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Product Description
Review
engaging account (The Lady )
sensitive and erudite read (Sunday Express )
Mr Winchester elegantly written study provides a balanced, sympathetic portrait of a complex and gifted man. (Wall Street Journal )
sensitive and erudite read (Sunday Express )
Mr Winchester elegantly written study provides a balanced, sympathetic portrait of a complex and gifted man. (Wall Street Journal )
Product Description
In the summer of 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church in Oxford, Charles Dodgson--better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll--dressed the six-year-old Alice Liddell in ragamuffin's clothes, draped the folds of cloth low enough to expose her bare chest, asked her to look deep into his eyes--and then snapped the camera's shutter. In The Alice Behind Wonderland, Simon Winchester uses the famous photograph of Alice--notorious for the child's alluring pose--as the launching pad for an energetic and penetrating look at the inspiration behind, and the making of, one of the greatest classics of children's literature: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Indeed, Winchester shows that it was Dodgson's photographic love affair with Alice that transformed this shy and half-deaf mathematician into one of the world's best-loved writers. Equally important, this photograph offers a window into Dodgson's troubled Victorian's mind and soul; it is a picture imbued with more meaning than its appearance would suggest. Much like the fictional Alice's world, as the photograph is subject to closer examination, it becomes nothing short of curiouser and curiouser. Alice Liddell as The Beggar Maid was, in short, the muse that would inspire the creation of Alice in Wonderland. Deftly engaging with Dogson's published writings, private diaries, and photography, Winchester weaves together the poignant, turbulent, and entirely fascinating story behind Lewis Carroll and the making of his Alice.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I came to this slim volume via a lifelong interest in Lewis Carroll's books and a trip to Scottish Ballet's wonderful newly-commissioned work, "Alice", which also explored the relationship between Dodgson the photographer and Alice Liddell, the muse. I have to say the ballet was much more successful in explaining and amplifying the unusual relationship between the two. Despite my interest in the subject, I found this essay ponderous in the extreme - wordy, even verbose and difficult to read. It just didn't hold my attention, and though I eventually struggled through to the end I did so with no real sense of pleasure, although I did learn a few new facts along the way.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I have always found Alice in Wonderland a slightly scary book, full of grotesque creatures and nightmarish situations for a little girl to deal with. I have re-read it as an adult and this time can enjoy its Monty Pythonish antics but it still has a lurking dark side. We have read much about Lewis Carroll's prediliction for young girls which nowadays can be called something else, but I have never been sure that the accusations levelled at him were totally justified. He just struck me as being a bit of an odd ball character, OK not sure I would want to have him to dinner, but I do wonder.
This little book, well it is a monograph really, on THAT picture of Alice Liddell is only 100 pages long and easily read in an hour or two. I found it intriguing and it certainly does not enter into the argument for and against Caroll in this regard, but rather focuses on the circumstances of the famous photograph.
Cannot say I was overwhelmed by the style of writing or the content, but as a footnote to a wider biography of Lewis Carrol it is worth a look. I found the ending rather touching and sad when the original Alice, now a lonely old woman who has suffered grief and loss, went to America to celebrate the centenary of Carroll's birth and found that police had to escort her everywhere as crowds surrounded her shouting 'Hi Alice'.
"The radio broadcast an interview in which she suggested that her visit to America and New York was so exciting that the experience took her 'back to Wonderland'. Few entirely believed it then. None do now'
She was famous as a little golden girl on a summer afternoon and it must have seemed all so long ago.
This little book, well it is a monograph really, on THAT picture of Alice Liddell is only 100 pages long and easily read in an hour or two. I found it intriguing and it certainly does not enter into the argument for and against Caroll in this regard, but rather focuses on the circumstances of the famous photograph.
Cannot say I was overwhelmed by the style of writing or the content, but as a footnote to a wider biography of Lewis Carrol it is worth a look. I found the ending rather touching and sad when the original Alice, now a lonely old woman who has suffered grief and loss, went to America to celebrate the centenary of Carroll's birth and found that police had to escort her everywhere as crowds surrounded her shouting 'Hi Alice'.
"The radio broadcast an interview in which she suggested that her visit to America and New York was so exciting that the experience took her 'back to Wonderland'. Few entirely believed it then. None do now'
She was famous as a little golden girl on a summer afternoon and it must have seemed all so long ago.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Rather than being a biography of Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, this is the story of his hobby as a photographer and his famous photo of, then six year old, Alice Liddell. It does give a potted history of Dogson's early life and recounts how both he and the Liddell family got to know each other at Oxford, with lots of wonderful anecdotes along the way, which I found extremely interesting. It is worth pointing out that I knew very little about Carroll, having never read his biography, so perhaps someone with a deeper interest in the subject would know most of the information in this slim book. However, it was an extremely readable account and very enjoyable, with a lot of detail about early photography and the process Caroll would have used to take his first pictures. Winchester is not critical of Carroll's motives in taking many pictures of young girls, accepting the idealisation of childhood at that time and not placing modern motives onto his behaviour. The book is not really about why he took the photographs he did, although Winchester does hint at a slightly tense relationship between Carroll and Alice's mother, but suggests reasons for the break which do not include his photographing her children.
Alice did have her photo taken by him again when she was older and, although she never acknowledged his wedding present or attended his funeral she did call one of her sons Caryl, so it is a difficult relationship to fathom without further information. Altogether, Carroll took less than twenty photographs of the young Alice, the most famous being the 'ragamuffin' dressed picture, when she is six. She has obviously been artfully arranged into the position Carroll wants - her hand cupped to collect a coin, looking upwards with an enigmatic expression. Considering how carefully she has been positioned, it is difficult to believe he overlooked the slight tweak of material which revealed her childish chest. However, without wishing to be judgemental, I can only say that I enjoyed this book very much and it did make me want to know more about this man who produced one of the best loved books of all time. Again, this was down to Alice, who badgered him to write down the story he had told her on an idyllic summer afternoon, boating on the river. It is for this that both Lewis Carroll and the inspirational Alice will be remembered and loved. Highly recommended and a great read.
Alice did have her photo taken by him again when she was older and, although she never acknowledged his wedding present or attended his funeral she did call one of her sons Caryl, so it is a difficult relationship to fathom without further information. Altogether, Carroll took less than twenty photographs of the young Alice, the most famous being the 'ragamuffin' dressed picture, when she is six. She has obviously been artfully arranged into the position Carroll wants - her hand cupped to collect a coin, looking upwards with an enigmatic expression. Considering how carefully she has been positioned, it is difficult to believe he overlooked the slight tweak of material which revealed her childish chest. However, without wishing to be judgemental, I can only say that I enjoyed this book very much and it did make me want to know more about this man who produced one of the best loved books of all time. Again, this was down to Alice, who badgered him to write down the story he had told her on an idyllic summer afternoon, boating on the river. It is for this that both Lewis Carroll and the inspirational Alice will be remembered and loved. Highly recommended and a great read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Misleading but interesting in parts
Winchester's volume weighs in at a very slim 100 pages and seems something of an oddity much like Carroll himself. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Scriber_scouse
Avoid this book
The first thing to note about this book is that the title is misleading. You might imagine that it is primarily about the original Alice. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Michael Baxter
Alice through the camera lens
A short book, just 100 pages long, centering on a photograph of a young girl, Alice Liddell, taken by Charles Dodgson in 1858. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Pitoucat
Biography of a Unique Photograph
It's a cliche to quote L P Hartley and say "the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there", but in the case of Charles Lewis Dodgson and his relationships with a... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Withnail67
A book about photography...but with no photographs
Though an enjoyable and short read, this is really a book which focuses on Dodgson's photography, with his relationship with Alice forming a relatively minor part of the book (in... Read more
Published 10 months ago by M. McCartney
One for photography, rather than Alice, aficionados?
This is apparently one of a series of monographs on the history of photography. I doubt there is enough detail in it to appeal to those readers who are already familiar with the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Caterina
"What is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or...
A shorter book than one might have hoped, and retreading ground from many other biographies; but, on its main subject, full of detail and interest. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Tree
A Lovely Snapshot
Appropriately for a book about photography, this little pamphlet uses a rather peculiar photograph as a window on the world of Lewis Carrol, and Alice in Wonderland. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. Gtj Charmley
A black-and-white glimpse of a colourful history
I am fascinated by the story behind Alice in Wonderland and this slim little volume is a delight to any collector or anyone with similar interests. Read more
Published 13 months ago by littlepig littlepig
Intriguing but ultimately frustrating
I knew very little about Lewis Carroll before i read this, and I'm not certain I know much more about him now. Read more
Published 14 months ago by David Pearce
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