Sylvie and Bruno (Nonsuch Classics) [Paperback]

Lewis Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Series: Nonsuch Classics | Publication Date: February 15, 2007

"Sylvie and Bruno", first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume, "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded", form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. The novel has two main plots; one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fictional world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairytale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll's most famous children's book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel exploring aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality.

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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832-14 January 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the comic poem 'The Hunting of the Snark' and the nonsense poem 'Jabberwocky.'

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (February 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845882350
• ISBN-13: 978-1845882358
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,271,547 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.