history of photography, will find it both essential and irresistible.

Customer Reviews (4)

G-RATED. SUITABLE FOR COFFEE TABLE OR KIDS
The photos of the kids are remarkable,All are lovely, and some show faces filled with determination, as the one of Alice as begger girl or another child as little Red Riding Hood.There is a single, dignified semi-nude of a 20 plus year old girl by another phoographer.

Children who read or have read to them the story of Alice (God forbid the
horror by Disney) may look upon the face of the real Alice as child.The book is quite suitable for children.There is not the slightest hint of
the lurid.

When children have the stories explained as logical absurdities, in an unacademical way, they remember.Dodgson was at least highly talented, perhaps a genius; his genius or talent shows up in his photographs.I only wish I had such an eye and ear for creating (writing) and catching (photos) beauty and wonder.
To me Lewis Carroll always seemed much like Dante.I used to read my little sister both when she was small to show her that Dante was just stories, not to be taken seriously (as having any truth)and that Carroll was reason turned upside down and fun.Dante had his Beatricci, and Lewis Carroll had his Alice.Both men were much older than the beloved; both men gave apotheosis to the beloved; both had imagination hard to equal.

This book provides a link to the mind of Lewis Carroll, and it is beautiful in places.Most of the most beautiful photos are to be found free on the www.

The Photographs of a victorian pedophile
Some years ago an"expert",a respected college professor,put out a revisionist history of the notorious political corruptor William M.Tweed,in which his"research"alledgedly "proved"that the old crooked boss was,of all things,a victim of the new york times and the good-government forces of that time period..Not many people bought that novel theory,and even fewer will buy the notion that Lewis Carroll,writer,oxford don,photographer,was not also a closet pedophile..One need only look at the man's work,wherein he poses little girls in naked and half-naked situations designed to appeal to the more lurid aspects of one's imagination..Sure,other photographers of the victorian period also took naked pictures of little children,but this neither excuses them nor does it excuse Lewis Carroll..pornography is pornography,and this stance is not mitigated by the fact that a lot of people are involved in it...The fact that this is the same fellow who also wrote"Alice in Wonderland" also does not excuse him...One need only take a long,hard look at this man's private life,and then consider that,out of all of the subjects he chose to photograph,little girls in half naked poses were his favorite,to dismiss the one or two current,revisionist voices who insist that Carroll was not a pedophile..
There is also the incident which ended the long-standing relationship between Carroll and Oxford dean Liddell,father of several small children,one of which,Alice Liddell,happened to be Carroll's model for his own"alice"of "wonderland"fame(in point of fact Carroll did not use the term"wonderland"but instead called his book"Alice through the looking glass)to further be convinced of Carroll's misdeeds..Although no definitive evidence exists which can say exactly what the incident that destroyed thier relationship was,Alice Liddell herself hinted,in later life,that it involved something Carroll did with her sister..Given that both Carroll and Dean Liddell were upper class,and therefore horrified of any hint of scandal,especially scandal involving a subject that might in any way involve pedophilia,it is no wonder that today,more than 100 years after the fact,there is so very little "evidence"to pin down exactly what happened..Alice Liddell was not the only little girl that Carroll like to photograph,and some few of the others were not so reluctant to hint rather broadly at Carroll's peculiarities,and these hints tend to over-shadow all of the revisionist twaddle that today not only passes for scholarship,but is used to "redeem"Carroll..
This volume shows off Carroll's pictures,including the many that he took of naked and half-naked little girls..Taylor's text is definitive in a way that no revisionist balderdash could ever be.

Squeamish and out of date
The trouble with this book is that in trying to address Carroll's
photography of children it uses perspectives and arguments that were already defunct and discredited before the book went into print.

The best defence pf Carroll's relationship with the nude child has been offered by Hugues Lebailly and Karoline Leach, who both have shown that we have misunderstood Carroll by failing to set him in the correct social background of his time.
Basically, during the Victorian age EVERYONE as making nude studies of children, and Carroll was merely being trendy when he did the same. The mistake as been to forget this and see his actions in isolation.

This revelation of the 'Victorian Cult of the Child' has revolutionised our understanding of Carroll, but Taylor in this book makes almost no use of it at all.

Instead he revives very weak and illogical arguments to 'defend' Dodgson, claiming, for example,that Dodgson didn't take many nude pictures, as if this initself precludes the suspicion of paedophilia.

It doesn't. In fact it's a pale and dishonest argument. The only thing that defends Dodgson against paedophilia is the research of Leach and Lebailly which Taylor so oddly refuses to use to any extent. The result is muddled, dishonest and already out of date.

For the only serious analysis of Lewis Carroll's relationship with the nude child see Leach 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild'. But if you just want to look at nice pics, then enjoy this book.

The Time has Come....Finally!
I've been waiting for this very book for quite some time now.Carroll's photography has never been collected in a full form like many other photographers.Previous books have been light on material and all too heavy on the photographs of young child-friends.This book gives a more even account of Carroll's photography---even going so far as presenting the photographs as he did so in his own albums.Rather than classify his photographs, his albums show a wondrous variety of images---a skeleton of a fish, a landscape, a child-friend, a famous painter, a sculpture, etc....Though it concentrates on Carroll's one hobby, Roger Taylor's essay is as good as any biography, being a hundred or so pages long.Edward Wakeling contributes insightful captions to each photograph in the Princeton Collection---for all are included!What more could one ask for?Wakeling, one of the leading experts on Carroll with a database of information, even offers his list of all photographs taken by Carroll, a list that will be continually updated.He even gives his email address for those who may have lost photographs.
An indispensable book for the researcher and a delight for the casual photography fan. ... Read more

Book Description
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other beloved children's books. But before achieving fame as an author, Carroll was a prolific and sophisticated photographer, acutely engaged in the art world of Victorian England. This beautifully illustrated book is the first to examine Carroll's photographs not as the sideline of a celebrated writer, but as the creations of a serious photographic artist-and to demonstrate their importance to the history of photography.

Douglas R. Nickel traces the evolution in thought about Carroll's photography in the period since his death, demonstrating the ways it has been viewed largely through the filter of his literary reputation.Key to this have been certain preconceptions built up around Carroll's attitudes toward children, especially Alice Liddell, the inspiration for his first book and the subject of a number of his photographs. Nickel demonstrates how, by overturning the modern myths that have attached themselves to Carroll's photography, the works themselves can be seen again as they were by their original Victorian viewers. This analysis reveals not only Carroll's signal achievement in the medium, but also a new understanding of Victorian art photography in general.

This volume serves as the catalogue for an exhibition organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, on view from August to November, 2002, which then travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February to May 2003), the International Center for Photography in New York (June to September 2003), and the Art Institute of Chicago (October 2003 to January 2004). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not enough pictures
I was really hoping for a photography "coffee table" type book when I got this item, but the bulk of it is text, which albeit enlightening, was not at all what I expected.The images themselves are printed quite small, approximately the actual size of a daguerreotype, whereas the book is 10"x11", so I couldn't help but wonder why the pictures were not enlarged more.I also felt there were not enough images; I have no idea how large a body of work Lewis Carroll left for posterity, but it seemed lacking.Overall I was disappointed.

"andyou, i suppose, dream in pictures." - Tennyson
Nichols has done a fantastic job of collecting some of Carroll's (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's) most memorable images here in his book. Why the title? Perhaps because so many of Dodgson's images are of various states of somnolence... only Nichols can answer this question, or perhaps that Dodgson was a dreamer, for we know this for he was, after all, the force behind the Alice books, Sylvie and Bruno, The Hunting of the Snark (all under the name Lewis Carroll, whereas his photography was under the name Charles Dodgson, his real name.)

Nichols provides a thorough and interesting history here, although note this is not really a book for anyone who is not seriously interested in Dodgson's work as a photographer - if you really want to get to know Dodgson by all means, buy this book!!! Also buy Edward Wakeling's fine book at the same time, The Princeton Collection, which is self-explanatory and more of Dodgson's work, also with some exposition.

A beautiful book, a rare treasure, and a delight for the scholar as well as perhaps, the lay-reader willing to delve fathoms deeper into Dodgson's work.

Well worth the dive ~

sadi ranson-polizzotti

Good for the Carroll collector or as a reminder of the exhibit
This book was meant to accompany the exhibit of the photography of Lewis Carroll that visited the San Francisco Museum of Art in 2002, Houston in 2003, and the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Each photo has an attached discussion. The introduction to the collection by Director Neal Benezna is short and sweet. The discussions of the history and esthetics of Victoria photography (hagiography, prelapsarian freedom, tableaux vivants, historical reconstructions, imaginary themes, etc.) by author Douglas R. Nickel is useful and accurate as it appeared entirely based on the authoritative biography of Carroll by Cohen and on the scholarly work of Karoline Leach in her book "In the Shadow of the Dreamchild." Like Lewis Carroll's photos, this book has the excellent quality of directness, and an aesthetic purity that springs from a delight in the beautiful. Unfortunately, no nudes appeared in the exhibit and only one made its way into the book (Evelyn Hatch, figure 17, page 66.) That's a pity as it reflects badly on the freedom of artistic expression that Lewis Carroll championed. Another negative: The colored-in photos are not represented. They were interesting for many reasons and in a way anticipated the advent of color photography. I have five of them in my collection. They are truly beautiful and were photographed by Carroll and may have been colored by Carroll himself or by Miss Thompson, his woman friend.

following Leach
The whole of the 'biographical' section of this book seems to be taken from Karoline Leach's insane and scurrilous book 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild', from which it borrows the whole crazy concept of the so called 'Carroll myth'.

But this is still a very fine book and the best analysis of Carroll's art that has been produced to date - a world better than theanxious misinformed and apologetic stance taken by the nervous Roger Taylor. ... Read more

Product Description
hardcover good, special edition, published by random house, inc. 1946good ... Read more

Book Description
First published in 1898. ... Read more

Product Description
SynopsisLewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass have entertained readers young and old for more than a century. Their magical worlds, amusing characters, spirited dialogue, and playfully illogical logic have made them landmarks of Victorian fiction that epitomize the wit and whimsy of Carroll's writing.This collection of Carroll's complete works includes, in addition to his best-known fiction, his novels Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, as well as shorter prose works, stories and puzzles. Also featured is Carrolls complete verse, including The Hunting of the Snark and more than a dozen poems not collected in his life-time. Comprehensive and eclectic, this volume presents the reader with timeless works reflecting the cleverness and ingenuity that were Carrolls unique gifts. BiographyIt's possible that if Lewis Carroll had never met Alice Liddell, he might have enjoyed a more peaceful lifetime and an obscure legacy. But his whimsical inventiveness touched everything he did, and a story he made up one afternoon for a little girl became one of literature's great classics, Alice in Wonderland. ... Read more

Book Description
Will Brooker, author of Batman Unmasked and Using the Force, turns his attention to Lewis Carroll and Alice. He takes the reader through a fascinating and revealing tour of late 20th Century popular culture, following Alice and her creator wherever they go. Brooker reveals the ways in which this iconic character has been used and adapted, taking in cartoons, movies, computer games, theme parks, heritage sites, novelisations, illustrations, biographies, theatrical performances, toys and other products, websites, fan clubs and much more. The result is a remarkable analysis of how one original creation has expanded over time to symbolize many different things to many different people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Wasp Without a Wig
Will Brooker is the handsomest former nerd in central London, and he takes his own edge off by cligning to the little bit inside him that still feels rejected, neglected, and put on the shelf by the cooler kids.His analysis of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass feels like something actually felt, not just abstracted, and it's clear that he keeps taking down from the hook all these various interpretations of Lewis Carroll's character, unable to settle on one, to see which one fits him the best.He is relentlessly modish and thoroughly up-to-date, and yet an old-fashioned drive for completion gives his character an uncharacteristic burnish, an OCD shadow.His book is terrifically written, on a sentence by sentence basis, but after awhile it does get wearisome, usually because like a handful of other practitioners of deconstructionist theory, Brooker is unable to give another full credit without sniping away at him or her.Every text that he picks up to examine will be revealed to have some huge flaw which Brooker doesn't share in.

He's divided his study into nine general areas, from representations of Lewis Carroll in recent biography, to the fandom with which his own recent work has been concerned.At least one of these topics, the section in which he critiques many illustrators of Lewis Carroll, should have been jettisoned for, despite what he thinks, Brooker lacks the ability to write well about the visual arts, odd for one who has written extensively on many comic artists, but alas, he's pretty bankrupt there.Another chapter devotes itself to contemporary sequels to ALICE, including Jeff Noon and Gilbert Adair, and here again a weakness in Brooker's comprehensive approach becomes obvious at once: although he has just about nothing to say about Adair's ALICE THROUGH THE NEEDLE'S EYE, he feels obliged to "cover" it with the same word count as he does everything else.

Against these minor flaws Brooker's book is an arsenal of critical insight and, as well, sheer writing chops.His opening salvo, tearing apart a series of biographers for their outright misstatements and lack of perspective, could hardly be better planned nor achieved.I would never have thought of the simple method he winds up using, which is, he isolates five areas of mystery in Carrollian biography, and one by one he examines what X, Y, or Z says about each.For example, what of the cut diary pages?What about the heartfelt diary entries which entreat his God to make him a more decent man?And what about those nude photographs of little boys and girls?

OK, maybe he tries to do too much, and depends on his own adorableness for pages at a time, but this is a thoroughly exciting book and I hope Brooker sees fit to keep it up to date in the years to come, maybe staging an Alice Biennale or something like.

The analysis juxtaposes perfectly with his life and times
Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice In Wonderland" and is most noted for this achievement, but he did so much more, fostering the setting for later computer games, theme parks, and performances inspired by his works. Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll In Popular Culture isn't just another coverage of Carroll's life; it's a survey of how the characters he created live on in modern times, adapted since his death in 1898. The analysis juxtaposes perfectly with his life and times and creates for more depth in the analysis of Alice's ongoing effects on modern culture, than the modern biography could achieve.

IMAGES OF ALICE
Possibly the 60s were the time when Alice began to enter the popular culture.In 1963 for example there was a girl singer who named herself Alice Wonderland and made a single.A month or two earlier Neil Sedaka had landed Alice on to the Top 40.
A matter of months later,as the Beatles began to conquer America,came John Lennon's 2nd book,like the first,influenced by Lewis Carroll's nonsense writings. (Carroll would be further immortalised by the Beatles when he was one of the figures on the Sgt Pepper sleeve).
Then came the first rumblings of the new American music influenced by both the Beatles and folk music in general.The Great Society were one of many trying for a bite of the cherry and lead singer Grace Slick wrote a song called "White Rabbit",more or less a comment about parents who gave their kids Alice books then wondered why they ended up taking drugs.
(Obviously tongue in cheek as Slick took more than her share during the Jefferson Airplane years:this was the band who she joined after the Great Society taking with her the 2 songs they'd recorded ,one of which was "White Rabbit". The rest is history.
Alice has always been at least of enough fascination to the music world as to have inspired no end of songs or band names from "Alice In Sunderland" to the Mock Turtles,Carolyn Wonderland or even the very title of the 2nd book ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS,who were a duo from the village of Ditchling in Suffolk and who wrote some music for a local Alice production.
The album was a limited edition and is now worth over £1000 as its regarded as Folk Rock or whatever but even the reissue is worth quite a bit

Someday the definitive book may be written about the Alice influence on popular music but meanwhile there's this one

what is it saying?
not sure what this book is supposed to be. It is really just a rehash of very old ideas about Carroll with some pop culture uncomfortably tacked on.The 'myth' has been dealt with far better by people who really seem to understand it (it's too deep I think for Brooker's milieu), and the pop culture is presented without any kind of analysis or penetration.

I think you are better off withLeach's 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild' or Sigler's 'Alternative Alices'.

Contemporary Manifestations of a Timeless Classic
"Curiouser and curiouser.""Beware the Jabberwock, my son!""When _I_ use a word it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.""You're nothing but a pack of cards!"Even if you don't know the Alice books by Lewis Carroll, chances are you have heard these quotations.The books are so well known that they have, according to one report, been quoted more than any other source except the Bible and Shakespeare.The timelessness of the appeal of _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking Glass_ can easily be appreciated in the book _Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture_ (Continuum) by Will Brooker.It is an examination of the manifestations of Alice in the past fifteen or so years, with some attention paid for historic context to the rest of the twentieth century.That there is still lively participation by Alice in many surprising aspects of our modern world is a cheerful reminder of how good the original books are, and Brooker's own witty book gives hope that Alice will always have a role to play in the culture of any age.

But Carroll (actually The Reverend Charles L. Dodgson) himself has in the past decade played a darker role than he ever did before.In an age when we worried about pedophiles, and also worried needlessly about people accused in atrocious error of being pedophiles, Carroll's fascination for little girls has become suspect and smutty.Academic papers have been issued to reinforce such views, but all are largely circumstantial.Thus it seems wiser to think of Carroll with more magnanimity, and to remember that he was never in his time considered anything more threatening than a respectable Oxford don with an eagerness to entertain by mathematical and linguistic puzzles and stories.The popular press has followed the academic lead, however.The darker themes of Wonderland have been brought out in recent illustrations for the books, but even here, "... none of these illustrators taps to any noticeable degree into the reading of _Alice_ as steeped in sexual overtone..."Brooker shows how the original illustrations by Sir John Tenniel have always influenced subsequent illustrators.Brooker has great fun taking part in the activities of the Lewis Carroll Society, and finds a pleasant peer pressure: when he wrote to other members he found himself gradually using an address that was much more formal and polite "...than I would ever have used towards, say, the _Star Wars_ fans of my previous research."

_Alice's Adventures_ gives a look back to how other generations interpreted the tales.The stories don't have pedophilia in them, but these suppositions color our current view of the author.In the 1930s, there were abundant psychoanalytic interpretations, and in the 1960s there were psychedelic interpretations.Brookeralso spends a chapter on an animated computer shooter game, "Dark Wonderland," with Alice as a sexually provocative heroine.The books themselves, however, represent to Brooker "...an innocent, timeless, very English work of charming fantasy, suitable for reissue to another generation of young readers."In showing Alice in current culture, Brooker has written an admiring tribute to Carroll and his creation that will have the laudable effect of getting readers to look again at an inspired original. ... Read more