Customer Reviews

The hunting of the snark: An agony in eight fits

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I am a fan of Lewis Carroll, but somehow was unaware of the existence of an edition of "The Hunting of the Snark" with annotations. As someone who tremendously enjoys Martin Gardner's "Annotated Alice," I heartily recommend this book to like-minded readers. Gardner's annotations and introduction set the stage for the reader, putting the composition of the poem in its proper context in Victorian England, and in Lewis Carroll's life. And as with "Annotated Alice" the annotations are fascinating and amusing in their own right. "The Hunting of the Snark" is one of Carroll's lesser-appreciated (or at least lesser-known) works, and this paperback is an excellent introduction.

I noticed some confusion in the Amazon listings for this book, so let me clarify that the edition with Gardner's annotations is the paperback, and for illustrations it contains reproductions of Henry Holiday's original woodcuts from the 1800's. There are only eight pictures, and these are in old-fashioned style which may turn off some modern readers. This edition does not contain the illustrations - listed in the review of the hardcover editions - by Jonathan Dixon, nor the illustrations by Mervyn Peake also listed as available in hardcover from Amazon.

To Snark fans, though, I would unhesitatingly recommend both those editions as well. Dixon's is little-known, but excellent, the most profusely illustrated Snark, with pictures on every page in lush, gorgeously detailed and humorous pen and ink. It may still be available through the website of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, who published it in a small edition. Peake's drawings are also in beautiful black and white, and capture his own rather dark, quirky "Gormenghast" take on the poem. (A good companion, too, to the recently released editions of "Alice" with Peake's drawings.)

This edition of Lewis Carroll's hilarious and haunting nonsense poem was originally published as THE ANNOTATED SNARK in 1962. Featuring Henry Holiday's original 1876 illustrations and a plethora of critical supplementary material, this is certainly the best edition of the poem currently available. Martin Gardner, who is perhaps best known for his ANNOTATED ALICE books, provides copious informative notes, many of them intended tongue in cheek, that explicate the myriad mysteries of Carroll's enigmatic sea voyage. Particularly noteworthy is Gardner's inclusion, as an appendix, of A COMMENTARY ON THE SNARK, a wonderfully loony "explanatory" essay by one Snarkophilus Snobbs that manages to brilliantly parody and demolish any attempt to provide solemn scholarly commentary on Carroll's silly but strangely disturbing work. Nonetheless, in his introduction, Gardner takes the time to offer brief descriptions of some of the more notable serious attempts to "force the whole of the SNARK into one overall metaphorical pattern." We'll never know exactly what was going through Carroll's mind when he created this epic journey--especially since the author himself claimed that the poem was devoid of any meaning--but the many efforts to explain it away are often ingenious and entertaining.

One of the most unusual poems ever written, "The Hunting of the Snark" is the uncontested masterpiece of nonsense verse. The verbal richness and flexibility of the English language are exploited to the utmost in this riotously funny, formally perfect, and delightfully absurd narrative poem about a strange assortment of characters out to hunt a fearsome creature known, among other things, for its habit of getting up so late that it breakfasts af five-o'clock tea and dines on the following day. No review can do justice to a work as original and extraordinary as this one, written more than a century ago to entertain Victorian children, but read now mostly by grownups. This is the very pinnacle of British humor, soaring far above even Monty Python's most inspired moments.

Lewis Carroll is brilliant in this piece. First of all the poetical music is perfect, absolutely perfect, and yet the words don't mean much. Many of these words are not even to be found in any dictionary. Be it only for the music, this piece is astonishingly good. But the piece has a meaning. I will not enter the numerical value of the numbers used in the poem : 3, 42, 6, 7, 20, 10, 992, 8, and I am inclined to say etc because some are more or less hidden here and there in the lines. Hunting for these numbers is like hunting for the snark, an illusion. But the general meaning of the poem is a great allegory to social and political life. A society, any society gives itself an aim, a target, a purpose and everyone is running after it without even knowing what it is. What is important in society is not what you are running after or striving for, but only the running and the striving. Lewis Carroll is thus extremely modern in this total lack of illusions about society, social life and politics : just wave a flag of any kind, or anything that can be used as a flag and can be waved, in front of the noses of people and they will run after it or run in the direction it indicates. They love roadsigns and social life is a set of roadsigns telling you where to go. Everyone goes there, except of course the roadsigns themselves who never go in the direction they indicate. Lewis Carroll is thus the first post-modern poet of the twenty-first century. He just lived a little bit too early.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This is a very puzzling poem which makes you think of all kinds of things. In his witty introduction Lewis Carroll said he himself didn't know what it was about; he said it ought to be about what anyone wanted it to be about. It's just a peep into that famous subconscious of his, I suppose. Personally I think it is about endings and perhaps death yet it is so funny and memorable, and full of strange images. It's worth getting an annotated version although personally I don't think this annotated edition covers everything you need to know. Henry Holiday's pictures are terrific; in a way, as good as Tenniel's - for a very different kind of book. (For Alice fans, this poem takes place on the island of Jabberwock. But it's a more adult type of thing than Alice. Teenagers may well like it but children would probably be puzzled.)

I have read a great deal of nonsense in the past, but this was by far the best nonsense that I have ever read. There is no point, no meaning, no sense, and no boringness. It is a delightful poem (which is well written and very fun to read aloud) about a crew on a ship hunting a snark. The crew includes a captain who only rings a bell, a beaver, a cook who only cooks beavers (the beaver and the cook did not get along well), a man afraid that the snark would turn into a boojum and make him disappear, etc. As you can tell, this makes for an insanely silly poem. The subtitle is rather fitting, as my sides were definitely hurting from laughter when I was done. Well done Mr. Carroll.

Overall grade: A+

Like The Annotated Alice, Martin Gardner's annotations set this version above the rest. The politics and economics of England in the 1870's are prominent in the characters (and in Holiday's caricatures) and Gardner's notes are very relevant in putting what appears to be nonsense into historical relevance. Also included is a very detailed Bibliography and two Appendices - "A Commentary on the Snark" and "Fit the Seventh and a Halfth" - that Gardner has rounded up.

The poem is Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's (and Joseph Swain's) masterpiece (5 stars). In the 2010 Evertype edition I miss the "Easter Greeting" (minus one star; the publisher chose to publish it in his edition of Alice's Adventures under Ground), which Carroll inserted into the already printed book perhaps in order to defuse that explosive ballad a bit. Hint: Compare Holiday's "Billiard marker" with Henry George Liddell, Carroll's boss at Christ Church College. There are many more conundrums in the poem and in the illustrations.

Three quotes, which are related to this book:

(1) "Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as 'Alice'? And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all ... And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when my turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows." (Lewis Carroll, 1876)

This is from the "Easter Greeting".

(2) "Perhaps I may venture, for a moment, to use a more serious tone, and to point out that there are mental troubles, much worse than mere worry, for which an absorbing subject of thought may serve as a remedy. There are skeptical thoughts, which seem for the moment to uproot the firmest faith; there are blasphemous thoughts, which dart unbidden into the most reverent souls; there are unholy thoughts, which torture, with their hateful presence, the fancy that would fain be pure. Against all these some real mental work is a most helpful ally." (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: Pillow Problems and a Tangled Tale, 1885, p. XV)

Sometimes I have the feeling, that friends of "The Hunting of the Snark" are afraid of "overanalysis". Some even may fear, that the Snark may have to leave the public library. But even if one day we would speak openly about all its textual and graphical elements, the book still will be one of the greatest children books in the library. This is, because Carroll and Holiday did not place these elements into the Snark for their personal satisfaction. Henry Holiday gave us a hint:

(3) "It is possible that the author was half-consciously laying a trap, so readily did he take to the inventing of puzzles and things enigmatic; but to those who knew the man, or who have devined him correctly through his writings, the explanation is fairly simple." (Henry Holiday on Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark", January 29th, 1898)

In the preface to the Snark, Carroll points to his intentions by pretending, that he would not point to them: "I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose of this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History." (As a logician, Carroll of course knows, how such a sentence works.) I think that Carroll was very serious about this statement. It is not ironical. The book holds the readers and the beholders of the Snark ballad responsible for the meanig which THEY give to the poem and to the illustrations. That is how Carroll's and Holiday's "nonsense" works. Keep this in mind and do not underestimate the Snark or assume any inproper intentions on the side of the authors. The book just tells the readers (and they beholders of the illustrations), what they have in their mind. Take Holiday's warning about Carroll's traps serious, then you can enjoy the book without getting caught by the Boojum.

In the Snark edition published by Evertype you won't find serious analysis. That is fine, the book has been published to offer plain Snark to the whole family. (That is why I miss the Easter Greeting.) Those who want to dig deeper should turn to Martin Gardener's "Annotaded Snark" (1981): Charles Mitchell's "The Designs for the Snark" in the 1981 Kaufmann edition of the Annotaded Snark still is a great collection of information on the Snark poem and its illustrations.

Links: Victorian Approaches to Religion As Reflected in the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites (Philosphiae Doctores)|Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye, The New Version, Second edition, Revised and Enlarged|Lewis Carroll & his Illustrators: Collaborations & Correspondence 1865-1898.|The Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators: The Published Graphic Art of the English Pre-Raphaelites and Their Associates With Critical Biographical Essays and Illustrated Catalogues of the|Arne Nordheim: Hunting Of The Snark (Music Sales America)|Arne Nordheim: The Return Of The Snark (contemporary composition for trombone and tape recorder)|Nyndk: The Hunting of the Snark (Jazz, B002S395C6)

First, this one of the most delightful pieces of writing that ever appeared in (more or less) English. It succeeds as a sustained exercise in illogic. I am sure that only a mathematical logician like Dodgson could possibly have pulled it off - only someone with such deep understanding of reason could master unreason so completely.

Second, Martin Gardner's commentary adds depth and background to the reading. Gardner explains terms that are now obsolete, but also adds his own analysis and a rich history of the Snark phenomenon. It should be no surprise that Gardner is still best known as the long-time editor of Scientific American's column on Mathematical Games, a mathematician himself.

I can't add much to the scholarship or praise that already surrounds this incredible poem. I would like to point out, however, that most non-native English speakers are unfamiliar with this poem. Many of them have only ever seen the serious side of the English language, and have never seen English at play. I consider this short work to be the ideal introduction to the very best of English-language nonsense.

//wiredweird

"The Hunting of the Snark" is a brilliant nonsense-poem. Yet Gardner has seen fit to put pretentious, geeky, ...pedantic annotations all over it. Now I like nonsense, but the vulgarly rational "sense" of some of these annotations irritates me. Do we really need to know that the word "BOMB" begins and ends with B (thereby relating it to the Boojum) and that OM is the Hindu name of God??? Do we really need to know of a political cartoon in which Kruschev says "BOO", and does Gardner have to tell us that he was trying to say Boojum??

Annotations should be done in the manner of Gardner's own annotations of Alice in Wonderland. Now those were annotations that made *sense*. Annotations that simply explained out of date concepts, gave relevant details from Carroll's own life, or obscure humour. That's all! That is what annotations should be like.

The pedantic geekery of these annotations remind me of the...games of Star Trek fanatics (or Sherlock Holmes fanatics).

The poem is brilliant, though; and the illustrations were funny, before the annotations over-analysed them.