Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Decoded

by David Day

  Although Mrs. Hargreaves in old age occasionally claimed to have tired of being Alice, these celebrations had made her once again the popular princess she had been in her youth at the Christ Church Deanery, and it must have given her some pleasure, as Carroll had hoped, in “remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.” Also, she could no longer claim to suffer from isolation and loneliness. These last years had brought her worldwide celebrity, with letters and well-wishes pouring in from all parts of the world. She died peacefully at the age of eighty-two, on November 16, 1934.

  Man and boy: Peter Llewelyn Davies, the inspiration for Peter Pan.

  Down another rabbit-hole: A Rosicrucian engraving, 1785.

  * In the twentieth century, JRR Tolkien appears to have been aware of the historic significance of Radcliffe Camera. In one of his more obscure early works, The Notion Papers, Tolkien’s description of Radcliffe Camera suggests it was the architectural model for his satanic temple of Morgoth the Dark Enemy in The Silmarillion. One might suspect the motivation for this portrayal was Tolkien’s devout Catholicism, and the view that Radcliffe Camera was symbolic of the influence of Freemasons on Oxford.

  ** Christ Church’s great quadrangle fountain with its Giovanni da Bologna bronze of Mercury was installed by John Radcliffe in the seventeenth century around the time of the construction of Sir Christopher Wren’s Great Tom Tower gate. In 1820, the statue of Mercury was pulled down and destroyed as an undergraduate prank by the young Lord Stanley (the future Prime Minister, the Earl of Derby). Only Mercury’s head survived and was kept in the Christ Church Library (where Lewis Carroll was sub-librarian.) It was not until 1928 that a lead copy replaced the original statue of Mercury in the fountain. The fountain was frequently the scene of undergraduate hazings between various college factions. Just such an incident is suggested in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (1945) when the “aesthete” student Anthony Blanche has a gang of students threatening to “put Anthony in Mercury.”

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgements

  Image Credits

  Bibliography

  Abeles, Francine F. Mathematical Pamphlets of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Related Pieces. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press / Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 1994.

  Abeles, Francine F. Political Pamphlets of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Related Pieces. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press / Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 2001.

  Abeles, Francine F. Logic Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll and Related Pieces. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press / Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 2010.

  Ackerman, Sherry. Behind the Looking Glass: Reflections on the Myth of Lewis Carroll. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publications, 2008.

  Ayres, Harry Morgan. Carroll’s Alice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932.

  Bakewell, Michael. Lewis Carroll: A Biography. London: Heinemann, 1996.

  Bartley III, William Warren. Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic, Part I and Part II. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1977.

  Batey, Mavis. Alice’s Adventures in Oxford. Oxford: Pitkin Guides, 1980.

  Bill, E.G.W., and Mason, J.F.A. Christ Church and Reform, 1850–1867. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

  Black, Duncan. A Mathematical Approach to Proportional Representation: Duncan Black on Lewis Carroll. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996.

  Bowman, Isa. The Story of Lewis Carroll Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland. London: J.H. Dent, 1899.

  Clark, Ann. Lewis Carroll: A Biography. London: Dent, 1979.

  Clark, Ann. The Real Alice: Lewis Carroll’s Dream Child. London: Michael Joseph, 1981.

  Cohen, Morton N., ed. The Selected Letters of Lewis Carroll. London: Macmillan, 1982.

  Cohen, Morton N., ed. Lewis Carroll: Interviews and Recollections. Iowa: University of Iowa, 1989.

  Cohen, Morton N., ed. The Letters of Lewis Carroll. London: Macmillan, 1979.

  Cohen, Morton N., ed. Lewis Carroll: A Biography. London: Macmillan, 1995.

  Cohen, Morton N. Reflections in a Looking Glass: A Centennial Celebration of Lewis Carroll, Photographer. New York: Aperture Press, 1998.

  Collingwood, Stuart Dodgson. The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1898.

  Debenham, Frank. Navigation With Alice. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1961.

  Edens, Cooper, ed. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: A Classics Illustrated Edition. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2010.

  Gardiner, Martin. The Annotated Alice. New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc., 1960.

  Gardiner, Martin. More Annotated Alice. New York: Random House, 1990.

  Gardiner, Martin. The Universe in a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll’s Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles and Word Plays. New York: Copernicus, 1996.

  Gardiner, Martin. The Annotated Alice: the Definitive Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000.

  Gersheim, Helme. Lewis Carroll, Photographer. London: Max Parrish, 1949.

  Green, Roger Lancelyn. The Story of Lewis Carroll. London: Methuen & Co., 1949.

  Green, Roger Lancelyn, ed. The Diaries of Lewis Carroll. London: Cassell, 1953.

  Green, Roger Lancelyn. Lewis Carroll. London: Bodley Head, 1960.

  Green, Roger Lancelyn, ed. The Works of Lewis Carroll. London: Paul Hamlyn, 1965.

  Guiliano, Edward, and Kincaid, James R., eds. Soaring with the Dodo: Essays on Lewis Carroll’s Life and Art. Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 1982.

  Heath, Peter. The Philosopher’s Alice. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1982.

  Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic Books, 1979.

  Hudson, Derek. Lewis Carroll: An Illustrated Biography. London: Constable, 1954.

  Jones, Jo Elwyn, and Gladstone, Francis. The Red King’s Dream or Lewis Carroll in Wonderland. London: Pimlico, 1995.

  Leach, Karoline. In the Shadow of the Dream Child: A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll. London: Peter Owen, 1999.

  Lennon, Florence Becker. Victoria Through the Looking Glass. London: Cassell, 1945.

  Lovett, Charlie. Lewis Carroll Among His Books. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2005.

  Nagel, Ernest. The World of Mathematics Vol 3. XIII, “Symbolic Notation, Haddocks’ Eyes and the Dog-Walking Ordinance.” New York: Simon & Shuster, 1956.

  Patten, Bernard M. The Logic of Alice: Clear Thinking in Wonderland. New York: Prometheus, 2009.

  Pycior, Helena M. Victorian Studies 28.1, “At the Intersection of Mathematics and Humour: Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alices’ and Symbolic Algebra.” Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.

  Reed, Langford. The Life of Lewis Carroll. London: W. and G. Foyle Ltd., 1932.

  Sewell, Elizabeth. The Field of Nonsense. London: Chatto and Windus, 1952.

  Stoffel, Stephanie Lovett. Lewis Carroll and Alice. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

  Taylor, Alexander. The White Knight. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1952.

  Taylor, Roger, and Wakeling, Edward. Lewis Carroll: Photographer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

  Thomas, Donald. Lewis Carroll: A Portrait With Background. London: John Murray, 1998.

  Wakeling, Edward, ed. Lewis Carroll’s Diaries, the Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: Volumes 1-10. Southsea: Lewis Carroll Society, 1993–2007.

  Wakeling, Edward, ed. Oxford Pamphlets, Leaflets and Circulars of Charles Dodgson. Southsea: Lewis Carroll Society, 1993.

  Williams, Sidney, and Madan, Falconer, eds. A Handbook of the Literature of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932.

  Woollcott, Alexander. Introduction. The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. London: Nonesuch Press, 1939.

  Acknowledgements

  Many thousands of books, articles and theses have been written about Lewis Carroll and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I cannot now even guess how many I have read over the last couple of d
ecades. My reading in preparation for this book has also included a multitude of other Victorian poets, authors, artists, historians, mathematicians, theologians, philosophers and mystics.

  There are exceptional works that must be specifically acknowledged.

  All Carrollian biographers and scholars rely heavily on the work of Dodgson’s nephew Stuart Dodgson Collingwood in his The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, published in 1898.

  Four substantial biographies were published in the mid-twentieth century: Roger Lancelyn Green’s The Story of Lewis Carroll (1949), Florence Becker Lennon’s Victoria Through the Looking Glass (1945), Alexander Taylor’s The White Knight (1952) and Derek Hudson’s Lewis Carroll (1954). Three other notable biographies appeared in the 1990s: Jo Elwyn Jones and Francis Gladstone’s The Red King’s Dream (1995), Michael Bakewell’s Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1996) and Donald Thomas’s Lewis Carroll: A Portrait With Background (1998). Although I have taken a quite different approach, all of these works have to some degree informed and influenced the writing of this book.

  The gold standard for Carrollian scholarship was set by Morton Cohen in his meticulously researched Lewis Carroll: A Biography in 1995. It is a work of great depth and provides important insights into the historic context of Charles Dodgson and his writing.

  Another inspiration was Martin Gardiner’s Annotated Alice books; the first version appeared in 1960 and various manifestations continued up to the ultimate The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition in 2000. The perpetual popularity of his Alice has inspired a veritable industry of annotated books. I am also indebted to Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid—a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll for the insights provided by his extraordinary deconstruction of Carroll’s logical paradox “What the Tortoise Said to Achilles.”

  Beyond his creative writing, essays and mathematical works, two other primary and indispensable sources of insight into the mind of Lewis Carroll were provided by his diaries and letters. A selection of The Diaries of Lewis Carroll were edited and published by Roger Lancelyn Green in 1949, and The Letters of Lewis Carroll were edited and published by Morton Cohen in 1979. Then between 1993 and 2007, the tireless Carrollian scholar Edward Wakeling edited all surviving diaries, published as Lewis Carroll’s Diaries, The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, in ten volumes. Also, further insights were provided by Charlie Lovett’s heroic effort to recreate Carroll’s personal library with his Lewis Carroll Among His Books (2005).

  For rather specialized insights into nineteenth century mathematics and logic, I am thankful for the scholarly reconstructions of Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic, Part I and Part II (1977) by William Warren Bartley III, and A Mathematical Approach to Proportional Representation: Duncan Black on Lewis Carroll (1996). Also, I am most indebted to Francine F. Abeles, Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Computer Science, Kean University, New Jersey, not only for her Mathematical Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll and Related Pieces (1994) and Logic Pamphlets of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Related Pieces (2010), but also for her careful reading of my text in chapter 12 and specifically her advice and encouragement related to Boolean logic in my interpretation of the trial of the Knave of Hearts, as well as my resolution of the “Riddle of the Hatter’s Hat.”

  For equally specialized insights into political and academic life in nineteenth century Oxford, I am thankful for the scholarship of E.G.W. Bill and J.F.A. Mason’s Christ Church and Reform, 1850-1867 (1982) and Edward Wakeling’s Oxford Pamphlets, Leaflets and Circulars of Charles Dodgson (1993); as well as Francine Abeles’ Political Pamphlets of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Related Pieces (2001).

  Too numerous to name are the many contributors to the Lewis Carroll Society’s publications: The Carrollian (formerly Jabberwocky) scholarly journal, Lewis Carroll Review and the Bandersnatch newsletter. Also, there are the contributors of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America’s publications: Knight Letter, Rectory Umbrella, and its Far-flung Knight blog. Special thanks are due to Knight Letter editor Mahendra Singh and Dayna Nuhn of the Lewis Carroll Society of Canada.

  I am indebted to the British Library (King’s Cross), London Library (St. James Square), Wellcome Library (Euston Square), Toronto Reference Library, Toronto’s Lillian H. Smith Library and the Osborne Collection of Early Childhood Books librarian Leslie McGrath and the University of Toronto Libraries: particularly the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (Joseph Brabant Collection) librarians Anne Dondertman, Deborah Whiteman, John Shoesmith, Paul Armstrong, Jason Brown, Jennifer Toews and Tom Reid. Also Victoria University (Toronto) E.J. Pratt Library’s librarians: Lisa Sherlock, Agatha Barc, Alison Girling and Roma Kali.

  I am most grateful to Brad Martin, CEO Penguin Random House Canada for turning a chance encounter into a commitment to publish, and to vice-president and creative director Scott Richardson for his inspired design. Most especially, I must acknowledge that whatever integrity and coherence this book possesses is in no small part due to the patience and persistence of its insightful editor, Tim Rostron.

  I also wish to thank at Doubleday Canada associate editors Zoe Maslow and Kiara Kent, managing editor Susan Burns, and production manager Carla Kean. Researchers Loribeth Gregg, Carly McMillan, Peter Phillips and Melanie Tutino did more than assist; they made the book possible.

  A grateful acknowledgment is also due to Terry, Alison, Sally and Bill Jones for giving me shelter and support during the early years in the creation of this book.

  And finally, to my wife Róisín Magill for never doubting and tirelessly working with me to create and develop this book through its many stages and manifestations.

  Image Credits

  Illustrations from the first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are by John Tenniel. London: Macmillan, 1865. Found on pages 1.1, 1.11, 2.1, 2.5 (bottom right), 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 6.15, 7.1, 7.3, 7.24–8.2, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1, 11.6, 12.1, 12.8.

  INTRODUCTION

  *xii. Garratt, Arthur. Tom Tower, illustration from Christ Church, Oxford: An Anthology in Prose & Verse, by Arthur Hassall. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.

  fm1.1. Lewis Carroll. c.1870. Photomechanical print. In The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood. New York: The Century Co., 1898.

  fm1.2. Carroll, Lewis. What I Look Like When I’m Lecturing. 1868. Drawing. In The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood. New York: The Century Co., 1898.

  itr.3. Carroll, Lewis. Carroll with MacDonald Children. c.1862. Photograph. In Lewis Carroll: A Biography, by Morton N. Cohen. New York: Knopf, 1995.

  itr.4. Garratt, Arthur. The Library (Interior), illustration from Christ Church, Oxford: An Anthology in Prose & Verse, by Arthur Hassall. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.

  itr.5. Garratt, Arthur. Great Quadrangle II, illustration from Christ Church, Oxford: An Anthology in Prose & Verse, by Arthur Hassall. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.

  itr.6. Garratt, Arthur. Christ Church from Lady Montagu’s Meadow, illustration from Christ Church, Oxford: An Anthology in Prose & Verse, by Arthur Hassall. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.

  Part One: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

  PRELUDE POEM: ALL IN THE GOLDEN AFTERNOON

  P1.2. Carroll, Lewis. Alice Liddell. 1858. Wet collodion glass-plate negative. In The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood. New York: The Century Co., 1898.

  P1.3. Turner, Joseph Mallord William. Christ Church Cathedral and Deanery, Oxford. c.1795. Watercolour on paper. Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Courtesy of © Corpus Christi College, Oxford and The Bridgeman Art Library.

  P1.4. Haslehust, Ernest William. Folly Bridge, Oxford, illustration from The Thames, by G.E. Mitton. London: Blackie & Son, 1910. Courtesy of Saint Michael’s College Library, Toronto, and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto.

  P1.5. Carroll, Lewis. Alice Liddell; Ina Liddell; Harry Liddell; Edith Mary
Liddell. 1860. Albumen print. National Portrait Gallery, London. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

  P1.6. Carroll, Lewis. Three Liddell Sisters Playing Ukulele. c.1860. Photograph. Reprinted with the permission of AP Watt Limited on behalf of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America and the Executors of the C.L. Dodgson Estate.

  P1.6. The Three Fates. Date unknown. Illustration.

  P1.7. Thumann, Friedrich Paul. The Morae (or Three Fates). c.19th century. Porcelain plaque.

  CHAPTER 1: DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE

  1.2. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Proserpine (Persephone). 1874. Oil on canvas. Tate Britain, London. Provenance © Tate, London, 2014.

  1.3. Carroll, Lewis. Alice Liddell as Queen of the May. c.1860. Photograph. Reprinted with the permission of AP Watt Limited on behalf of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America and the Executors of the C.L. Dodgson Estate.

  1.4. Gehrts, Johannes. Ostara, illustration from Walhall, by Felix Dahn and Therese Dahn. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1885.

  16 (bottom). Woodward, Alice B. Alice and Sister with White Rabbit, illustration from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. London: George Bell & Sons, 1913. Courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto.

  1.5. Maull, Henry, George Henry Polyblank, and D.J. Pound. Sir Henry Wentworth Acland. c.1859. Stipple engraved print. Wellcome Library, London. Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  1.6. Landseer, Edwin Henry. Scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Titania and Bottom. c.1850. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Felton Bequest, 1932.