Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was a remarkable writer with a gift of effortlessly blending the gift of imagination and fantasy into his writing.
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Lewis Carroll Through the Looking Glass
His best-known works are ‘Alice in Wonderland‘, ‘Through the Looking Glass‘, and ‘What Alice found there’.
His works have created everlasting impressions on the minds of children and adults alike. His books have been adapted for radio shows, television, and movies.
Birth and Early Life of Lewis Carroll
Carroll was born as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in the small parish of Daresbury on 27 January 1832. He was the third of the eleven children of Charles Dodgson, archdeacon, and Frances Jane Lutwidge.
His childhood was quiet, isolated and secluded, quite the opposite of the effect that he was to have on Victorian literature.
Lewis Carroll Poems
He was nicknamed “Dodo”. He was fortunate enough to have loving parents who nurtured him into thinking empathetically and nudged him to write from an early age. His poems and writings were published in his family magazine, where he was encouraged to improve upon his writing.
The school did him well, he passed quite well in all subjects. In May 1850 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, and thus embarked upon an association that lasted until his death.
Lewis Carroll’s Writing
Carroll displayed an unusual affection for animals and other creatures which were quite evident in his stories, which usually comprised of animals living in the realm of magic realism.
From 1849 to 1853 Dodgson produced The Rectory Umbrella, eight manuscript magazines, of which four are extant. Fancy was an important element that appeared in many of his pieces in the magazine. In one such piece, Carroll speaks of fairies, wanting to prove that they exist.
Lewis Carroll Biography
In the year 1861, Lewis Carroll was ordained as a member of the clergy. He did not proceed to the priesthood because he deemed himself unsuitable for it.
Instead, he settled in as a lecturer and a trainer to private students. Still, he was able to pursue his literary interests.
The friendships that were built between Carroll and young children were innocent and the main source for his characters who were mainly children.
According to the Poetry Foundation, “the children who knew Carroll felt that he shared a commonality with them that was almost on the level of a sacred kinship.” Thus was born ‘Alice in Wonderland‘ and the subsequent adventures.
Controversies Regarding Lewis Carroll’s Gender
Pedophilia is a controversial storm that was raised when Alice in Wonderland got published. There was a tremendous social stirring regarding his photographs as well in connection with the controversy.
Lewis Carol being a fiction writer, a mathematician, a photographer as well was quite well known in an array of fields and hence, the controversy and the rounds of rumors got spread like a wildfire in all directions, in all areas in quite a leap forging pace.
His interest in innocent souls for children so as to say was spoken about, was being widely discussed in the then society.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there “
This was his way of easy approach to the laymen. Some of his poems are really stunning such as, “Jabberwocky “, “The hunting of the snark “and so on and so forth …
“I can’t go back to yesterday – because I was a different person then “
This way he used to philosophize his own life through his creations on paper. He used to put down his thoughts, his psychological dynamics in his own way that was not harsh, not direct but was twisted in the literary sense.
We can get romantic flavors through his compositions as well as thoughts of the human plane. He did enmesh the realistic world and the idealistic world so well that there was a balance created, a perfect blend of the heart and the mind.
Lewis Carroll’s Genre
Well, basically he never did limit his compositions in a specific genre and did leave enough room for fantasies and interpretations as well. He mainly composed of children, fantasy tales, comedy, sometimes tragicomedy, black humor, and such other stuff.
Not only literature, but he also contributed to the world of mathematics too such as linear algebra and voting theory.
Mysteries Regarding Missing Pages of the Diary
He used to maintain a diary which was quite informative and reflected his true condition, his life, his dimensions of thought but this fact remains quite obfuscated till date that eerily few of those pages have been made missing which are never found ever since those days.
In fact, his physical complications regarding Migraine issues and epilepsy are also known from his diary.
Lewis Carroll Facts
Hence, “The game of Logic “, “A tangled tale “and so on and so forth prove to us his expertise in more than one domain be it photography, be it literature or be it mathematics as well.
Poems because of a severe case of influenza. He had a vivid and gifted imagination with the power to use words so to unleash the creativity of the reader. For this gift, he will always occupy the seminal position in Victorian and children’s literature.
