Sylvie and Bruno [Paperback]

Lewis Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Carroll's last major work: bizarre adventures of 2 young children, combining Carrollian nonsense, linguistic play and philosophical reflection. 46 illustrations by Harry Furniss.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Novel for children by Lewis Carroll published in 1889. The work evolved from his short story "Bruno's Revenge," published in 1867 in Aunt Judy's Magazine. With its sequel, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), it was his final work for children. The novel attained some popularity, but was considered puzzling and disjointed. Containing more banter between the titular siblings than plot, the convoluted story operates on two parallel levels, one realistic and didactic, and the other dreamlike and fantastic. It includes elements of fairy tales (Sylvie and Bruno are fairy children bent on doing good works and saving a throne), sentimental moralizing, and edifying episodes espousing social reform. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About the Author

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was an author, a mathematician, a clergyman, and a photographer. His most famous writings are “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”, Through the Looking-Glass, The Hunting of the Snark, and Jabberwocky. Alice in Wonderland made him substantial sums of money, but he never abandoned his lectureship in mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford. His work continues to entertain and amaze both children and adults. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (March 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486255883
• ISBN-13: 978-0486255880
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,119,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the pen name of Oxford mathematician, logician, photographer and author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is famous the world over for his fantastic classics "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," "Through the Looking Glass," "The Hunting of the Snark," "Jabberwocky," and "Sylvie and Bruno."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A goldmine, July 13, 2003

By 

Inti Cristobal Santamaría Bolaños "El Tejano ... (México, D.F. Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sylvie and Bruno (Paperback)

When you begin to read this book (together with its second part "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded"), you must always remember what Lewis Carroll states in the Preface: that the book was written putting together all sorts of bits of writing that the author had skteched and drafted here and there for a long time, trying to find a common thread. So it's an assorted bunch of funny, clever and often deep pages. Even so, you might miss one of the charms of "Alice's adventures in Wonderland": the spontaneity, the straightforwardness. This is very much the opposite situation: a book that was written slowly, painstakingly constructing the main body of the story.

So you can find here almost all dimensions of Carroll's thoughts: humorous nonsense and innumerable puns (including a word as original as "Jabberwocky" or "Boojum": "Phlizz"); logical and mathematical puzzles, including a simple and clever description of a Möbius strip; tender and lovely stories for children; lots of poetry... And three elements I haven't found neither in the Alice books nor in "The Hunting of the Snark": solemn religious meditations; the only real presence of death in a Carroll text (as far as I know, not being a Carroll scholar myself) when Sylvie watches a dead hare; and an adult romance.

All these aspects are intertwined in a precarious narrative line-- there are almost as many disgressions as there are chapters; but what might seem a flaw in the book can be its main charm. All in all, Carroll found here A METHOD FOR NONSENSE or, as he says, "a far clearer idea (...) of the meaning of the word 'chaos'".

This is certainly not the best book to begin to read Carroll, but it's a pity it's not even half as popular as the Alice books. It's really worth reading it: it's like delving deep into the goldmine of the brain and the heart of a genius.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird and confusing but it really grows on you, January 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sylvie and Bruno (Paperback)

At first this seems disappointing after Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. But after a while it grows on you. I don't bother to try and follow the story. I just open it at random and read bits of it. There's always an unusual and interesting idea, or some funny dialogue or else a totally off the wall dreamlike image. Also there are some great poems in it. It is admittedly a patchy book. I like Bruno- he's quite like Alice but that baby talk was popular in Victorian times and grates on you now. Lewis Carroll didn't succeed in blending these great elements into a book that's easy to read, and this is why it is less popular. But it is definitely worth getting if you want another glimpse into the mind that wrote Alice. You will find plenty of the same kind of stuff. Also I think Lewis Carroll was a really nice person as this book often cheers me up when I feel low. It is happy and positive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An old favourite, March 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sylvie and Bruno (Paperback)

This is a book I return to now and then, just to recapture that childlike wonder that Carroll masters so well. The contrast of the adorable fairy children and their beautiful little absudities, against the strangeness of the real world of Carroll's time and culture which seems alien to a modern reader, make for a surreal story that still manages to hit its simple theme on the head: love conquers all.