Biography of Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Lewis Carroll

Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in Cheshire, on January 27, 1832, the man who would become Lewis Carroll was an eccentric and an eclectic whose varied works have entertained, edified, enlightened, and evaded readers for over a century. The son of a vicar and his first cousin, Dodgson was a precocious child who showed early interest in both writing and mathematics. After studying mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1850-1854, Dodgson was appointed to a lectureship there, where he was to continue studying, remain unmarried, and prepare for holy orders for almost 30 years. Although he never reached the priesthood, he did reach the level of deacon. During his very successful academic career, he wrote extensively on mathematics and logic, among other subjects. However, it is not for his academic work that he is best remembered, but rather the works for children which he created under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

Dodgson's relationship to children has been questioned by recent scholarship, as his photography of young girls is undeniably erotic, and all his close and enduring friendships throughout his life were with young children, mostly girls. Dodgson was intensely interested in and an advocate for the freedom and wisdom of childhood, and wrote his books as pleasurable amusements for he people he admired. His muse, Alice Liddell was the young daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, who he wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for in 1865. The work started out as an oral tale which he later wrote down as Alice's Adventures Underground, but later revised into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In 1872, Carroll published Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Wonderland. The books were illustrated by Sir John Tenniel, a top political illustrator of the day, whose crisp etchings work with Carroll's sly text to create the world of Wonderland still known today. These books brought Carroll great fame and renown during his lifetime, but the shy Dodgson made a great effort to distance himself from the fame of his alterego Carroll. An intensely awkward and introverted man, he was almost unable to have interactions or friendships with adults, but was happy and at peace when around children. He spent most of his later years in the company of young children who he entertained with his stories and documented in his famous photography.

Along with the Alice books, Carroll published Phantasmagoria and Other Poems in 1869, The Hunting of the Snark in 1876, and Sylvie and Bruno in 1893, though none of his other works were ever nearly as popular as the Alice duo either in his lifetime or afterwards. He died January 14, 1898 in Guilford, Surrey.

About Alice in Wonderland

The Alice books were written during the Victorian era, a time now remembered for its stifling propriety and constrictive morals. Carroll had something of an outsider's perspective on this world; he was painfully shy, and he often stuttered. His fondness for little girls has raised more than a few eyebrows, although it is unknown if Carroll ever acted on this obsession. At any rate, these feelings of his served to accentuate his feelings of isolation.

But his position gave him tremendous perspective on his world. The creatures of wonderland have many arbitrary customs. Their behaviors are all defensible with strange logic, but the customs are still silly or even cruel. There are obvious echoes of the Victorian world, as the animals are opinionated and have strong ideas about what constitutes appropriate behavior. The creatures' preciousness and their arbitrary sensitivities mock the fastidiousness of the Victorian era.

The Alice books also mock the children's literature of the day. In keeping with the character of the time, children's literature was full of simplistic morals and heavy-handed attempts to educate the young. Some of the books supposedly for children were quite dry, and at the least suffered from a lack of imagination.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was first published in 1865, and it was an immediate success. Carroll's sense of the absurd and his amazing gift for games of logic and language have made the Alice books popular with both adults and children, and they have remained some of the best-known children's books written in English. The well-known Disney adaptation draws freely from both books, while retaining the basic structure of the first book and remaining faithful to the flavor and central themes of the story.

The Alice books deal with the sometimes precarious world of children; the reader should keep in mind that at the time of their writing, the advent of industrialization had raised people's consciousness of child labor and exploitation. Carroll sees the world of children as a dangerous place, shadowed by the threat of death and the presence of adults who are powerful but often absurd.

The book is refreshingly complex, refusing to take patronize its young audience with simplistic morals or perspectives. A point of comparison is Antoine de St. Exup?ry's The Little Prince: while the The Little Prince sets up a rather simplistic binary between children (who are good, wise and innocent) and "the big people" (who are mean, shallow, and foolish), the Alice books satirize the absurdities of adults while avoiding pat conclusions about the difference between adults and children. Childhood is seen as a state of danger, and although Carroll has an evident fondness for children he never idealizes them. Alice's challenge is to grow into a strong and compassionate person despite the idiosyncrasies of the creatures she meets (the creatures symbolizing the adult world). She has to learn the rules of each new encounter, but in the end she must also retain a sense of justice and develop a sense of herself. Rather than set childhood and adulthood as simple opposites, valorizing the former and disparaging the latter, Carroll shows the process by which a good child can become a strong adult. Alice is also not without "adult" friends along the way: in the first book, for example, the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat are two enigmatic creatures who seem to understand how Wonderland works. They help Alice at key points.

The books always retain a sense of mystery and a fondness for the sinister; even the characters who aid Alice have a dark edge to them. The hints of mortality and the sense of fear in the books have only contributed to their popularity. The books stand as evidence that children's literature need not talk down to its audience. In fact, it is the depth and sophistication of the Alice books that has won them recognition as some of the best children's literature ever written.