All books by Lewis Carroll. A Brief Biography of Lewis Carroll How L Carroll Named Literature

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Carroll Lewis (real name Charles Luthwidge Dodgson) (1832-1898), English writer and mathematician.

Born January 27, 1832 in the village of Daresbury (Cheshire) in a large family of a rural priest. As a child, Charles was fond of literature; he set up his own puppet theater and composed plays for it.

The future writer wanted to become a priest, like his father, so he entered Oxford University at the Faculty of Theology, but there he became interested in mathematics. He then taught mathematics at Christchurch College, Oxford, for a quarter of a century (1855-1881).

On July 4, 1862, young Professor Dodgson went for a walk with the Liddell family of his acquaintances. During this walk for Alice Liddell and her two sisters, he told the tale of Alice's adventures. Charles was persuaded to write down a story he had made up. In 1865, Alice in Wonderland was published as a separate book. However, Dodgson, who by that time had already taken the priesthood, could not sign it with his own name. He took the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The author himself considered "Alice" a fairy tale for adults, and only in 1890 he released her children's version. After the release of the first edition of the fairy tale, many letters came from readers asking them to continue the fascinating story. Carroll wrote Alice Through the Looking-Glass (published 1871). The knowledge of the world through the game, proposed by the writer, has become a common technique in children's literature.

The Alice books are not Carroll's only works.

In 1867 he left England for the only time in his life, going with his friend to Russia. Carroll described his impressions in the Russian Diary.

He also wrote poems for children and the book Silvia and Bruno.

The writer himself called his writings nonsense (nonsense) and did not attach any importance to them. He considered the main business of life to be a serious mathematical work dedicated to the ancient Greek scientist Euclid.

Modern experts believe that Dodgson's main scientific contribution was made by his work on mathematical logic. Children and adults enjoy reading his stories.

Which to this day leaves a lot of juicy questions, gives out a multifaceted and talented person. He is both a capable mathematician and a talented writer. Based on the works of the author, more than 100 films in various genres have been shot.

Place of birth England

The 19th century is famous for many geniuses, one of them everyone knows - Lewis Carroll. His biography begins in the picturesque village of Daresbury, which was part of Cheshire. There were 11 children in the home of Rector Charles Dodgson. The future writer was named after his father, he was born on January 27, 1832 and received home education until the age of 12. Then he was sent to a private school, where he studied until 1845 inclusive. Spent the next 4 years at Rugby. In this institution, he was less happy, but showed brilliant success in the disciplines of mathematics and the word of God. In 1950 he entered Christ Chert, in 1851 he transferred to Oxford.

At home, the head of the family himself worked with all the children, and the classes were like fun games. To better explain the basics of counting and writing to young children, the father used items such as chess and abacus. The lessons of the rules of conduct were like cheerful feasts, where knowledge was put into children's heads by way of “tea drinking in reverse”. When young Charles was in grammar school, science was easy, he was praised, and learning was a pleasure. But in the subsequent study of the sciences, the pleasure was gone, and success was less. By Oxford, he was considered an average student with good but untapped abilities.

New name

He began to write his first stories and poems while still in college under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The biography of the birth of a new name is simple. His friend and publisher Yates advised him to simply change the first letters for a better sound. There were several suggestions, but Charles settled on this short version, and most importantly, convenient for the pronunciation of children. He published his work in mathematics under his real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Mathematician and logician

Studying in college was boring for the writer. But he got his bachelor's degree easily, and in a math lecturing competition he won the opportunity to teach a course at Christchurt. Charles Dodgson devoted 26 years to Euclidean geometry, algebra and mathematics. analysis, became seriously interested in the theory of probability and mathematical puzzles. Almost by accident, he developed a method for calculating determinants (Dodgson condensation).

There are two views on his scientific activity. Some believe that he did not bring an impressive contribution, but teaching brought a steady income and the opportunity to do what he loved. But there is an opinion that the achievements of C. L. Dodgson in the field of logic simply outstripped the mathematical science of that time. The development of simpler sorite solutions is set out in "Symbolic Logic", and the second volume has already been adapted for children's perception and was called "Logic Game".

Spiritual dignity and travel to Russia

At the college, Charles Dodgson was ordained a deacon. Thanks to this, he could read sermons, but not work in the parish. At this time there was a development of contacts between the English Church and Russian Orthodoxy. For the holiday dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Metropolitan Philaret's tenure at the Moscow cathedra, the writer and deacon Charles and the theologian Henry Liddon were invited to Russia. Dodgson truly enjoyed the journey. Having performed his duties at official meetings and events, he visited museums, recorded impressions of cities and people. Some phrases in Russian are included by him in the Travel Diary. It was a book not for publication, but for personal use, which was published only after the death of the author.

Meetings of Russians and Englishmen, conversations through translators and informal walks around the city left a vivid impression on the young deacon. Before (and after) he never went anywhere else, except for occasional visits to London and Bath.

Lewis Carroll. Biography of the writer


In 1856, Charles meets the family of the new dean of the college, Henry Liddell (not to be confused with different people). A strong friendship develops between them. Frequent visits bring Dodgson closer to all family members, but especially to his youngest daughter Alice, who is only 4 years old. The spontaneity, charm and cheerful disposition of the girl captivate the author. Lewis Carroll, whose works are already published in such serious magazines as "Comic Times" and "The Train", finds a new Muse.

In 1864, the first work about the fabulous Alice was published. After a trip to Russia, Carroll creates the second story of the adventures of the main character, published in 1871. The writer's style went down in history as "a kind of Carrellian." The fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" was written for children, but enjoys steady success with all fans of the fantasy genre. The author used philosophical and mathematical jokes in the plot. The work became a classic and the best example of the absurd, the structure of the narrative and the actions had a strong influence on the development of the art of that time. Lewis Carroll created a new direction in literature.

two books

The fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" is the first part of the adventure. The plot tells about a girl who is trying to catch up with a funny Rabbit in a hat and with a pocket watch. Through the hole, she enters the hall, where there are many small doors. To enter the garden with flowers, Alice reduces her height with the help of a fan. In the magical world, she meets a leisurely Caterpillar, a funny wise and mischievous Duchess who loves to cut heads. Alice attends a crazy tea party with the March Hare and the Hatter. In the garden, the Heroine meets the card guards who turn white roses red. After playing croquet with the Queen, Alice goes to court, where she acts as a witness. But suddenly the girl begins to grow, all the characters turn into cards and the dream ends.

A few years later, the author publishes the second part under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. "Alice Through the Looking Glass" is a journey through a mirror to another world, which is a chessboard. Here the heroine meets the White King, talking flowers, the Black Queen, Humpty Dumpty and other fairy-tale characters, prototypes of chess.

Brief analysis of books about Alice

Lewis Carroll, whose books can be sorted into mathematical and philosophical problems, tries to ask difficult questions in his works. The flight through in its slowness resembles the theory with decreasing acceleration towards the center of the Earth. When Alice remembers the multiplication table, it is used in which 4X5 is really equal to 12. And in the reductions and increases in the girl and in her fear (as if not to disappear at all), one can recognize E. Whittaker's research on changes in the Universe.

The smell of pepper in the Duchess's house - on the severity and rigidity of the mistress's character. And also a reminder of the habit of the poor to pepper food to hide the taste of cheap meat. The conflict between science and ethics is clearly seen in the remark of the Cheshire Cat: "If you walk for a long time, you will definitely come somewhere." During the tea party, Carroll gives the phrase that Alice's long hair needs to be cut to the Hatter character. A contemporary of the writer claims that this is a personal hairpin to all those who were dissatisfied with Charles's hair in life, as he wore his hair longer than the fashion of that time allowed.

And these are just the well-known examples. In fact, any situation in Alice's adventures can be decomposed into a logical riddle or a philosophical problem of the concept of the world.

Carroll quotes

Lewis Carroll, whose quotes are used today as often as Shakespeare's, was the latent rebel of his time. “Hidden” means that he expressed his disagreement with the rules of behavior in society with veiled barbs. For example, too long hair.

  • That would be for a change to meet a reasonable person!
  • Life, of course, is serious, but not very ...
  • Time can't be wasted!
  • It is correct to explain something to another - to do everything yourself.
  • Morality is everywhere - you need to look for it!
  • Everything is different, that's normal.
  • If you rush, you will miss the miracle.
  • Why does anyone need morality so much?!
  • The entertainment of the intellect is necessary for the health of the spirit.

Spicy gossip of the 19th century

Lewis Carroll, whose books do not lose popularity from the Queen of England to the Russian schoolboy, was a lonely and unsociable member of society. A talented man was engaged in photography and (with the permission of mothers) photographed young beauties naked for his collection. In life and in college, Charles Dodgson was withdrawn, stuttering and deaf in one ear. The spiritual dignity did not allow him to marry.

There are several rebuttals to rumors born during the life of the writer. Yes, he felt flawed and that is why he avoided women of his age. All the girls with whom he spoke were over 14 years old. For that time, these are already young ladies in search of a groom. There is no hint of sexual harassment in the girls' memories. And many of them deliberately reduced their age so as not to be compromised. A child can freely communicate with a man, but a decent lady cannot.

Lewis Carroll, real name - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Dodson). Date of birth: January 27, 1832. Birthplace: Quiet village of Dersbury, Cheshire, UK. Nationality: British to the core. Distinguishing features: asymmetrical eyes, turned up corners of the lips, deaf in the right ear; stutters. Occupation: professor of mathematics at Oxford, deacon. Hobbies: amateur photographer, amateur artist, amateur writer. The last one to underline.

Our birthday boy, in fact, is an ambiguous personality. That is, if you represent it in numbers, you get not one, but two - or even three. We consider.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), graduated with honors in mathematics and Latin, in later years a professor at Oxford University, as well as curator of the teaching club (with the quirks inherent in status and institution!), A prosperous and exceptionally respectable citizen of Victorian society, who sent more than a hundred thousand letters in his life, written in a clear, compact handwriting, a pious deacon of the Anglican Church, the most talented British photographer of his time, a gifted mathematician and innovative logician, many years ahead of his time - this is one.

Lewis Carroll, beloved by all children of the classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Saw (1871) and The Hunt for the Snark (1876), was a man who spent three-quarters of his free time with children, able to tirelessly tell stories to children for hours, accompanying them with funny drawings, and, going for a walk, loading his bag with all kinds of toys, puzzles and gifts for the children he might meet, a kind of Santa Claus for every day - these are two.

Perhaps (only possible, but not necessarily!), There was also a third one - let's call it "Invisible". Because no one has ever seen him. A man about whom, immediately after Dodgson's death, a myth was specially created to cover up a reality that no one knew.

The first can be called a successful professor, the second - an outstanding writer. Carroll III is a complete failure, Boojum instead of Snark. But the failure of the international level, the failure of a sensation. This third Carroll is the most significant, the most brilliant of the three, he is not of this world, he belongs to the world of the Looking Glass. Some biographers prefer to talk only about the first - Dodgson the scientist, and the second - Carroll the writer. Others pointedly allude to all sorts of quirks of the third (about which almost nothing is known, and what is known is impossible to prove!). But in fact, Carroll - like a liquid terminator - was all his hypostases at once - although each of them refuted the others with his whole being ... Is it any wonder that he had his own oddities?

Irony of Fate, or Yellow Wig

The first thing that comes to my mind when Lewis Carroll is mentioned is, oddly enough, his love for little girls, including Alice Liddell, a seven-year-old wide-eyed beauty, the rector's daughter, who, thanks to Carroll, turned into Alice fabulous.

Carroll, indeed, was friends with her - for many years, including after she successfully married. He took many wonderful photographs of little and big Alice Liddell. And other familiar girls. But "owls are not what they seem." As the queen of Russian Carroll studies N.M. Demurova, the well-known version of Carroll's "pedophilism" is, to put it mildly, a strong exaggeration. The fact is that relatives and friends deliberately fabricated many testimonies about Carroll's supposedly great love for children (and for girls, in particular) in order to hide his overly active social life, which included many acquaintances with "girls" of quite a mature age - behavior, at that time absolutely inexcusable for either the deacon or the professor.

Selectively destroying much of Carroll's archive immediately after Carroll's death and creating a heavily "powdered" biography, the writer's relatives and friends deliberately mummified the memory of him as a sort of "grandfather Lenin" who loved children very, well, very much. Needless to say, how ambiguous such an image has become in the twentieth century! (According to one of the "Freudian" versions, in the image of Alice, Carroll brought out his own reproductive organ!) The writer's reputation, ironically, fell victim to a word of mouth conspiracy created in order to protect his good name and present it in a favorable light before posterity ...

Yes, already during his lifetime, Carroll had to “fit in” and hide his versatile, active and somewhere even stormy life under the impenetrable mask of Victorian respectability. Needless to say, an unpleasant occupation; for someone as principled as Carroll, this was no doubt a heavy burden. And yet, I think, a deeper, more existential contradiction was hidden in his personality, besides the constant fear for his professorial reputation: “oh, what will Princess Marya Aleksevna say.”

Here we come close to the problem of Carroll the Invisible, Carroll the third, who lives on the dark side of the Moon, in the Sea of ​​Insomnia.

They say Carroll suffered from insomnia. In 2010, perhaps, a kitsch feature-length film will finally be shot and released, the main character of which will be Carroll himself. The film, which is supported by such masters of cinema as James Cameron and Alejandro Jodorowsky, should be called Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, and who would you think is directing it? - none other than ... Marilyn Manson! (I wrote more about this.)

However, even if Carroll really was tormented by insomnia at night, he also could not find peace during the day: he constantly had to occupy himself with something. In fact, Carroll invented and wrote so much in his life that one simply marvels (again, one involuntarily recalls grandfather Lenin, who was also distinguished by literary fertility!). But at the center of this stormy creativity was conflict. Something weighed on Carroll: something prevented him, for example, from marrying and having children, whom he loved so much. Something turned him away from the path of the priest, which he had set foot in his youth. Something simultaneously undermined his faith in the very foundations of human existence and gave him the strength and determination to follow his path to the end. Something - huge, like a whole world revealed to our eyes, and incomprehensible, like an invisible world! What it was, we can now only guess, but there is no doubt about the existence of this deepest "chasm".

Thus, for example, in the passage that Carroll (on the advice of J. Tenniel, the artist who created the "classic" illustrations for both books about Alice) removed in the final editing, contains a bitter complaint about the double - not to say "two-faced" life, which he had to lead under the pressure of society. I will quote the poem in full (translated by O.I. Sedakova):

When I was gullible and young,
I grew curls, and shore, and loved.
But everyone said: "Oh, shave them off, shave them off,
And get the yellow wig on quick!”

And I listened to them and did this:
And he shaved his curls, and put on a wig -
But they all cried out as they looked at him:
“To be honest, we didn’t expect that at all!”

“Yes,” everyone said, “he doesn’t sit well.
He doesn’t suit you so much, he will forgive you so!”
But, my friend, how was it for me to save the matter? -
My curls couldn't grow back...

And now, when I am not young and gray,
And there are no old hairs on my temples.
They shouted to me: “Enough, crazy old man!”
And pulled off my ill-fated wig.

And yet, no matter where I look.
Shouting: "Rough! Dupe! Pig!"
Oh my friend! What insults I'm used to
How I paid for the yellow wig!

Here it is, “the laughter visible to the world and the tears invisible to the world” of Carroll the Invisible! Further clarification follows:

“I sympathize with you very much,” said Alice heartily. “I don't think if your wig fit better you wouldn't be teased like that.

“Your wig fits perfectly,” Bumblebee muttered, looking at Alice with admiration. “It’s because you have the right head shape.

There can be no doubt: a wig is, of course, not a wig at all, but a social role in general, a role in this crazy performance, which, in the good old Shakespearean traditions, is played on the stage of the whole world. Carroll - if, of course, we take it on faith that in the image of the Bumblebee, Carroll depicted himself, or his "dark" half (remember Carroll's famous self-portrait, where he sits in profile - yes, yes, this is the Moon, the dark side of which will never be visible!), - and so, Carroll is tormented by the wig, and the lack of curls, as well as the beauty and lightness of childhood - these perfectly fitting "wigs" of lovely little girls.

This is the “one but fiery” passion that torments the deacon: he does not want sex with little girls at all, he wants to return to childhood, idealized in the image of seven-year-old Alice with “eyes wide shut”, who is naturally immersed in her own Wonderland! After all, little girls don't even have to jump down the rabbit hole to leave the world of adults somewhere far away. And the world of adults, with all its conventions - is it worth spending your life on it? And in general, what is this whole world, social life, etc. really worth, Carroll asks himself. After all, people are generally strange creatures that walk all the time with their heads up and spend half their lives lying under the covers! "Life, what is it but a dream?" ("Life, it's just a dream") - this is how the first fairy tale about Alice ends.

Head of Professor Dodgson

TRINITY:
You came here because you want
find out the answer to the hacker's main question.
NEO:
The Matrix… What is the Matrix?

(talking in a nightclub)

To the teeth grinding, the highly spiritual Carroll was tormented by the idea of ​​an existential, esoteric breakthrough into the "present", into Wonderland, into the world outside the Matrix, into the life of the Spirit. He (like all of us!) Was the very ill-fated “for eternity a hostage to time in captivity”, and he was extremely acutely aware of this.

Carroll's character was distinguished by an inflexible intention to realize his dream. He worked all day long, not even looking up for a normal meal (during the day he “blindly” snacked on cookies) and often spent long sleepless nights doing his research. Carroll, indeed, worked like crazy, but the purpose of his work was just to bring his mind to perfection. He painfully realized that he was locked in a cage of his own mind, but he tried to destroy this cage, not seeing a better method, by the same means - the mind.

Possessing a brilliant intellect, a professional mathematician and capable linguist, Carroll tried with the help of these tools to find a way out, that same forbidden door to a wonderful garden that would lead him to freedom. Mathematics and linguistics - these are the two areas in which Carroll set up his experiments, esoteric and scientific at the same time - depending on which side you look at. Dodgson published about a dozen books on mathematics and logic, leaving his mark on science, but he strove for much deeper results. Playing with words and numbers was for him a war with the reality of common sense - a war with which he hoped to find peace eternal, endless, imperishable.

According to contemporaries, Deacon Carroll did not believe in eternal hellish torment. I dare to suggest that he, moreover, admitted the possibility of going beyond the limits of human syntax already during his lifetime. Exit and complete reincarnation into another reality - a reality that he conditionally called Wonderland. He admitted it - and passionately desired such a liberation ... Of course, this is just a guess. Within the framework of the Christian tradition, to which Deacon Dodgson undoubtedly belonged, this is unthinkable, however, for example, for a Hindu, Buddhist or Sufi, such a "Cheshire" disappearance is quite natural (as the disappearance in parts or in whole - for the Cheshire cat himself!) .

The fact is that Carroll tirelessly carried out experiments on a kind of “breakthrough of the Matrix”. Having abandoned the logic of common sense and using formal logic as a lever that “turns the world” (or rather, the usual combinations of words that people describe this world, out loud and to themselves, in the course of reflection), Carroll “scientifically groped” for a much deeper logic.

As it turned out later, in the 20th century, in his mathematical, logical and linguistic studies, Professor Dodgson anticipated later discoveries in mathematics and logic: in particular, "game theory" and the dialectical logic of modern scientific research. Carroll, who dreamed of returning to childhood by turning back time, was in fact ahead of the science of his era. But it never achieved its main goal.

The brilliant, perfect mind of Dodjohn, a mathematician and logician, suffered, unable to overcome the abyss separating him from something fundamentally incomprehensible to the mind. That existential abyss, which is bottomless: you can “fly, fly” into it. And the aging Dodgson flew and flew, becoming more and more lonely and misunderstood. This abyss has no name. Perhaps this is what Sartre called "nausea." But since the human mind tends to stick labels to everything, let's call it an abyss. Snark Boojum. This is the gap between the human consciousness, striving for freedom, and the inhumanity of its environment.

Surrounding (part of the environment) considered Dodzhon-Carroll a man with quirks, a little out of his mind. And he knew how crazy and bizarre everyone else is - people who "think" with words while they play "royal croquet" in their own head. “Everyone is out of their mind here, you and I,” says the Cheshire Cat to Alice. Reality, when you apply reason to it, becomes even crazier. She becomes, disassembled, the world of Alice in Wonderland.

The story of Dodgson-Carroll's life is a story of search and disappointment, struggle and defeat, and that particular disappointment-defeat that comes only after winning at the end of a long, life-long search. Carroll, after a long struggle, won his place under the sun, and the sun went out. "For the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see" - with such a sentence (offering your head, or (de) surrender) ends Carroll's last famous work - the nonsense poem "The Hunt for the Snark". Carroll got the Snark, and that Snark was Boojum. In general, Carroll's biography is the story of the Snark, who *was* Boojum. Carroll-failure was three people: Morpheus, who did not find his Neo, Trinity, who also did not find his Neo, and Neo himself, who never saw the Matrix as it is. The story of the liquid terminator, which no one loved and did not understand properly, and which disappeared into oblivion. A story that leaves no one indifferent.

Carroll got involved in a struggle in which a reasonable person cannot win. It is only when (and if! And that's a big If!) thoughts are transcended that states known as intuition emerge outside of the mind. Carroll was just trying - intuitively feeling that he needed it - to develop such a superpower in himself, to pull himself out of the swamp by the hair. Intuition is higher than any and any intellect: the mind and intellect operate with the help of words, logic and mind (in which Carroll reached significant heights) and are therefore limited. Only the state of super-logic, intuition surpasses reasonable logic. While Carroll used his mind, he was a good mathematician, an innovative logician, a talented writer. But when the “golden city” arose in front of him - the Land of Wonders, the Radiant Himalayas of the Spirit - he wrote under the inspiration of something superhuman, and these glimpses of the Higher can be seen even through the translation: Carroll, like a dervish, is spinning in his mystical dance, and before our words, numbers, chess pieces, poems flicker with a mental (and sometimes thoughtless!) gaze; finally, gradually, the very texture of the world, the lines of the Matrix, begin to emerge... Is it possible to demand more from a writer? This is his gift to us—something he could only let happen—our dear Uncle Carroll, visionary mathematician, theater deacon, playful prophet in a clumsy yellow wig.

Charles Lutwidge (Lutwidge) Dodgson, a wonderful English children's writer, excellent mathematician, logician, brilliant photographer and inexhaustible inventor. Born January 27, 1832 in Daresbury near Warrington, Cheshire, in the family of a priest. In the Dodgson family, men were, as a rule, either army officers or clergymen (one of his great-grandfathers, Charles, rose to the rank of bishop, his grandfather, again Charles, was an army captain, and his eldest son, also Charles, was the father of the writer ). Charles Lutwidge was the third child and eldest son in a family of four boys and seven girls.
Young Dodgson was educated until the age of twelve by his father, a brilliant mathematician who was destined for a remarkable academic career, but chose to become a country pastor. Charles's "reading lists" compiled with his father have survived, telling us about the boy's solid intellect. After the family moved in 1843 to the village of Croft-on-Tees, in the north of Yorkshire, the boy was assigned to the Richmond Grammar School. From childhood, he entertained the family with magic tricks, puppet shows, and poems he wrote for home-made home newspapers (Useful and Edifying Poetry, 1845). A year and a half later, Charles entered the Rugby School, where he studied for four years (from 1846 to 1850), showing outstanding ability in mathematics and theology.
In May 1850, Charles Dodgson was enrolled at Christ Church College, Oxford University, and moved to Oxford the following January. However, in Oxford, after only two days, he receives unfavorable news from home - his mother is dying of inflammation of the brain (perhaps meningitis or a stroke).
Charles studied well. Having won the competition for the Boulter scholarship in 1851 and having received the first class distinction in mathematics and the second in classical languages ​​and ancient literature in 1852, the young man was admitted to scientific work, and also received the right to lecture in the Christian church, which he subsequently used for 26 years. In 1854 he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Oxford, where he subsequently, after receiving a master's degree (1857), he worked, including the position of professor of mathematics (1855-1881).
Dr. Dodgson lived in a small house with turrets and was one of the landmarks of Oxford. His appearance and manner of speech were remarkable: a slight asymmetry of the face, poor hearing (he was deaf in one ear), severe stuttering. Charles lectured in a curt, flat, lifeless tone. He avoided acquaintances, wandered around the neighborhood for hours. He had several favorite activities to which he devoted all his free time. Dodgson worked very hard - he got up at dawn and sat down at his desk. In order not to interrupt his work, he ate almost nothing during the day. A glass of sherry, a few cookies - and back to the desk.
Lewis Carroll Even at a young age, Dodgson drew a lot, tried his pen in poetry, wrote stories, sending his works to various magazines. Between 1854 and 1856 his work, mostly humorous and satirical, has appeared in national publications (Comic Times, The Train, Whitby Gazette and Oxford Critic). In 1856, a short romantic poem called "Solitude" appeared in "The Train" under the pseudonym "Lewis Carroll".
He invented his pseudonym as follows: he “translated” the name Charles Lutwidge into Latin (it turned out to be Carolus Ludovicus), and then returned the “true English” look to the Latin version. Carroll signed all his literary (“frivolous”) experiments with a pseudonym, but he put his real name only in the titles of mathematical works (“Synopses on Planar Algebraic Geometry”, 1860, “Information from the Theory of Determinants”, 1866). Among a number of mathematical works by Dodgson, the work "Euclid and his modern rivals" (the last author's edition - 1879) is distinguished.
In 1861, Carroll was ordained and became a deacon in the Church of England; this event, as well as the charter of Christ Church College, Oxford, according to which professors could not marry, forced Carroll to abandon his vague matrimonial plans. At Oxford he met Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church College, and eventually became a friend of the Liddell family. The easiest way for him was to find a common language with the dean's daughters - Alice, Lorina and Edith; in general, Carroll got along with children much faster and easier than with adults - so it was with the children of George MacDonald, and with the offspring of Alfred Tennyson.
The young Charles Dodgson was about six feet tall, slim and handsome, with curly brown hair and blue eyes, but it is believed that due to his stuttering it was difficult for him to communicate with adults, but with children he became liberated, became free and quick in speech.
It was the acquaintance and friendship with the Liddell sisters that led to the birth of the fabulous story Alice in Wonderland (1865), which instantly made Carroll famous. The first edition of Alice was illustrated by the artist John Tenniel, whose illustrations are considered classics today.
Lewis Carroll The incredible commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson's life, as Lewis Carroll became quite famous all over the world, his mailbox was flooded with letters from admirers, he began to earn quite substantial sums of money. However, Dodgson never abandoned a modest life and church posts.
In 1867, Charles left England for the first and last time and made a very unusual trip to Russia for those times. On the way he visits Calais, Brussels, Potsdam, Danzig, Koenigsberg, spends a month in Russia, returns to England via Vilna, Warsaw, Ems, Paris. In Russia, Dodgson visits St. Petersburg and its environs, Moscow, Sergiev Posad, a fair in Nizhny Novgorod.
The first fairy tale was followed by a second book, Alice Through the Looking-Glass (1871), whose gloomy content reflected the death of Carroll's father (1868) and the long-term depression that followed.
What is remarkable about Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which have become the most famous children's books? On the one hand, this is a fascinating story for children with descriptions of journeys to fantastic worlds with bizarre heroes who have become idols of children forever - who doesn’t know the March Hare or the Red Queen, the Quasi Turtle or the Cheshire Cat, Humpty Dumpty? The combination of imagination and absurdity makes the author's style inimitable, the ingenious imagination and play on words of the author brings us finds in which common sayings and proverbs are played up, surreal situations break habitual stereotypes. At the same time, well-known physicists and mathematicians (including M. Gardner) were surprised to find a lot of scientific paradoxes in children's books, and often episodes of Alice's adventures were considered in scientific articles.
Five years later, The Hunting of the Snark (1876), a fantastic poem describing the adventures of a bizarre team of variously inadequate creatures and one beaver, was published, it was Carroll's last widely known work. Interestingly, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti was convinced that the poem was written about him.
Carroll's interests are multifaceted. The end of the 70s and the 1880s are characterized by the fact that Carroll publishes collections of riddles and games (Doublets, 1879; Logic Game, 1886; Mathematical Curiosities, 1888-1893), writes poetry (the collection Poems? Meaning?", 1883). Carroll entered the history of literature as a writer of "nonsense", including rhymes for children in which their name was "baked", acrostics.
In addition to mathematics and literature, Carroll spent a lot of time on photography. Although he was an amateur photographer, a number of his photographs entered, so to speak, into the annals of the world photo chronicle: these are photographs of Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, actress Ellen Terry and many others. Carroll was especially good at taking pictures of children. However, in the early 80s, he abandoned photography, declaring that he was "tired" of this hobby. Carroll is considered one of the most famous photographers of the second half of the 19th century.
Carroll continues to write - on December 12, 1889, the first part of the novel "Sylvie and Bruno" was published, and at the end of 1893, the second, but literary critics reacted to the work with coolness.
Lewis Carroll died in Guildford, Surry, January 14, 1898, at the home of his seven sisters, from pneumonia that broke out after the flu. He was less than sixty-six years old. In January 1898, most of Carroll's manuscript heritage was burned by his brothers Wilfred and Skeffington, who did not know what to do with the piles of papers that their "learned brother" left behind in the rooms at Christ Church College. Not only manuscripts disappeared in that fire, but also some of the negatives, drawings, manuscripts, pages of a multi-volume diary, bags of letters written to the strange Doctor Dodgson by friends, acquaintances, ordinary people, children. The turn came to a library of three thousand books (in the literal sense of the word fantastic literature) - the books were sold at auction and sold to private libraries, but the catalog of that library was preserved.
The book "Alice in Wonderland" by Carroll was included in the list of twelve "most English" objects and phenomena, compiled by the UK Ministry of Culture, Sports and Media. Films and cartoons are made based on this cult work, games and musical performances are held. The book has been translated into dozens of languages ​​(more than 130) and has had a great influence on many authors.

Charles Lutwidge (Lutwidge) Dodgson(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) is an English children's writer, mathematician, logician and photographer. Known under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

Born January 27, 1832 in Daresbury near Warrington, Cheshire, in the family of a priest. In the Dodgson family, men were, as a rule, either army officers or clergymen (one of his great-grandfathers, Charles, rose to the rank of bishop, his grandfather, again Charles, was an army captain, and his eldest son, also Charles, was the father of the writer ). Charles Lutwidge was the third child and eldest son in a family of four boys and seven girls.

Young Dodgson was educated until the age of twelve by his father, a brilliant mathematician who was destined for a remarkable academic career, but he preferred to become a country pastor. Charles's "reading lists" compiled with his father have survived, telling us about the boy's solid intellect. After the family moved in 1843 to the village of Croft-on-Tees, in the north of Yorkshire, the boy was assigned to the Richmond Grammar School. From childhood, he entertained the family with magic tricks, puppet shows, and poems he wrote for home-made home newspapers (Useful and Edifying Poetry, 1845). A year and a half later, Charles entered the Rugby School, where he studied for four years (from 1846 to 1850), showing outstanding ability in mathematics and theology.

In May 1850, Charles Dodgson was enrolled at Christ Church College, Oxford University, and moved to Oxford the following January. However, at Oxford, after only two days, he received the unfortunate news from home that his mother had died of brain inflammation (possibly meningitis or a stroke).

Charles studied well. Having won the competition for the Boulter scholarship in 1851 and having received the distinction of the first class in mathematics and the second in classical languages ​​​​and ancient literature in 1852, the young man was admitted to scientific work, and also received the right to lecture in the Christian church, which he subsequently used for 26 years. . In 1854 he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Oxford, where later, after receiving a master's degree (1857), he worked, including the position of professor of mathematics (1855-1881).

Dr. Dodgson lived in a small house with turrets and was one of the landmarks of Oxford. His appearance and manner of speech were remarkable: a slight asymmetry of the face, poor hearing (he was deaf in one ear), severe stuttering. He lectured in a jerky, even, lifeless tone. He avoided acquaintances, wandered around the neighborhood for hours. He had several favorite activities to which he devoted all his free time. Dodgson worked very hard - he got up at dawn and sat down at his desk. In order not to interrupt his work, he ate almost nothing during the day. A glass of sherry, a few cookies - and back to the desk.

Even at a young age, Dodgson drew a lot, dabbled in poetry, wrote stories, sending his works to various magazines. Between 1854 and 1856 his work, mostly humorous and satirical, has appeared in national publications (Comic Times, The Train, Whitby Gazette and Oxford Critic). In 1856, a short romantic poem called "Solitude" appeared in The Train under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

He invented his pseudonym as follows: he “translated” the name Charles Lutwidge into Latin (it turned out to be Carolus Ludovicus), and then returned the “true English” look to the Latin version. Carroll signed all his literary (“frivolous”) experiments with a pseudonym, but he put his real name only in the titles of mathematical works (“Abstracts on Planar Algebraic Geometry”, 1860, “Information from the Theory of Determinants”, 1866). Among a number of mathematical works by Dodgson, the work "Euclid and his modern rivals" (the last author's edition - 1879) is distinguished.

In 1861, Carroll was ordained and became a deacon in the Church of England; this event, as well as the charter of Christ Church College, Oxford, according to which professors could not marry, forced Carroll to abandon his vague matrimonial plans. At Oxford he met Henry Liddell, dean of Christ Church College, and eventually became a friend of the Liddell family. The easiest way for him was to find a common language with the dean's daughters - Alice, Lorina and Edith; in general, Carroll got along with children much faster and easier than with adults - so it was with the children of George MacDonald, and with the offspring of Alfred Tennyson.

The young Charles Dodgson was about six feet tall, slim and handsome, with curly brown hair and blue eyes, but it is believed that due to his stutter it was difficult for him to communicate with adults, but with children he became liberated, became free and quick in speech.

It was the acquaintance and friendship with the Liddell sisters that led to the birth of the fabulous story Alice in Wonderland (1865), which instantly made Carroll famous. The first edition of Alice was illustrated by the artist John Tenniel, whose illustrations are considered classics today.

The incredible commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson's life. As Lewis Carroll became quite famous all over the world, his mailbox was flooded with letters from admirers, he began to earn quite substantial sums of money. However, Dodgson never abandoned a modest life and church posts.

In 1867, Charles left England for the first and last time and made a very unusual trip to Russia for those times. On the way he visited Calais, Brussels, Potsdam, Danzig, Koenigsberg, spent a month in Russia, returned to England via Vilna, Warsaw, Ems, Paris. In Russia, Dodgson visited St. Petersburg and its environs, Moscow, Sergiev Posad, a fair in Nizhny Novgorod.

The first fairy tale was followed by a second book, Alice Through the Looking-Glass (1871), whose gloomy content reflected the death of Carroll's father (1868) and the long-term depression that followed.

What is remarkable about Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which have become the most famous children's books? On the one hand, this is a fascinating story for children with descriptions of journeys to fantastic worlds with bizarre heroes who have become idols of children forever - who doesn’t know the March Hare or the Red Queen, the Quasi Turtle or the Cheshire Cat, Humpty Dumpty? The combination of imagination and absurdity makes the author's style inimitable, the ingenious imagination and play on words of the author brings us finds in which common sayings and proverbs are played up, surreal situations break habitual stereotypes. At the same time, well-known physicists and mathematicians (including M. Gardner) were surprised to find a lot of scientific paradoxes in children's books, and often episodes of Alice's adventures were considered in scientific articles.

Five years later, The Hunting of the Snark (1876), a fantastic poem describing the adventures of a bizarre team of variously inadequate creatures and one beaver, was published, it was Carroll's last widely known work. Interestingly, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti was convinced that the poem was written about him.

Carroll's interests are multifaceted. The end of the 70s and the 1880s are characterized by the fact that Carroll publishes collections of riddles and games (Doublets, 1879; Logic Game, 1886; Mathematical Curiosities, 1888-1893), writes poetry (the collection Poems? Meaning?", 1883). Carroll entered the history of literature as a writer of "nonsense", including rhymes for children in which their name was "baked", acrostics.

In addition to mathematics and literature, Carroll spent a lot of time on photography. Although he was an amateur photographer, a number of his photographs entered, so to speak, into the annals of the world photo chronicle: these are photographs of Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, actress Ellen Terry and many others. Carroll was especially good at taking pictures of children. However, in the early 80s, he abandoned photography, declaring that he was "tired" of this hobby. Carroll is considered one of the most famous photographers of the second half of the 19th century.

Carroll continues to write - on December 12, 1889, the first part of the novel "Sylvie and Bruno" was published, and at the end of 1893, the second, but literary critics reacted to the work with coolness.

Lewis Carroll died in Guildford, Surry, January 14, 1898, at the home of his seven sisters, from pneumonia that broke out after the flu. He was less than sixty-six years old. In January 1898, most of Carroll's manuscript heritage was burned by his brothers Wilfred and Skeffington, who did not know what to do with the piles of papers that their "learned brother" left behind in the rooms at Christ Church College. Not only manuscripts disappeared in that fire, but also some of the negatives, drawings, manuscripts, pages of a multi-volume diary, bags of letters written to the strange Doctor Dodgson by friends, acquaintances, ordinary people, children. The turn came to a library of three thousand books (in the literal sense of the word fantastic literature) - the books were sold at auction and sold to private libraries, but the catalog of that library was preserved.

The book "Alice in Wonderland" by Carroll was included in the list of twelve "most English" objects and phenomena, compiled by the UK Ministry of Culture, Sports and Media. Films and cartoons are made based on this cult work, games and musical performances are held. The book has been translated into dozens of languages ​​(more than 130) and has had a great influence on many authors.

According to Wikipedia, jabberwocky.ru

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