Hunting of the Snark - Hardcover

Lewis Carroll

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0950215988 ISBN 13: 9780950215983

Publisher: Whittington Press, 1975

Synopsis

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. From a young age, Dodgson wrote poetry and short stories, sending them to various magazines and enjoying moderate success. Most of this output was humourous, sometimes satirical, but his standards and ambitions were exacting. His facility at word play, logic, and fantasy has delighted audiences ranging from children to the literary elite, and beyond this his work has become embedded deeply in modern culture, directly influencing many artists. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871) as well as the poems The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and Jabberwocky (1871). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a work of nonsense literature, which tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm populated by grotesque figures like talking playing cards and anthropomorphic creatures.

About this title

About the Author

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Born in 1832, he was educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was appointed lecturer in mathematics in 1855, and where he spent the rest of his life. In 1861 he took deacon's orders, but shyness and a constitutional stammer prevented him from seeking the priesthood. He never married, but was very fond of children and spent much time with them. His most famous works, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872), were originally written for Alice Liddell, the daughter of the dean of his college. Charles Dodgson died of bronchitis in 1898.

Review

(in full The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits) Nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, first published in 1876. The fanciful eight-canto poem describes the sea voyage of a bellman, boots (bootblack), bonnet maker, barrister, broker, billiard marker, banker, beaver, baker, and butcher, and their search for the elusive, undefined snark. While scholars have attributed to the work hidden meanings from political subversion to existential agony, Carroll maintained that it was intended simply as nonsense. Painter Henry Holiday illustrated the first edition; however, the poet refused to include any picture of the snark, preferring that readers rely on their own imaginations. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Edition details

• Publisher: Whittington Press
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 0950215988
• ISBN 13: 9780950215983
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 60