THE MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL has been widely reviewed and mentioned in media all over the world. I've put links to some of the reviews here.
THE MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL - ABOUT THE BOOK
Lewis Carroll was secretive and self contradictory, revelling in double meanings, false reflections and puzzles. From "Alice in Wonderland"'s first appearance in 1865, he shunned personal publicity, and used the Victorian equivalent of "spin" to conceal himself from the world. After his death, his huge family censored and destroyed many private documents.
This book shines a light onto the living, breathing, unusual and sometimes exasperating human being that they tried to hide.
Although the elusiveness and strangeness of Carroll's personality is acknowledged, he is shown as a real human being who lived, breathed and had a life.
The book contains a chapter on Carroll's personal bank account - material discovered by the author. This document, covering over forty years, casts hitherto unseen and unconsidered light upon Carroll's life.
The book also uses previously unpublished letters from Alice's sister to help unravel the reason why Carroll's friendship with the Liddell family came to an end.
- THE MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL shows that Alice Liddell was not the "Alice" of the books, although she was the reason that they were written.
- It gives clues to a secret which dominated (and in some ways ruined) Carroll's personal life.
- It shows how a man previously thought to be a minor acquaintance got Carroll into major trouble - trouble which was never mentioned in his diaries.
- It illuminates and sets into historical context the topic of Carroll's love of little girls, which, though unusual, was not paedophiliac.
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The ten chapters cover themes in Carroll's life. They are: Family, Mathematical Oxford, The Human Body, Love and Sex, Children, Religion, Spirits and Ghosts, Alice, Writing, Photography and Money.