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Review
Although this permanent favorite is in innumerable anthologies, this is the only separate edition prepared especially for a juvenile audience. Mr. Oechsli knows exactly how to draw an uffish expression and catches the demented determination of the hunters in full galumph. It's the best sort of cartooning, with the same care for detail and color that you can find in Bill Peet's books. "...the Snark is at hand...'Tis your glorious duty to seek it." (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
'They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; They pursued it with forks and hope; They threatened its life with a railway share; They charmed it with smiles and soap' Ever since Lewis Carroll's nonsense epic appeared in 1876 readers have joined his ten-man Snark-hunting crew and pursued the search with great enthusiasm. What are they hunting for? What is the Snark? Numerous theories have been proposed. Carroll himself provides a helpful Preface to the poem and is recorded as having explained to one reader: 'In answer to your question, 'What did you mean the Snark was?' will you tell your friend that I meant that the Snark was a Boojum. I trust that she and you will now feel quite satisfied and happy.' This edition, previously published as The Annotated Snark, reproduces the original illustrations by Henry Holiday, including the 'supressed' Boojum drawing. Martin Gardner provides an introduction, notes and bibliography, and an Appendix contains F. C. S. Schiller's 'Commentary on the Snark' and J. A. Lyndon's 'Fit the Seven-and-a-Halfth'.
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ALTHOUGH Lewis Carroll thought of The Hunting of the Snark as a nonsense ballad for children. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
ALTHOUGH Lewis Carroll thought of The Hunting of the Snark as a nonsense ballad for children. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
My Wife bought me this as a present and I have to say, of all the things I have been given this is one of the most precious.
Although I read it to myself I am most looking forward to reading it to my Son. It's an ideal length for a short bedtime story but also long enough for you to be able to put some effort into it and create a bit of an atmosphere.
It's full of great little characters, each with their own peculiar personality and soul. The poem flows well with great rhythm and gives the reader a chance to disappear for a quarter of an hour or so into Carroll's bizarre little world.
I have a 1928 edition of the book and I hope it stays in print for another eighty odd years as well. The Snark contains something for everyone, no matter what the age, a subtle blend of humour, nonsense and poetry at its absolute best.
If my house were to catch fire and I had time to only snatch a few things from the flames it would be my Wife and Son, along with a very old, well used copy of a Book of a Thousand Poems and this.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Of course Lewis Carroll's, Henry Holiday's and Joseph Swain's "The Hunting of the Snark" deserves five stars. But without the "Easter Greeting" one star goes. Lewis Carroll made quite some effort to insert that greeting into the already printed 1st edition of the book:
EASTER GREETING
DEAR CHILD,
Please to fancy, if you can, that you are reading a real letter, from a real friend whom you have seen, and whose voice you can seem to yourself to hear wishing you, as I do now with all my heart, a happy Easter.
Do you know that delicious dreamy feeling when one first wakes on a summer morning, with the twitter of birds in the air, and the fresh breeze coming in at the open window--when, lying lazily with eyes half shut, one sees as in a dream green boughs waving, or waters rippling in a golden light? It is a pleasure very near to sadness, bringing tears to one's eyes like a beautiful picture or poem. And is not that a Mother's gentle hand that undraws your curtains, and a Mother's sweet voice that summons you to rise? To rise and forget, in the bright sunlight, the ugly dreams that frightened you so when all was dark--to rise and enjoy another happy day, first kneeling to thank that unseen Friend, who sends you the beautiful sun?
Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as "Alice"? And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all, except in church and on a Sunday: but I think--nay, I am sure--that some children will read this gently and lovingly, and in the spirit in which I have written it.
For I do not believe God means us thus to divide life into two halves--to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him on a week-day. Do you think He cares to see only kneeling figures, and to hear only tones of prayer--and that He does not also love to see the lambs leaping in the sunlight, and to hear the merry voices of the children, as they roll among the hay? Surely their innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the "dim religious light" of some solemn cathedral?
And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when my turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows.
This Easter sun will rise on you, dear child, feeling your "life in every limb," and eager to rush out into the fresh morning air--and many an Easter-day will come and go, before it finds you feeble and gray-headed, creeping wearily out to bask once more in the sunlight--but it is good, even now, to think sometimes of that great morning when the "Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."
Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this--when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters--when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day--and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!
Your affectionate friend,
LEWIS CARROLL.
EASTER, 1876.
EASTER GREETING
DEAR CHILD,
Please to fancy, if you can, that you are reading a real letter, from a real friend whom you have seen, and whose voice you can seem to yourself to hear wishing you, as I do now with all my heart, a happy Easter.
Do you know that delicious dreamy feeling when one first wakes on a summer morning, with the twitter of birds in the air, and the fresh breeze coming in at the open window--when, lying lazily with eyes half shut, one sees as in a dream green boughs waving, or waters rippling in a golden light? It is a pleasure very near to sadness, bringing tears to one's eyes like a beautiful picture or poem. And is not that a Mother's gentle hand that undraws your curtains, and a Mother's sweet voice that summons you to rise? To rise and forget, in the bright sunlight, the ugly dreams that frightened you so when all was dark--to rise and enjoy another happy day, first kneeling to thank that unseen Friend, who sends you the beautiful sun?
Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as "Alice"? And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all, except in church and on a Sunday: but I think--nay, I am sure--that some children will read this gently and lovingly, and in the spirit in which I have written it.
For I do not believe God means us thus to divide life into two halves--to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him on a week-day. Do you think He cares to see only kneeling figures, and to hear only tones of prayer--and that He does not also love to see the lambs leaping in the sunlight, and to hear the merry voices of the children, as they roll among the hay? Surely their innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the "dim religious light" of some solemn cathedral?
And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when my turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows.
This Easter sun will rise on you, dear child, feeling your "life in every limb," and eager to rush out into the fresh morning air--and many an Easter-day will come and go, before it finds you feeble and gray-headed, creeping wearily out to bask once more in the sunlight--but it is good, even now, to think sometimes of that great morning when the "Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."
Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this--when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters--when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day--and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!
Your affectionate friend,
LEWIS CARROLL.
EASTER, 1876.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Avoid this free Kindle edition (ASIN B004TQJKEI) especially if you don't know the poem - every so often there's an extra line in a verse that doesn't rhyme or scan and it took me ages to figure out that they must be the captions for the illustrations which aren't actually there (despite an illustrator being credited).
Find a better edition as it's a great narrative poem.
Find a better edition as it's a great narrative poem.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wonderful
I must admit that I can't ever remember reading this before, but after watching 'Lewis' last night I thought I would see if there was a free copy on this site. Read more
Published 12 days ago by M. Dowden
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Published 6 months ago by Simon Pea
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Besides the two 'Alice'-books, Lewis Carroll's book-length poem, 'The Hunting of the Snark', a masterpiece of nonsense-literature, is regarded as his best work. Read more
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The CD of "The Hunting of the Snark" read by Boris Karloff has several parts of the original poem missing. This is not stated in the on-line advertisment by Amazon. Read more
Published 11 months ago by A. Kent
A timeless classic of childrens poetry
'They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened it's life with a railway-share,
They charmed it with... Read more
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened it's life with a railway-share,
They charmed it with... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Den
Lewis Carroll at its best
For those who love English poems this is one that will satisfy them . It has the wit and absurdity that are the trademark of Lewis Carroll's work and it has its finer pics at some... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Hans-Erik Rhodius
"I said it in Hebrew - I said it in Dutch - I said it in German and...
This is a great nonsensical tale that probably will need an annotated version to make sense. Not of the purpose as that is in the title. Read more
Published 21 months ago by bernie
This is the Annotated Snark
Other reviewers have praised this work highly - I agree.
One thing which is not entirely clear is that this Penguin version was in fact previously issued as the... Read more
One thing which is not entirely clear is that this Penguin version was in fact previously issued as the... Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2009 by Jr Edge
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A Celebratory Edition
This is the edition published by MacMillan to celebrate their 150th anniversary. It is a faithful photographic reproduction of the special edition limited to 430 volumes which... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2008 by chatvarin
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