In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll
by Karoline Leach
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0720610443
- ISBN 13
- 9780720610444
- Seller
-
Kilkhampton , Cornwall, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Very Good Condition - One Previous Owner
Smoke Free Home
Reviews Charles Dodgson - aka Lewis Carroll, the author of the Alice books - was interested in photography, and his enthusiasm for photographing naked small girls has meant that he has come to be regarded as a passive paedophile. This new book sets out to show that this reputation is undeserved, and does so triumphantly. Dodgson's family appear to have tolerated the accusations of paedophilia in order to disguise a more enthusiastic interest in mature women - a less forgivable moral lapse! The book is a strange, fascinating and entirely original piece of research, showing considerable insight into Victorian social attitudes. (Kirkus UK) --.
In a vigorous effort to subvert the "potent mythology" surrounding Lewis Carroll, ne Charles Dodgson (1832-1898) - that he was a "Victorian clergyman, shy and prim, and locked to some degree in perpetual childhood," and, oddly at the same time a pedophile - Leach, a British playwright, claims that Dodgson had relationships with several mature women, albeit often selfish and cruel ones. These included the artist Gertrude Thomson and the writer Anna Thackery. The eponymous "dreamchild" is Alice Liddell, the daughter of Dodgson's dean at Christ College, Oxford, upon whom Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is based and for whom Dodgson assumed the role of attentive father figure. But by studying the "psychological crisis" evident in Dodgson's fragmentary journals (many pages were cut out and destroyed by relatives who feared scandal), Leach suggests Dodgson was more involved with Liddell's wife than with Alice and proposes that the seemingly suggestive photos of young girls that Dodgson took stem, in part, from "strange Victorian child-cult" in which "innocence was expressed ultimately through an affected and devotional love of children." As artfully told as a fine detective story, Leach's story of what truly seems a conspiracy among Dodgson scholars cogently argues that although new materials on Carroll have been released since the late 1970's (his unexpurgated diary, Leach says "is at present being prepared for publication"), the permanent sabotage of many of his papers has made it virtually impossible ever to attain a clear picture of this unusual individual. --Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-347) and index.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Magpie Queen apm (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- APM00001
- Title
- In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll
- Author
- Karoline Leach
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0720610443
- ISBN 13
- 9780720610444
- Publisher
- Peter Owen Publishers
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1999-03
- Pages
- 294
- Keywords
- Lewis Carroll; Alice Liddle
Terms of Sale
Magpie Queen apm
About the Seller
Magpie Queen apm
About Magpie Queen apm
Quality Second Hand books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- A.N.
- The book is pristine and free of any defects, in the same condition as ...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...