Customer Reviews

Tennyson's Gift

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This book is about madness, celebrity and obsession. An eccentric mathematician and photographer takes a holiday to the Isle of Wight in the summer of 1964 with the hope of photographing the poet laureate just as his first novel, written for children, is about to become the greatest literary sensation of his era. There he encounters any number of strange people all suffering from their own obsessions and delusions.

All of the characters in this book are based on Real People from the wonderful Julia Margaret Cameron to Ellen Terry, Lorenzo and Jessie Fowler, G F Watts and of course Tennyson. Historians might quibble about the accuracy of the portrayals especially of stuttering do-do Dodgson as Truss overplays his social awkwardness and interest in little girls, though to great comic effect. The era however is evoked wonderfully.

A lesser contemporary novelist would have had Lewis Carrol solve a murder or fight vampires Truss involves him in a nosensical farce that echoes his own novel and the result is hliarious. If you are a fan of English comedy especially class based comedies like those of Wilde or Wodehouse you will love this book.

All the characters in 'Alice in Wonderland' living in the same seaside town and the most delightful is the author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) who to his horror is pursued relentlessly with a view to matrimony by the little girl he admires. And the woman who is obsessed by Alfred Lord Tennyson has her white roses painted red (his preference). If you thought the characters in his story about Alice were unbalanced these are even crazier and much more amusing. Great work, Lynne Truss!