The Alice Behind Wonderland (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
There's some interesting information in this book including some fascinating background that quite probably combined a number of disparate factors to come together in Charles Dodgson's head to produce that magical book which Alberto Manguel called "a miracle of literature". Two factors of which were his interest in the new art of photography which he shared with his uncle Robert Skiffington, who was a Govt. appointed Commissioner in Lunacy. The book also gives a clear look at the Victorian era educated middle class and the system at Oxford University that forbade teachers like in Dodgson's post from marrying unless he gave up his position. It looks to me that Charles Dodgson would have made a wonderful father if his options in those times had been different. The book also explains how Charles Dodgson arrived at the name Lewis Carroll. This is the first of Winchester's books I've read that has really disappointed me.Winchester is known for picking an event and exploring it exhaustively, showing the circumstances that led up the event, and its repercussions. His books about natural disasters (Krakatoa, the San Francisco Earthquake) are among his best; his analysis in these explores both human and scientific (specifically geological) sides, and balances them really well.This book has none of that. His writing style is there; it flows easily... but that's all there is.From the title, one expects a biography of Alice Liddell, focussing on her relationship with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). What one gets is a very brief summary of Dodgson's life, focussing on his hobby of portrait photography. This is something I'd have expected to have been excellent; it's just the sort of overlooked tale he handled so masterfully in "The Professor and the Madman".But here, we only get a few lyrical descriptions of the photos -- the only one reproduced in the entire book is the one on the front cover. The others are impossible to evaluate, since we don't get to see them.He mentions -- in the most circumspect possible terms -- the speculation that Dodgson may have been a pedophile, but dismisses it with a paraphrase of a conclusion of one of Dodgson's biographers (if I got anything out of this book at all, it's a desire to read Karoline Leach's biography of Dodgson). He mentions the cooling of the relationship between Dodgson and the Liddell family, without really discussing it at all.Meh.
What do You think about The Alice Behind Wonderland (2011)?
Story of the photographic work of Dodgson/Carrol leading to the writing of the story.
—imonny90
Excellent explication of the myths surrounding the book and the photographer/author.
—Minnie1999
Have I mentioned that I am in love Simon Winchester
—amber
Fluff from Winchester. At least it was short.
—Jeanne
