Today, we will look at some of the best books by Lewis Carroll.
Lewis Carroll is an author who is most known for the novels that make up Alice in Wonderland. There are 4 books by Lewis Carroll and many famous poems.
Lewis Carroll’s writing career began with short stories and poems that he would publish in magazines at the time. He even created word puzzles in some of these magazines. While by no means successful, they were enjoyed by the readers.
During this time in his writing career, he said, “I do not think I have yet written anything worthy of real publication, but I do not despair of doing so someday.” Thankfully something was written worthy of publication after he met someone who would change his life.
Fun fact: His real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and he used Lewis Carroll as a pen name. The first known use of his pen name was in 1956 when he published a romantic poem called Solitude in a magazine. He then didn’t use the name again for 9 years until he published the book that made him famous.
Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland was a two book series written by Lewis Carroll. The two books are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Alice in Wonderland was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s close friend Dean Henry Liddell’s three children, specifically Alice Liddell.
Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family would commonly go on rowing trips together. On one of these trips, Lewis Carroll told the story of what would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to the three children, and Alice begged him to write it down so she could read it. A few years later he gave her the very first manuscript along with some illustrations.
When he gave the story to young Alice, he dedicated it as, “A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer’s Day.”
A few years later, a friend read the manuscript and encouraged Lewis Carroll to expand and publish it as a novel. Thus, the first novel in Alice in Wonderland was completed.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was the first book by Lewis Carroll. It is a children’s novel that he published in 1865. The book is widely regarded as one of the most popular children’s novels and one of the greatest works of Victorian literature. The novel has around 100 pages depending on the version.
After the story above, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland immediately became popular. It is said that even Queen Victoria loved the book so much that she demanded that he dedicate another book to her. Laughingly, Lewis Carroll shrugged this off saying, “It is utterly false in every particular. Nothing even resembling it has occurred.”
You may already be familiar with the story of Alice in Wonderland, but if not, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland details the story of a young girl, Alice, who one day while bored follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit hole leading to amazing adventures in the weird and wacky Wonderland.
There are many zany characters that Alice meets in Wonderland including the Caterpillar, the Duchess, the Cheshire Cat, the Hatter, the March Hare, and many more, each with their own crazy adventure.
There are a bunch of interesting facts about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Here are a few:
Many of the characters were based on people Lewis Carroll knew in real life, including himself. If you are curious, the Dodo is Lewis Carroll.
There are many hidden mathematical references in the story, even subtly dissing modern math at the time. Before writing this successful novel Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and lecturer at Christ Church.
The book has never been out of print since its publication in 1865. It has been translated into 176 languages, and is one of the top selling books of all time.
Through the Looking Glass
Officially known as Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, is the second book by Lewis Carroll in the Alice in Wonderland series. It was published in 1871, 6 years after Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and has around 125 pages.
Through the Looking Glass is known to be a lot darker than Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This could be due to the fact that a few years before publication Lewis Carroll lost his father. He said during this time in his life he was thrust into a deep depression.
Despite being darker, Through the Looking Glass still contains the wild, creativeness of the previous book. Again, the book follows Alice on her adventures.
In this book, Alice is able to get into another alternative world after she discovers that she can go through a mirror on her fireplace mantle.
Interestingly, in this world everything is reversed just like the reflection in the mirror. This leads to some really weird behavior such as running to remain still, and walking away from something to bring it towards you. In this world, the chess pieces are alive and characters from nursery rhymes exist.
Spread throughout the book are 12 poems, including the popular Jabberwocky. Another poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter, is recited by nursery characters Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Just like the first book there are many characters in Through the Looking Glass. Some like the Hatter and March Hare make a reappearance.
Fun fact: The poem at the end of Through the Looking Glass spells out Alice Liddell’s name, and is a little Easter egg dedicated to the one who inspired the series that changed Lee Carroll’s life.
Another fun fact: The mirror in the book was inspired by a real mirror hanging above the fireplace at the real Alice’s grandparents house. The first illustrations in the book featured a mirror that looked exactly like it.
The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark is a poem rather than a book by Lewis Carroll. This poem was published 1876. Though it is a poem, it reads rather like a story. The poem has 141 stanzas of four lines each, and is quite long at 102 pages. The poem has been turned into various plays and musicals.
The Hunting of the Snark is interesting because it takes a lot of the characters and the setting from the poem Jabberwocky, which was written in the book Through the Looking Glass.
Some of the words in the poem are complete nonsense and made up by Lewis Carroll. Many of these resemble weird creatures in the poem like the bandersnatch and the jubjub bird.
The poem revolves around ten people, whose names all start with B, attempting to hunt the Snark, which they believed to be a highly dangerous species of creature that Lewis Carroll made up. Only one of the crew was ever able to find the Snark, and he ended up disappearing.
The main theme of the poem, and confirmed by Carroll himself, is the pursuit of happiness.
Fun fact: Like Alice in Wonderland, this poem was inspired by another childlike friend of Lewis Carroll. He dedicated the poem to Gertrude Chataway, whom he kept in contact with until his death.
Sylvie and Bruno
The last of the books by Lewis Carroll was Sylvie and Bruno. This book actually was turned into two due to its length. The sequel is called Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. The first was published in 1889, followed by the second in 1893. The full story has about 345 pages.
Sylvie and Bruno was an attempt of Lewis Carroll making a comeback from the fame of his Alice in Wonderland books 30 years prior. The books never really got popular, and although they remained in print for over 100 years, they weren’t well received. Many people believe it lacked the characteristics of what made Alice in Wonderland popular.
The only part the people really liked was a poem in the middle of the story called The Mad Gardener’s Song. This was widely printed, and far more well received than the rest of the book.
The books follow two main plots. The first being the present day, which was a time during the Victorian era. Here characters discuss very serious topics like the concepts of society, philosophy, and religion.
Similarly to the Alice in Wonderland books, the second takes place in an alternate world called Fairyland. In this world, things are a lot less serious and include many of the nonsense characters and creatures that Lewis Carroll was known for creating.
While he published many short stories and famous poems, there are only four books by Lewis Carroll. These are the two Alice in Wonderland and the two Sylvie and Bruno books.