Best Books By Lewis Carroll

Think of famous books and authors and the name of Lewis Carroll pops up. If you are an avid reader you must have read the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Born in the year 1832, Carroll, was the popular English author of this classic children’s book. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and he was also a mathematician. He also published a sequel to the book, by the name of Through the Looking Glass. Here, in this blog, we take a look at some of the best books by Lewis Caroll along with some interesting facts about the famous writer on his 189th birth anniversary this year. 

Overview

Before we begin this reader’s adventure of finding out some of the best works of Lewis Carroll in detail, let us take a quick look at his books here.

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
• The Hunting of The Snark
• A Tangled Tale
• Sylvie And Bruno
• Euclid And Modern Rivals

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So put your seatbelts on and let’s get going!

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland

The novel most often referred to as Alice in Wonderland is the most widely loved book of Lewis Carroll. It is the story of a young girl who falls into a rabbit hole and goes through a weird, surreal universe that is very different from the one she lives in. Alice decides to pursue and follow a white rabbit after a watch falls from his waistcoat’s pocket; the most unlikely occurrences are put on course. This universe resides in a state with no understanding of laws, and imagination is as strong as reality.

Fun Fact: Lewis Caroll invented a way to write stories in the dark. Caroll was upset with missing the wonderful ideas that emerged in the middle of night, so he developed the nyctograph in 1891. The tool is a board with 16 holes punched (two rows of eight) that provides a reference for the user inputs a dot and dash shorthand script. Dodgson also found it to be beneficial for the blind.

Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There

 It might seem bizarre to identify what may be possibly one of the best books of Lewis Carroll as ‘underrated.’ However, the fact is that Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There was the follow-up sequel novel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Through the Looking-Glass actually took place six months after the predecessor and meets Alice, she makes her way through her mirror into a bizarre place inhabited by strange plotlines. While it is simple to see whether, with its main story comparisons, the novel is frequently ignored as too impressionistic of its precursor, it is said to provide a more contemplative, contemporary feel. It exposes fans to a few of Carroll’s most popular poetry, including ‘Jabberwocky’ and ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter.’

Fun Fact: Through much of his life, Caroll rejected that Alice has been focused on just about any real woman, but “A boat beneath a sunny sky,” the poetry at the later part of Through the Looking-Glass, is an acrostic that spells the name Alice Pleasance Liddell.

The Hunting Of The Snark

The Hunting of the Snark, which is also right there and one of the best books of Lewis Caroll, is frequently overlooked by his masterpiece – at least by a casual Carroll follower. Written in 1876, this epic nonsensical poem is Carroll’s greatest literary work, a surreal narrative of a ship full of oddballs on a quest to capture a mystical beast – the Snark of the title. Many of those who have read Through the Looking Glass may note a couple of his characters and have fabricated words—including the ‘fruity Bandersnatch’—amidst the lines of The Hunting of the Snark.

Fun Fact: Starting in the mid-20s and lasting for over twenty years, Caroll has generated over 3000 photographic pictures, featuring photographs of friends and famous personalities (such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson), environments, and photographs of corpses, dolls, sculptures, drawings, and much more.

A Tangled Tale

As a mathematician, the expertise of Lewis Carroll, when he spent a long time researching and studying the subject at Christ Church University in Oxford – is sometimes underestimated. It is a testimony both for his ability for narrative and mathematics. Published for the first time as a series throughout the Monthly Packet (Girls’ Magazine) throughout 1880 and 1885, A Tangled Tale comes in the form of ten short, humorous tales – or ‘knots,’ as Carroll alluded to themselves – in which mathematical problems are posed. Carroll was regarded as having fun. The fusion of two completely different items done by the author seems to be something that distinguishes the writer from everyone else.

Fun Fact: As with other aspects of his personality, Dodgson was a conventional mathematician, living or working at a time when the practice had shifted radically., T

Sylvie And Bruno

Moving on in our list of works of Lewis Carroll, we now have Sylvie and Bruno. Having followed his titular protagonists, this book has the siblings Sylvie and Bruno. The book incorporates two storylines – one set in ‘Fairyland,’ a common Carroll universe full of nonsensical characteristics. Then one centred in Victorian Britain includes establishing a historical novel wherein the protagonists discuss the concepts of culture, morals and spirituality. Unaccustomed territory, yeah, but as Sylvie and Bruno and their end are the very last novels written in Carroll’s lifespan, the author made it fascinating to read.

Fun Fact: Dodgson had a challenging upbringing. Calling it his “hesitation,” he developed a stammer at an early age that remained with him during his life and eventually became part of his popular theories.

Euclid And His Modern Rivals

Lewis Carroll published this book in 1879 under his surname, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Euclid and his Modern Rivals are part-academic, part-literary study advocating for the relevance of the influential Greek mathematician’s lessons on mathematics and geometry. 

Although its source material can be overwhelming, its structure and style – laid out as a theatrical play and deliberately suffused with fun and light-heartedness – renders Euclid and his Contemporary Rivals an open and friendly novel for the less arithmetically inclined. Indeed, as Carroll said in the book’s foreword, he did this primarily ‘to make it seem less tiresome and somewhat more accessible to non-scientific audiences.’

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These are the best books of all time which were written by Lewis Caroll. Want to know more about other famous personalities? Check out Leverage Edu for more interesting blogs and articles about other famous people!