In the years that followed, Dodgson would climb the academic ladder, becoming a mathematics lecturer at his alma mater (1855-1881) and later attending a “Masters of Arts” program in 1857 where he would be named Christ Church’s “Senior Student” (ibid). As a young man, he studied mathematics at Christ Church Oxford University and graduated with First Class Honors. He was the third in a line of eleven Dodgson children, all of whom, with the exception of Charles himself, lived into the 20th Century (). As a child, he suffered from whooping cough (174), walked with a herky-jerky limp as an adult, and stuttered terribly when speaking. He was noted throughout his life as timid, somewhat sickly, and “painful thin” (Wallace 172). Lewis Carroll aka Charles Ludwig Dodgson was born in 1832, Daresbury UK.

It is for this reason that many modern readers regard Carroll’s works as they might a picturesque pond with a murky underbelly, despite the story’s presupposed innocence.īefore we begin our review of Carroll’s cultural impact, it is necessary, I believe, to review Dodgson’s personal history. These historical details indicate a dark figure lurking just behind the books’ fantastical window dressing. Speculation on Lewis Carroll’s sexual violence toward children are one strike against him another is the hippies who adopted his books as a metaphor for psychedelic drug use. Wonderland has held our attention for 150 years, but something about it gives us pause. It is Lewis Carroll himself, along with his dubious intentions as an author and as a human being, who is under scrutiny in literary and historical circles. Carroll’s cultural staying power is not up for debate (regardless of his relatively obscure entries, like 1889’s Sylvie and Bruno).

His primary contribution to the canon of English literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Alice Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), have earned a great deal of affection from the better part of ten generations of readers, many of whom maintain their love of Alice and Lewis Carroll over the course of their entire lives.

The Lewis Carroll Problem One of Carroll’s many self portraitsĬharles Dodgson- better known as Lewis Carroll- is generally regarded as the father of modern children’s literature.

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