Customer Reviews

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

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Sylvie and Bruno is an interesting two volumes of books detailing the visions of an old man as his mind travels in and out of Fairyland. Outside of Fairyland, he participates in deep philosophial and religious discussions with an elite class, and inside of Fairyland he listens to the silly poems and stories of a young fairy duo. As vast as the differences in these environments seem, the old man seems to learn just as much in one place as he does the other.

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded resumes where Sylvie and Bruno left off, with no real story going on in the wanderings of Fairyland, and the engagement between Lady Muriel and her virtuous atheist cousin carrying on in its vague real world details. Before long, the engagement is broken off due to differences in belief, and Lady Muriel ends up marrying the old man's friend, a doctor who has been too shy to express his love for her. How he finally manages to propose to her, I have no idea, but right after the happy wedding takes place, the doctor is called to work in a town where a devestating fever is leaving half the town for dead. A newspaper publishes the death of the last five people in the town, and sure enough the doctor is listed amongst the dead. The old man goes to visit Lady Muriel every now and then, to catch up on old times.

But the old man also visits Fairyland more than a time or two, where he wanders about aimlessly with his fairy friends who bear the name of the book's title (except for the concluded part). Carroll uses Bruno to deliver punchline after punchline, as his sister Sylvie and other people in Fairyland are used to set up the jokes. Wonderful contradictory arguments are presented as well, through a fairy only known as The Professor, and we darn sure know that nobody but Carroll could have written something like this. Highlights of the journey into Fairyland include Bruno's picnic story of a fox eating itself, and a poem about a pig who can't jump. And the major plot points of Fairyland are FINALLY resolved via the infamous deus ex machina method, after being abandoned WAY back in chapter 8 or so of the FIRST Sylvie and Bruno book. But Carroll's Groucho-esque style of rolling off joke after joke makes you forgive him of this blatant plot-butchering.

Eventually Sylvie and Bruno does conclude - miraculously, in a way - and when it does, the virtuous atheist cousin of Lady Muriel's confesses that the Lord has answered his prayer, and he can no longer believe in the same way he has become accustomed.

I bought this back in 2007, but finally got around reading it.

This book has no preface, no pictures, and the page where a chapter starts has the chapter name but no number.

It also has mistakes, such as repeated sentences. The Chapter Mein Herr seems to appear in two places, and the flow is not there.

As it says, the pages are easy to read. That is very true. However, i would not buy this edition, it is very shoddy work.