By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Jabberwocky’ is one of the most beloved poems in the English language, perhaps not least because it does such interesting things with that language. A masterpiece of nonsense verse, ‘Jabberwocky’ actually addresses some very real issues and reflects some serious and important themes.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Jabberwocky’ is one of the most beloved poems in the English language, perhaps not least because it does such interesting things with that language. A masterpiece of nonsense verse, ‘Jabberwocky’ is also a highly quotable work, and it’s chock-full of memorable lines and puzzling words.
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the origins of a famous expression in a classic work of children’s literature
The more I return to Lewis Carroll, the more convinced I become that he, not Dickens, has perhaps the strongest claim to being the key precursor to Kafka – although there are obviously numerous other contenders for that mantle, including Dostoevsky and Gogol. But something about Alice’s journeys down the rabbit hole and through the looking-glass, and the illogical and irrational figures she encounters on her travels, puts me in mind of Josef K.’s futile and laughable attempts to clear his name in The Trial and K.’s equally doomed efforts to penetrate the workings of the mysterious castle in The Castle.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘How Doth the Little Crocodile’ is a poem by Lewis Carroll, one of the two acknowledged masters of Victorian nonsense verse (along with Edward Lear). Although the poem is among his most popular, after ‘Jabberwocky’, ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’, and The Hunting of the Snark, its curious origins are less well-known.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Along with his contemporary, the great painter and poet Edward Lear (1812-88), Lewis Carroll, who was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-98), is one of the greatest Victorian purveyors of nonsense literature. Unlike Lear, Carroll poured his nonsense into fiction as well as some of the most famous and best-loved poems in the English language, so below we introduce eight of Lewis Carroll’s best novels and poems, to be enjoyed by ‘children of all ages’.