Who was Lewis Caroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was a mathematician at Oxford; he is also known to be the author of the famous tale of Alice in Wonderland. According to Woolf (2010) the first book that was published in 1865 was called Alice’s Adventure Underground, and a year after that an extended version of Alice’s Adventure Underground was published and it was called Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In 1871 Lewis Carroll had also published a sequel which was called Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. The tale of Alice in Wonderland has been popular ever since it was first published in 1865. The tale has also influenced many famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, Ralph Steadman and many more including the award winning film Director Tim Burton. Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland happens to be the latest version so far of at least 20 other film versions and TV shows, all inspired from Lewis Carroll’s original novel.


Woolf (2010) states the tale of Alice in Wonderland was based on the dean’s daughter Alice Liddell, a child that Lewis Carroll knew. Many have wondered about Lewis Carroll’s relationship with the 10 year old girl to whom he first told the story to. Carroll also was a portraitist and also took pictures of Alice Liddell. Out of the 3000 pictures that he took throughout his life half of them were of children and 30 of them happened to be of girls in the nude and seminude. Now a days having nude photographs of children is something socking, In addition to this BBC News Magazine (2012) also states that “to many modern minds, a man who regularly formed friendships with young girls is inherently suspicious”. However Woolf (2010) states that in the Victorian times this was rather normal and that the Victorians “saw children as a state of grace; even nude photographs of children were considered pictures of innocence itself” According to Woolf (2010) Alice was Carroll’s first and most favorite and although there is no strong evidence it has been said that Carroll had an unhealthy attraction towards Alice. However BBC New Magazine(2012) states that although the story was based on a little girl that Carroll know does bring out some taught but the fact that he photographed girls in the nude does not help his case for the modern mind. But it cannot be forgotten that Lewis Carroll lived in a period “were childhood innocence was being forged, influencing how children were represented in the 19^th century literature aimed at them”. In addition to this BBC News Magazine (2012) adds that many experts that analyzed his case states, that Lewis Carroll might have had a desire for little girls, but these desires were not necessarily sexual. Jenney Woolf who wrote the article “Lewis Carroll’s Shifting Reputation” for Smithsonian Magazine in 2010 and the author of “Mystery of Lewis Carroll” also agrees with this theory


Photography by Lewis Carroll