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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Walrus and A. Carpenter, November 12, 2003
This review is from: Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass (Lerner Biographies) (Hardcover)
Angelica Carpenter has added to her impressive catalogue of author biographies written for children this one on Carroll, and the acknowledgement page indicates that she took pains over its accuracy by consulting the works and/or persons of several leading members of the Lewis Carroll Society. But she clearly had the good sense not to be overawed or confused by so many viewpoints, and has written here a clear and comprehensive survey of Carrolls life which covers most of the important occurrences in a way which is accessible and appealing to the young audience at which she is aiming. Presumably on the relatively safe assumption that most of her readers will only know Carroll's Alice books (and maybe even only the Disney film version), she sensibly begins by recounting the story of the original telling of Alice's tale on a nineteenth-century July afternoon, and having enticed her young and therefore easily distracted audience in, is then able to segue neatly into the authors actual history. The book is profusely illustrated, and although few if any of the images are unfamiliar to adult devotees of Carroll, their very variety ranging amongst others from reproductions of Carrolls and Tenniels drawings, to photographs of and by Carroll and others, to Mr Walker, Profilists 1840 silhouette of Charles Dodgson as a child should help to ensure the continued attention throughout the book of the wayward young reader, as well as providing a valuable pictorial background to the biographical information.
I confess I was slightly taken aback to see reference made to the contentious topic of Carrolls nude photography in Chapter 8, although the author deals with it there accurately and in the laudably proper context of both its perfect normality at the time and the extremely small number of such photographs that Carroll took. My unease was solely at whether this was, in view of the unhealthy interpretations imposed upon it nowadays, an appropriate subject to be mentioned in a childrens book at all, but I suspect that I am both very out-of-touch with how sophisticated young people have grown these days, and also with how widespread the wicked rumours are about Carroll that make it no longer possible to write such a book without in some manner dealing with them. Angelica Carpenter expertly dispatches the matter in little more than a page, pulling off the difficult feat of making it clear that the photographs were wholly innocent without implying any suggestion that they might not have been, and if the subject must be dealt with, I doubt it could be done much better. I am less comfortable with the second reference to the subject in the final chapter (Morton Cohens discovery of several nude child photographs in the Rosenbach Collection in the 1970s, which fuelled if not initiated the contemporary distrust of Carrolls motives), but that chapter looks at Carrollian developments since his death, so I suppose this occurrence could not be omitted without rendering the biography dishonest.
In any event, I do not want to give a false impression of Angelica Carpenters book by dwelling too long on things which are beyond her control. Her biography is written for twenty-first century children, and although there are difficult matters to be briefly addressed along with the more agreeable account of Carrolls unblemished life, she presents all her material with the same light touch, deftly ensuring that her young audience will be entertained whilst scarcely realising that they are being thoroughly informed at the same time. I think this excellent biography by Angelica Carpenter might well be helpful in creating enthusiasm among modern youngsters for Carroll himself, a delightfully funny and whimsical author whom they really should read!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book, Good Service, November 12, 2008
This review is from: Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass (Lerner Biographies) (Hardcover)
Both the book and the service that supplied it were excellent. Delivery was prompt; book was all that it was advertised to be.
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