The Alice behind Wonderland
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The Alice behind Wonderland
（Oxford paperbacks）
Oxford University Press, 2016, c2011
- : pbk
Available at 2 libraries
Note
Originally published: 2011
''First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2016''--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. [99]-100) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean, with a Thomas Ottewill Registered Double Folding camera, recently purchased in London.
Simon Winchester deftly uses the resulting image-as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation-as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature. Dodgson's love of photography framed his view of the world, and was partly responsible for transforming a shy and half-deaf mathematician into one of the world's best-loved observers of childhood. Little wonder that there is more to "Alice Liddell as
the Beggar Maid" than meets the eye. Using Dodgson's published writings, private diaries, and of course his photographic portraits, Winchester gently exposes the development of Lewis Carroll and the making of his Alice.
Acclaim for Simon Winchester
"An exceptionally engaging guide at home everywhere, ready for anything, full of gusto and seemingly omnivorous curiosity."
-Pico Iyer, The New York Times Book Review
"A master at telling a complex story compellingly and lucidly."
-USA Today
"Extraordinarily graceful."
-Time
"Winchester is an exquisite writer and a deft anecdoteur."
-Christopher Buckley
"A lyrical writer and an indefatigable researcher."
-Newsweek
Table of Contents
Chapter One: THE PHOTOGRAPH IN QUESTION
Chapter Two: THE PHOTOGRAPHER-TO-BE
Chapter Three: MATTERS ARISING
Chapter Four: THE RUDE MECHANICALS
Chapter Five: THE FIRST MAKINGS OF ART
Chapter Six: A PORTRAIT MOST PERFECT AND CHASTE
Chapter Seven: AND THEN THE GIRL BECAME A LADY
Acknowledgements
A note on sources
by "Nielsen BookData"