Lewis Carroll where was born. Lewis Carroll was out of his mind. However, if there were such disorders, they led to the fact that the “sick” were written scientific works that contributed to science, created immortal works of art published in

180 years ago, the mathematician Lewis Carroll, aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born, whose most brilliant work was the fairy tale about the girl Alice

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By the way, in the same year - but in July - 150 years since the very boat trip, in which the 30-year-old teacher Dodgson went with his colleague Duckworth and the children of the dean of the college Henry Liddell. The walk remained in history because it was then - at the request of 7-year-old Alice - Dodgson began to compose a fairy tale about her adventures.

BUT FIRST THREE QUESTIONS FOR BACKING

Many - as soon as the letters of the text begin to fall on them - they immediately begin to fall asleep. So it’s better to ask these sleepyheads right away: while others finish reading, they will have time to think everything over in a dream. Alice in Carroll dreamed that she fell asleep on these questions. But it is easier for readers - they will find the answers at the very end of the text.

1 .Why is a non-birthday better than a birthday?

2 . How do you say "fu you, you" in French?

3 . What is left if you take a bone from a dog?

NOW ABOUT ONE WHO IS OUT OF HIS MIND

The Cheshire cat explained to Alice clearly: if she were in her right mind, she would not have ended up in the Looking Glass or in Wonderland. Of course, the heroine is in the mind of the author, Lewis Carroll. But then such a whirlwind begins: Carroll, as a pseudonym, is also in the mind of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who invented it. But even with Dodgson, if you understand it this way, it’s completely incomprehensible to anyone how much was on his mind. And is he in his mind - or in the minds of his wonderful heroes and very real readers?

Authoritative minds (for sure they were quite in themselves) wrote tons of works about him, but they froze in bewilderment: “He walked through life with such an easy step that he left no traces.” insightful Virginia Woolf leafing through his biography, it was simply baffling: “the Honorable C. L. Dodgson had no life.” Why? Here are the touches to the portrait of the “invisible”.

* Shyness and stuttering seriously complicated his life: he fit into any environment with difficulty. He lived for 40 years in Oxford, taught at the elite Christ Church College (where 13 British prime ministers have studied in history). “He accepted all the conventions: he was pedantic, touchy, pious and prone to jokes. If a nineteenth-century Oxford professorship had an essence, that essence was him.” At the same time, his lectures were distinguished by their “dryness” (tediousness?). But the stutter came in handy - he often stammered on his name Do-Do-Dodgson: on the other hand, the Dodo Bird appeared in Alice.

* Occasionally he visited London. And only once he got out of England - in 1867, moreover, to Russia. In general, he liked it - but the most vivid impression: when he finally returned home.

* After Alice, Queen Victoria asked him to dedicate his next book to her. Speaking in the current language, there was a “bummer”. She did not think that the next work of this strange gentleman would be "An Elementary Guide to the Theory of Mathematical Determinants."

* For the last 37 years of his life, he kept a strict record of all his letters: during this time he wrote 98,721 letters. Letters to adult recipients are dry and creaky, like everything with adults. But letters to children - he corresponded with many - are unusual. That is the size of a postage stamp (small-small letters); it is written topsy-turvy, to be read only with the help of a mirror.

* You can compare the style. Close to his adult girlfriend, actress Ellen Terry, he writes pathetically about the "hidden secret of life": "what is really worth doing is what we do for other people."

A letter to a friend of a girl (about the newly written poem “The Hunt for the Snark”) was written as if by a completely different person: “You are a smart girl and, of course, you know who this Snark is (or rather, what it is). If you know, then I beg you, enlighten me about this, because I have not the slightest idea what it is.

* Carroll never wore a coat, but he always wore gray gloves.

* He died of bronchitis, before he reached the age of 66, while visiting his sisters in the town of Guildford. What struck the doctor: “How young your brother looks!”

* Memories of him were left only by his nephew and some of the children to whom he paid so much attention. “He was distinguished by such kindness that his sisters idolized him; such purity and impeccability that his nephew has absolutely nothing to say about him.

* Lewis Carroll reminded the writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton of the hero of a certain novel written by one of the artists of the satirical magazine Punch (which existed for almost a century and a half): a respectable Victorian Englishman in a parallel life in a dream ... “flew, off the ground; his top hat floated high above the chimneys of the houses; the umbrella inflated like a balloon, or soared into the sky like a broomstick; and the sideburns fluttered like the wings of a bird.”

* And Virginia Woolf remains perplexed: “He glided through the world of adults like a shadow and materialized only on the beach in Eastburn, when he pinned little girls' dresses with safety pins. Since childhood was completely stored in him, he ... managed to return to this world ... That's why both books about Alice are not children's books, they are the only books in which we become children ... "

But then - “we wake up - and find - who? The Honorable C. L. Dodgson? Lewis Carroll? Or both of them together? This strange conglomerate conglomerate intends to publish an ultra-modest Shakespeare for young English virgins, imploring them to think about death the moment they run to play, and always, always remember that “the true purpose of life is to develop character” ... How to tie one with another?

STOP! WE HAVE A SHORT BREAK HERE!

With breaks, the main thing is not to overdo it: everything is worn in the atmosphere, some will take a break so that their cheeks puff out, and those around them powder their brains. However, if this happens to you - memorize two useful sayings from Carroll. Work flawlessly, keep any audience in amazement:

“Never think that you are different than you could be otherwise than being different in those cases when it is impossible not to be otherwise” (The Duchess - to Alice) “If it were so, it would still be nothing, but if it were nothing, it would be so, but since it is not so, it is not so! Such is the logic of things!” (Tweedledum to Alice)

CHAPTER ABOUT DESPAIR WITH JAM AND BUN

No matter which way you go from Carroll, you will definitely come somewhere. If you go to the past, parallels from Shakespeare and Edward Lear will emerge. You will return to the future - here Harry Potters with chess games will be imagined, and all sorts of Jabberwocks can not be counted. His main tale is stuffed with terrible fears, the heroine is subjected to inhuman tests - no worse than the construction of a narrow gauge railway! - but she calmly hugs the kitten and famously shares with her sisters that she saw sooooooo!

For a couple of years, one of the Russian magazines classified the fears that migrated from Alice to the modern environment. As well as on Thursday, and on Friday, yes, on all other days of the week of the present world. What are these social fears?

Here and oddities with space and time, pleasing with their relativity connoisseurs of Einstein and Higgs bosons. Kiselny young ladies draw simply "set". To meet the Black Queen, Alice needs to run not towards, but vice versa. Or just run to stay put. And you need to live in the opposite direction, because tomorrow will never be today. But at the same time, you remember well what happens next.

Here everything is more virtual than in Cameron's "Avatar" - you step into the mirror, and away you go, you can't even sit on Minutka, because she flies faster than Bandersnatch, go catch some more. And you can see Nobody = and even at a great distance! Every word here deftly materializes - and the one with the twig is called Sprutik. And Tiger Lilies talk, and Daisy can be intimidated. Not to mention bao butterflies with hippos, about the transformation of the Queen into a Sheep, knitting needles into oars, and benches into a lake.

Then the question arises about the outcasts and mutants that are relevant to us - and, of course, the Rabbit with the clock, the March Hare, Humpty Dumpty ran in a school. And all these “Drink me” bubbles, mushrooms and caterpillars with hookahs. The horror and harm of drug addiction is obvious.

Of course, political correctness is right there. Fortunately, Alice did not meet Negroes, but she, forgetting Mouse, stubbornly repeated about her good cat: oh, it didn’t turn out well somehow. The mouse is obviously stupid, but here everyone is essentially idiots - but go ahead and call them by their proper names.

And then, in a half step, the loss of self-identification: Alice still does not know that this will grow into the problem of a sick society, in which the benefits of civilization brought will certainly turn into evil. She just does not understand: if she dreams of the Black King, who dreams of her, then who is dreaming of everything that happens?

Two-faced politics - what else can it be? Alice is weird. Well, she's still small. The Walrus and the Carpenter take the Oysters out for a walk to devour them all on the spot – so it's just the usual work with the electorate.

Finally, the question of pedophilia. His shadow forever hovers over all Freudian (and what else?) interpretations of the history of Carroll's incomprehensible relationship with children. True, these relations have always remained within the decency of that time - and those decency are not like the current ones. And the concept itself - pedophilia - appeared only 15 years after the publication of "Alice" (it was introduced by the Austrian psychiatrist Richard Kraft-Ebing in 1886).

In general, smart words have been written about Alice for a century and a half. They scare with horror stories from the adult world, applying them to a children's book this way and that. And Alice herself is not afraid here, but surprising. At one point, “it seemed boring and stupid to her that life went on as usual again,” - well, what adult would be embarrassed ?! A normal adult only dreams of this - the usual, calm - course of life. C. L. Dodgson lived like this. Correctly.

But Alice finds this world quite amusing and attractive - even if it is what it is. Wrong. What to take from her: a child. And Carroll, unlike Dodgson, knows with her: everything is nonsense, and all the secrets are in the pastry - the more it is, the kinder people are. And what is more lacking in this world than simple kindness? Such a conclusion is naive and transparent, but it happens in fairy tales.

It's just that Carroll believed in fairy tales, like Alice, but he was afraid to admit it. They will laugh, you nasty fools.

10 MORE PHRASES FROM CARROLL

“If he had grown up a little… he would have made a very unpleasant child. And as a pig, he is very cute!” (Alice)

"The executioner said that you can not cut off the head, if there is nothing else besides the head ... The king said that if there is a head, then it can be cut off."

“Start at the beginning… and keep going until you reach the end. When you get there, stop!” (King)

"Are you hot, darling?" “Well, what are you, I am unusually restrained,” the Queen answered and threw the inkwell ...

“While you are thinking what to say, curtsy! It saves time.” (Or the same Queen: “If you don’t know what to say, speak French”)

“Actually, I’m very brave… Only today I have a headache!” (Tweedledum)

“You can't believe in the impossible!” “It’s just that you don’t have much experience… At your age, I spent half an hour every day on this!” (Queen to Alice)

“I’m… tired of… everyone who can’t tell the difference between a belt and a tie!” (Humpty Dumpty)

“It doesn't matter where my body is… My mind is constantly working. The lower my head, the deeper my thoughts! Yes Yes! The lower, the deeper! (White knight)

“You'll get used to it in time,” the Caterpillar objected, putting the hookah in her mouth and blowing smoke into the air.

PROMISED ANSWERS TO THREE QUESTIONS TO ALICE

1 . “Three hundred and sixty-four days a year you can receive gifts on your non-birthday… and only once on your birthday!”

2 . “If you tell me what it means, I will immediately translate it into French for you.”

3 . There will be dog patience. The bone will not remain, because it was taken away, Alice will not remain, because she will run away from the dog, the dog will run after her. But “the dog will lose his patience, right?.. If he runs away, his patience will remain, right?”

Lewis Carroll, real name - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Dodson). Date of birth: January 27, 1832. Birthplace: Quiet village of Dersbury, Cheshire, UK. Nationality: British to the core. Distinguishing features: asymmetrical eyes, turned up corners of the lips, deaf in the right ear; stutters. Occupation: professor of mathematics at Oxford, deacon. Hobbies: amateur photographer, amateur artist, amateur writer. The last one to underline.

Our birthday boy, in fact, is an ambiguous personality. That is, if you represent it in numbers, you get not one, but two - or even three. We consider.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), graduated with honors in mathematics and Latin, in later years a professor at Oxford University, as well as curator of the teaching club (with the quirks inherent in status and institution!), A prosperous and exceptionally respectable citizen of Victorian society, who sent more than a hundred thousand letters in his life, written in a clear, compact handwriting, a pious deacon of the Anglican Church, the most talented British photographer of his time, a gifted mathematician and innovative logician, many years ahead of his time - this is one.

Lewis Carroll, beloved by all children of the classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Saw (1871) and The Hunt for the Snark (1876), was a man who spent three-quarters of his free time with children, able to tirelessly tell stories to children for hours, accompanying them with funny drawings, and, going for a walk, loading his bag with all kinds of toys, puzzles and gifts for the children he might meet, a kind of Santa Claus for every day - these are two.

Perhaps (only possible, but not necessarily!), There was also a third one - let's call it "Invisible". Because no one has ever seen him. A man about whom, immediately after Dodgson's death, a myth was specially created to cover up a reality that no one knew.

The first can be called a successful professor, the second - an outstanding writer. Carroll III is a complete failure, Boojum instead of Snark. But the failure of the international level, the failure of a sensation. This third Carroll is the most significant, the most brilliant of the three, he is not of this world, he belongs to the world of the Looking Glass. Some biographers prefer to talk only about the first - Dodgson the scientist, and the second - Carroll the writer. Others pointedly allude to all sorts of quirks of the third (about which almost nothing is known, and what is known is impossible to prove!). But in fact, Carroll - like a liquid terminator - was all his hypostases at once - although each of them refuted the others with his whole being ... Is it any wonder that he had his own oddities?

Irony of Fate, or Yellow Wig

The first thing that comes to my mind when Lewis Carroll is mentioned is, oddly enough, his love for little girls, including Alice Liddell, a seven-year-old wide-eyed beauty, the rector's daughter, who, thanks to Carroll, turned into Alice fabulous.

Carroll, indeed, was friends with her - for many years, including after she successfully married. He took many wonderful photographs of little and big Alice Liddell. And other familiar girls. But "owls are not what they seem." As the queen of Russian Carroll studies N.M. Demurova, the well-known version of Carroll's "pedophilism" is, to put it mildly, a strong exaggeration. The fact is that relatives and friends deliberately fabricated many testimonies about Carroll's supposedly great love for children (and for girls, in particular) in order to hide his overly active social life, which included many acquaintances with "girls" of quite a mature age - behavior, at that time absolutely inexcusable for either the deacon or the professor.

Selectively destroying much of Carroll's archive immediately after Carroll's death and creating a heavily "powdered" biography, the writer's relatives and friends deliberately mummified the memory of him as a sort of "grandfather Lenin" who loved children very, well, very much. Needless to say, how ambiguous such an image has become in the twentieth century! (According to one of the "Freudian" versions, in the image of Alice, Carroll brought out his own reproductive organ!) The writer's reputation, ironically, fell victim to a word of mouth conspiracy created in order to protect his good name and present it in a favorable light before posterity ...

Yes, already during his lifetime, Carroll had to “fit in” and hide his versatile, active and somewhere even stormy life under the impenetrable mask of Victorian respectability. Needless to say, an unpleasant occupation; for someone as principled as Carroll, this was no doubt a heavy burden. And yet, I think, a deeper, more existential contradiction was hidden in his personality, besides the constant fear for his professorial reputation: “oh, what will Princess Marya Aleksevna say.”

Here we come close to the problem of Carroll the Invisible, Carroll the third, who lives on the dark side of the Moon, in the Sea of ​​Insomnia.

They say Carroll suffered from insomnia. In 2010, perhaps, a kitsch feature-length film will finally be shot and released, the main character of which will be Carroll himself. The film, which is supported by such masters of cinema as James Cameron and Alejandro Jodorowsky, should be called Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, and who would you think is directing it? - none other than ... Marilyn Manson! (I wrote more about this.)

However, even if Carroll really was tormented by insomnia at night, he also could not find peace during the day: he constantly had to occupy himself with something. In fact, Carroll invented and wrote so much in his life that one simply marvels (again, one involuntarily recalls grandfather Lenin, who was also distinguished by literary fertility!). But at the center of this stormy creativity was conflict. Something weighed on Carroll: something prevented him, for example, from marrying and having children, whom he loved so much. Something turned him away from the path of the priest, which he had set foot in his youth. Something simultaneously undermined his faith in the very foundations of human existence and gave him the strength and determination to follow his path to the end. Something - huge, like a whole world revealed to our eyes, and incomprehensible, like an invisible world! What it was, we can now only guess, but there is no doubt about the existence of this deepest "chasm".

Thus, for example, in the passage that Carroll (on the advice of J. Tenniel, the artist who created the "classic" illustrations for both books about Alice) removed in the final editing, contains a bitter complaint about the double - not to say "two-faced" life, which he had to lead under the pressure of society. I will quote the poem in full (translated by O.I. Sedakova):

When I was gullible and young,
I grew curls, and shore, and loved.
But everyone said: "Oh, shave them off, shave them off,
And get the yellow wig on quick!”

And I listened to them and did this:
And he shaved his curls, and put on a wig -
But they all cried out as they looked at him:
“To be honest, we didn’t expect that at all!”

“Yes,” everyone said, “he doesn’t sit well.
He doesn’t suit you so much, he will forgive you so!”
But, my friend, how was it for me to save the matter? -
My curls couldn't grow back...

And now, when I am not young and gray,
And there are no old hairs on my temples.
They shouted to me: “Enough, crazy old man!”
And pulled off my ill-fated wig.

And yet, no matter where I look.
Shouting: "Rough! Dupe! Pig!"
Oh my friend! What insults I'm used to
How I paid for the yellow wig!

Here it is, “the laughter visible to the world and the tears invisible to the world” of Carroll the Invisible! Further clarification follows:

“I sympathize with you very much,” said Alice heartily. “I don't think if your wig fit better you wouldn't be teased like that.

“Your wig fits perfectly,” Bumblebee muttered, looking at Alice with admiration. “It’s because you have the right head shape.

There can be no doubt: a wig is, of course, not a wig at all, but a social role in general, a role in this crazy performance, which, in the good old Shakespearean traditions, is played on the stage of the whole world. Carroll - if, of course, we take it on faith that in the image of the Bumblebee, Carroll depicted himself, or his "dark" half (remember Carroll's famous self-portrait, where he sits in profile - yes, yes, this is the Moon, the dark side of which will never be visible!), - and so, Carroll is tormented by the wig, and the lack of curls, as well as the beauty and lightness of childhood - these perfectly fitting "wigs" of lovely little girls.

This is the “one but fiery” passion that torments the deacon: he does not want sex with little girls at all, he wants to return to childhood, idealized in the image of seven-year-old Alice with “eyes wide shut”, who is naturally immersed in her own Wonderland! After all, little girls don't even have to jump down the rabbit hole to leave the world of adults somewhere far away. And the world of adults, with all its conventions - is it worth spending your life on it? And in general, what is this whole world, social life, etc. really worth, Carroll asks himself. After all, people are generally strange creatures that walk all the time with their heads up and spend half their lives lying under the covers! "Life, what is it but a dream?" ("Life, it's just a dream") - this is how the first fairy tale about Alice ends.

Head of Professor Dodgson

TRINITY:
You came here because you want
find out the answer to the hacker's main question.
NEO:
The Matrix… What is the Matrix?
(talking in a nightclub)

To the teeth grinding, the highly spiritual Carroll was tormented by the idea of ​​an existential, esoteric breakthrough into the "present", into Wonderland, into the world outside the Matrix, into the life of the Spirit. He (like all of us!) Was the very ill-fated “for eternity a hostage to time in captivity”, and he was extremely acutely aware of this.

Carroll's character was distinguished by an inflexible intention to realize his dream. He worked all day long, not even looking up for a normal meal (during the day he “blindly” snacked on cookies) and often spent long sleepless nights doing his research. Carroll, indeed, worked like crazy, but the purpose of his work was just to bring his mind to perfection. He painfully realized that he was locked in a cage of his own mind, but he tried to destroy this cage, not seeing a better method, by the same means - the mind.

Possessing a brilliant intellect, a professional mathematician and capable linguist, Carroll tried with the help of these tools to find a way out, that same forbidden door to a wonderful garden that would lead him to freedom. Mathematics and linguistics - these are the two areas in which Carroll set up his experiments, esoteric and scientific at the same time - depending on which side you look at. Dodgson published about a dozen books on mathematics and logic, leaving his mark on science, but he strove for much deeper results. Playing with words and numbers was for him a war with the reality of common sense - a war with which he hoped to find peace eternal, endless, imperishable.

According to contemporaries, Deacon Carroll did not believe in eternal hellish torment. I dare to suggest that he, moreover, admitted the possibility of going beyond the limits of human syntax already during his lifetime. Exit and complete reincarnation into another reality - a reality that he conditionally called Wonderland. He admitted it - and passionately desired such a liberation ... Of course, this is just a guess. Within the framework of the Christian tradition, to which Deacon Dodgson undoubtedly belonged, this is unthinkable, however, for example, for a Hindu, Buddhist or Sufi, such a "Cheshire" disappearance is quite natural (as the disappearance in parts or in whole - for the Cheshire cat himself!) .

The fact is that Carroll tirelessly carried out experiments on a kind of “breakthrough of the Matrix”. Having abandoned the logic of common sense and using formal logic as a lever that “turns the world” (or rather, the usual combinations of words that people describe this world, out loud and to themselves, in the course of reflection), Carroll “scientifically groped” for a much deeper logic.

As it turned out later, in the 20th century, in his mathematical, logical and linguistic studies, Professor Dodgson anticipated later discoveries in mathematics and logic: in particular, "game theory" and the dialectical logic of modern scientific research. Carroll, who dreamed of returning to childhood by turning back time, was in fact ahead of the science of his era. But it never achieved its main goal.

The brilliant, perfect mind of Dodjohn, a mathematician and logician, suffered, unable to overcome the abyss separating him from something fundamentally incomprehensible to the mind. That existential abyss, which is bottomless: you can “fly, fly” into it. And the aging Dodgson flew and flew, becoming more and more lonely and misunderstood. This abyss has no name. Perhaps this is what Sartre called "nausea." But since the human mind tends to stick labels to everything, let's call it an abyss. Snark Boojum. This is the gap between the human consciousness, striving for freedom, and the inhumanity of its environment.

Surrounding (part of the environment) considered Dodzhon-Carroll a man with quirks, a little out of his mind. And he knew how crazy and bizarre everyone else is - people who "think" with words while they play "royal croquet" in their own head. “Everyone is out of their mind here, you and I,” says the Cheshire Cat to Alice. Reality, when you apply reason to it, becomes even crazier. She becomes, disassembled, the world of Alice in Wonderland.

The story of Dodgson-Carroll's life is a story of search and disappointment, struggle and defeat, and that particular disappointment-defeat that comes only after winning at the end of a long, life-long search. Carroll, after a long struggle, won his place under the sun, and the sun went out. "For the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see" - with such a sentence (offering your head, or (de) surrender) ends Carroll's last famous work - the nonsense poem "The Hunt for the Snark". Carroll got the Snark, and that Snark was Boojum. In general, Carroll's biography is the story of the Snark, who *was* Boojum. Carroll-failure was three people: Morpheus, who did not find his Neo, Trinity, who also did not find his Neo, and Neo himself, who never saw the Matrix as it is. The story of the liquid terminator, which no one loved and did not understand properly, and which disappeared into oblivion. A story that leaves no one indifferent.

Carroll got involved in a struggle in which a reasonable person cannot win. It is only when (and if! And that's a big If!) thoughts are transcended that states known as intuition emerge outside of the mind. Carroll was just trying - intuitively feeling that he needed it - to develop such a superpower in himself, to pull himself out of the swamp by the hair. Intuition is higher than any and any intellect: the mind and intellect operate with the help of words, logic and mind (in which Carroll reached significant heights) and are therefore limited. Only the state of super-logic, intuition surpasses reasonable logic. While Carroll used his mind, he was a good mathematician, an innovative logician, a talented writer. But when the “golden city” arose in front of him - the Land of Wonders, the Radiant Himalayas of the Spirit - he wrote under the inspiration of something superhuman, and these glimpses of the Higher can be seen even through the translation: Carroll, like a dervish, is spinning in his mystical dance, and before our words, numbers, chess pieces, poems flicker with a mental (and sometimes thoughtless!) gaze; finally, gradually, the very texture of the world, the lines of the Matrix, begin to emerge... Is it possible to demand more from a writer? This is his gift to us—something he could only let happen—our dear Uncle Carroll, visionary mathematician, theater deacon, playful prophet in a clumsy yellow wig.

Which to this day leaves a lot of juicy questions, gives out a multifaceted and talented person. He is both a capable mathematician and a talented writer. Based on the works of the author, more than 100 films in various genres have been shot.

Place of birth England

The 19th century is famous for many geniuses, one of them everyone knows - Lewis Carroll. His biography begins in the picturesque village of Daresbury, which was part of Cheshire. There were 11 children in the home of Rector Charles Dodgson. The future writer was named after his father, he was born on January 27, 1832 and received home education until the age of 12. Then he was sent to a private school, where he studied until 1845 inclusive. Spent the next 4 years at Rugby. In this institution, he was less happy, but showed brilliant success in the disciplines of mathematics and the word of God. In 1950 he entered Christ Chert, in 1851 he transferred to Oxford.

At home, the head of the family himself worked with all the children, and the classes were like fun games. To better explain the basics of counting and writing to young children, the father used items such as chess and abacus. The lessons of the rules of conduct were like cheerful feasts, where knowledge was put into children's heads by way of “tea drinking in reverse”. When young Charles was in grammar school, science was easy, he was praised, and learning was a pleasure. But in the subsequent study of the sciences, the pleasure was gone, and success was less. By Oxford, he was considered an average student with good but untapped abilities.

New name

He began to write his first stories and poems while still in college under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The biography of the birth of a new name is simple. His friend and publisher Yates advised him to simply change the first letters for a better sound. There were several suggestions, but Charles settled on this short version, and most importantly, convenient for the pronunciation of children. He published his work in mathematics under his real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Mathematician and logician

Studying in college was boring for the writer. But he got his bachelor's degree easily, and in a math lecturing competition he won the opportunity to teach a course at Christchurt. Charles Dodgson devoted 26 years to Euclidean geometry, algebra and mathematics. analysis, became seriously interested in the theory of probability and mathematical puzzles. Almost by accident, he developed a method for calculating determinants (Dodgson condensation).

There are two views on his scientific activity. Some believe that he did not bring an impressive contribution, but teaching brought a steady income and the opportunity to do what he loved. But there is an opinion that the achievements of C. L. Dodgson in the field of logic simply outstripped the mathematical science of that time. The development of simpler sorite solutions is set out in "Symbolic Logic", and the second volume has already been adapted for children's perception and was called "Logic Game".

Spiritual dignity and travel to Russia

At the college, Charles Dodgson was ordained a deacon. Thanks to this, he could read sermons, but not work in the parish. At this time there was a development of contacts between the English Church and Russian Orthodoxy. For the holiday dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Metropolitan Philaret's tenure at the Moscow cathedra, the writer and deacon Charles and the theologian Henry Liddon were invited to Russia. Dodgson truly enjoyed the journey. Having performed his duties at official meetings and events, he visited museums, recorded impressions of cities and people. Some phrases in Russian are included by him in the Travel Diary. It was a book not for publication, but for personal use, which was published only after the death of the author.

Meetings of Russians and Englishmen, conversations through translators and informal walks around the city left a vivid impression on the young deacon. Before (and after) he never went anywhere else, except for occasional visits to London and Bath.

Lewis Carroll. Biography of the writer

In 1856, Charles meets the family of the new dean of the college, Henry Liddell (not to be confused with different people). A strong friendship develops between them. Frequent visits bring Dodgson closer to all family members, but especially to his youngest daughter Alice, who is only 4 years old. The spontaneity, charm and cheerful disposition of the girl captivate the author. Lewis Carroll, whose works are already published in such serious magazines as "Comic Times" and "The Train", finds a new Muse.

In 1864, the first work about the fabulous Alice was published. After a trip to Russia, Carroll creates the second story of the adventures of the main character, published in 1871. The writer's style went down in history as "a kind of Carrellian." The fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" was written for children, but enjoys steady success with all fans of the fantasy genre. The author used philosophical and mathematical jokes in the plot. The work became a classic and the best example of the absurd, the structure of the narrative and the actions had a strong influence on the development of the art of that time. Lewis Carroll created a new direction in literature.

two books

The fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" is the first part of the adventure. The plot tells about a girl who is trying to catch up with a funny Rabbit in a hat and with a pocket watch. Through the hole, she enters the hall, where there are many small doors. To enter the garden with flowers, Alice reduces her height with the help of a fan. In the magical world, she meets a leisurely Caterpillar, a funny wise and mischievous Duchess who loves to cut heads. Alice attends a crazy tea party with the March Hare and the Hatter. In the garden, the Heroine meets the card guards who turn white roses red. After playing croquet with the Queen, Alice goes to court, where she acts as a witness. But suddenly the girl begins to grow, all the characters turn into cards and the dream ends.

A few years later, the author publishes the second part under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. "Alice Through the Looking Glass" is a journey through a mirror to another world, which is a chessboard. Here the heroine meets the White King, talking flowers, the Black Queen, Humpty Dumpty and other fairy-tale characters, prototypes of chess.

Brief analysis of books about Alice

Lewis Carroll, whose books can be sorted into mathematical and philosophical problems, tries to ask complex questions in his works. The flight through in its slowness resembles the theory with decreasing acceleration towards the center of the Earth. When Alice remembers the multiplication table, it is used in which 4X5 is really equal to 12. And in the reductions and increases in the girl and in her fear (as if not to disappear at all), one can recognize E. Whittaker's research on changes in the Universe.

The smell of pepper in the Duchess's house - on the severity and rigidity of the mistress's character. And also a reminder of the habit of the poor to pepper food to hide the taste of cheap meat. The conflict between science and ethics is clearly seen in the remark of the Cheshire Cat: "If you walk for a long time, you will definitely come somewhere." During the tea party, Carroll gives the phrase that Alice's long hair needs to be cut to the Hatter character. A contemporary of the writer claims that this is a personal hairpin to all those who were dissatisfied with Charles's hair in life, as he wore his hair longer than the fashion of that time allowed.

And these are just the well-known examples. In fact, any situation in Alice's adventures can be decomposed into a logical riddle or a philosophical problem of the concept of the world.

Carroll quotes

Lewis Carroll, whose quotes are used today as often as Shakespeare's, was the latent rebel of his time. “Hidden” means that he expressed his disagreement with the rules of behavior in society with veiled barbs. For example, too long hair.

• That would be for a change to meet a reasonable person!
• Life, of course, is serious, but not very ...
• Time can't be wasted!
• It is correct to explain something to another - to do everything yourself.
• Morality is everywhere - you need to look for it!
• Everything is different, that's normal.
• If you rush, you will miss the miracle.
• Why does anyone need morality so much?!
• The entertainment of the intellect is necessary for the health of the spirit.

Spicy gossip of the 19th century

Lewis Carroll, whose books do not lose popularity from the Queen of England to the Russian schoolboy, was a lonely and unsociable member of society. A talented man was engaged in photography and (with the permission of mothers) photographed young beauties naked for his collection. In life and in college, Charles Dodgson was withdrawn, stuttering and deaf in one ear. The spiritual dignity did not allow him to marry.

There are several rebuttals to rumors born during the life of the writer. Yes, he felt flawed and that is why he avoided women of his age. All the girls with whom he spoke were over 14 years old. For that time, these are already young ladies in search of a groom. There is no hint of sexual harassment in the girls' memories. And many of them deliberately reduced their age so as not to be compromised. A child can freely communicate with a man, but a decent lady cannot.

This is an amazing story of an English writer and scientist. At the same time, the whole world knows him as a storyteller who wrote one of the most famous stories about the adventures of the girl Alice. His career was not limited to writing: Carroll was engaged in photography, mathematics, logic, and taught. He holds the title of professor at Oxford University.

Writer's childhood

The biography of Lewis Carroll originates in Cheshire. It was here that he was born in 1832. His father was a parish priest in the small village of Daresbury. The family was big. Lewis's parents raised 7 more girls and 3 boys.

Carroll received his early education at home. Already there he showed himself to be a quick-witted and intelligent student. His first teacher was his father. Like many creative and talented people, Carroll was left-handed. According to some biographers, as a child, Carroll was forbidden to write with his left hand. Because of this, his childish psyche was disturbed.

Education

Lewis Carroll receives his initial education at a private school near Richmond. In it, he found a language with teachers and students, but in 1845 he was forced to transfer to Rugby School, where conditions were worse. During the period of study, he demonstrated excellent results in theology and mathematics. Since 1850, the biography of Lewis Carroll has been closely associated with the aristocratic college in Christ Church. This is one of the most prestigious educational institutions at the University of Oxford. Over time, he is transferred to study at Oxford.

In his studies, Carroll was not particularly successful, he stood out only in mathematics. For example, he became the winner of the competition for reading mathematical lectures in Christ Church. He has been doing this work for 26 years. Although she was boring for a professor of mathematics, she brought a decent income.

According to the college charter, another amazing event is taking place. Writer Lewis Carroll, whose biography is associated with the exact sciences, takes ordained. These were the requirements of the college where he studied. He is awarded the rank of deacon, which allows him to read sermons without working in the parish.

Lewis Carroll begins writing short stories in college. The biography of a brief English mathematician proves that talented people have abilities in both the exact sciences and the humanities. He sent them to magazines under a pseudonym, which later became world famous. His real name is Charles Dodgson. The fact is that at that time in England, writing was not considered a very prestigious occupation, so scientists and professors tried to hide their hobbies in prose or poetry.

First success

Biography of Lewis Carroll is a success story. Glory came to him in 1854, his works began to publish authoritative literary magazines. These were the stories "Train" and "Space Times".

Around the same years, Carroll met Alice, who later became the prototype of the heroines of his most famous works. The college has a new dean, Henry Liddell. His wife and five children came with him. One of them was 4-year-old Alice.

"Alice in Wonderland"

The most famous work of the author, the novel "Alice in Wonderland", appears in 1864. Biography of Lewis Carroll in English details the history of the creation of this work. This is an amazing story about a girl Alice, who falls through the rabbit hole into an imaginary world. It is inhabited by various anthropomorphic creatures. The fairy tale is extremely popular among both children and adults. This is one of the best works in the world written in the absurdist genre. It contains a lot of philosophical jokes, mathematical and linguistic allusions. This work had a huge impact on the formation of a whole genre - fantasy. A few years later, Carroll wrote a continuation of this story - "Alice Through the Looking-Glass".

In the 20th century, many brilliant adaptations of this work appeared. One of the most famous was shot by Tim Burton in 2010. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway. According to the plot of this picture, Alice is already 19 years old. She returns to Wonderland, in which she was in her early childhood, when she was only 6. Alice has to save Jabberwock. She is assured that she is the only one who can do it. Meanwhile, the dragon Jabberwock is at the mercy of the Red Queen. The film seamlessly combines live action with beautiful animation. That is why the picture became one of the highest grossing films in the world in the history of cinema.

Travel to Russia

The writer was mostly a homebody, only once got out of the country. Lewis Carroll arrived in Russia in 1867. A biography in English of Mathematics details this trip. Carroll went to Russia with Reverend Henry Liddon. Both were representatives of theology. At that time, the Orthodox and Anglican churches were in active contact with each other. Together with his friend, Carroll visited Moscow, Sergiev Posad, many other holy places, as well as the largest cities in the country - Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg.

The diary that Lewis Carroll kept in Russia has come down to us. A short biography for children describes this journey in detail. Although it was not originally intended for publication, it was published posthumously. This includes impressions of the cities visited, observations from meetings with Russians and notes of individual phrases. On the way to Russia and on the way back, Carroll and his friend visited many European countries and cities. Their path lay through France, Germany and Poland.

Scientific publications

Under his own name, Dodgson (Carroll) published many works in mathematics. He specialized in Euclidean geometry, matrix algebra, studied mathematical analysis. Carroll was also very fond of entertaining mathematics, constantly developing games and puzzles. For example, he owns a method for calculating determinants, which bears his name - the Dodgson condensation. True, on the whole, his mathematical achievements did not leave any noticeable trace. But the work on mathematical logic was far ahead of the time in which Lewis Carroll lived. A biography in English details these successes. Carroll died in 1898 in Guildford. He was 65 years old.

Carroll photographer

There is another area in which Lewis Carroll was successful. A biography for children details his passion for photography. He is considered one of the founders of pictorialism. This trend in the art of photography is characterized by the staged nature of filming and editing of negatives.

Carroll talked a lot with the famous 19th-century photographer Reilander and took lessons from him. At home, the writer kept his collection of staged photographs. Carroll himself took a picture of Reilander, which is considered a classic of the mid-19th century photographic portrait.

Personal life

Despite being popular with children, Carroll never married and had no children of his own. His contemporaries note that the main joy in life was his friendship with little girls. He often painted them, even naked and half-naked, of course, with the permission of their mothers. An interesting fact that needs to be noted: at that time in England, girls under 14 were considered asexual, so this hobby of Carroll did not seem suspicious to anyone. Then it was considered innocent fun. Carroll himself wrote about the innocent nature of friendship with girls. No one doubted this, that in the numerous recollections of children about friendship with the writer there is not a single hint of a violation of the norms of decency.

Suspicions of pedophilia

Despite this, already in our time there were serious suspicions that Carroll was a pedophile. They are mainly associated with free interpretations of his biography. For example, the film "Happy Child" is dedicated to this.

True, modern researchers of his biography come to the conclusion that most of the girls with whom Carroll spoke were over 14 years old. Most of them were 16-18 years old. Firstly, the writer's girlfriends often underestimated their age in their memories. For example, Ruth Hamlen writes in her memoirs that she dined with Carroll when she was a shy child of twelve. However, the researchers managed to establish that at that time she was already 18 years old. Secondly, Carroll himself used to call the word "child" young girls up to 30 years old.

So today it is worth recognizing with a high degree of certainty that all suspicions of the unhealthy attraction of the writer and mathematician to children are not based on facts. Lewis Carroll's friendship with his dean's daughter, from which the amazing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was born, is absolutely innocent.

In the drowning greenery of a tiny village in the south-east of the county, on January 27, 1932, Cheshire was born Lewis Carroll - real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - a British logician, mathematician, and writer. There were 7 girls and 4 boys in the family. He began to study at home, showed himself smart and quick-witted. He was left-handed, according to unverified reports, he was forbidden to write with his left hand, which traumatized the young psyche (presumably, this led to stuttering).

From an early age, the boy entertained his family with magic tricks, puppet shows and poetry. In early 1851 he moved to Oxford to enter one of the most aristocratic colleges at Oxford University. Lewis did not study very well, but thanks to his outstanding mathematical abilities, he won the competition to give mathematical lectures at Christ Church. For 26 years he gave these lectures, which Lewis considered boring, but they gave a good income. According to the charter of the college, he received the spiritual order of a deacon (which gave him the right to preach sermons without working in the parish).

As an unmarried teacher in the mathematics department at Oxford University, he enjoyed the company of young girls. Carroll's hobbies gave rise to rumors about his pedophilia. Modern biographies of Lewis Carroll also mention this fact. However, in recent decades, it has become known that almost all of the author's little girlfriends were over 14 years old, and many of them were 16 and 18 years old. In addition, Lewis was an avid bachelor and was not friendly with the opposite sex.

In the mid-1950s, Charles began to write works on humorous and mathematical topics. And already in 1856, by translating into Latin and rearranging the words of his name, he creates the pseudonym "Lewis Carroll". However, his mathematical works were published under the real name of the writer. In 1856, a new dean, Henry Liddell, appeared at the college, with whom his wife and five children arrived, among whom was 4-year-old Alice. In 1864, the famous novel by Lewis Carroll about the adventures of a little girl in Wonderland was born. The work is based on stories that the author told his friends in his youth.

The incredible commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson's life, as Lewis Carroll became quite famous all over the world, his mailbox was flooded with letters from admirers, he began to earn quite substantial sums of money. However, Dodgson never abandoned a modest life and church posts.

In 1867, Lewis Carroll left England for the first and last time and made a very unusual trip to Russia for those times. On the way he visits Calais, Brussels, Potsdam, Danzig, Koenigsberg, spends a month in Russia, returns to England via Vilna, Warsaw, Ems, Paris. In Russia, Dodgson visits St. Petersburg and its environs, Moscow, Sergiev Posad, a fair in Nizhny Novgorod.

In the continuation of the book - which was written in 1871, the author describes the further adventures of the heroine. Filled with fantastical characters and colorful landscapes, as well as wit and plenty of puzzles, these two books have become some of the most famous and revered children's books in the world.

Lewis Carroll was also an honorary portrait photographer. He was very fond of photographing children and famous people. Among his last sitters were Alfred Lord Tennyson, D. G. Rossetti and John Millais. In intertwining his best qualities as a photographer and author of fantastic comics, the writer became the most unforgettable, talented and original person of his time.

An equally curious fact from the biography of Lewis Carroll is that he was an inventor. His main and famous invention is the nyctograf. This is a device for quickly writing down ideas or notes in the dark. The writer himself often woke up at night and wanted to write down the idea, but did not want to light the lamp at the same time (we all remember what time Carroll lived). That is how the idea came to make such a device, which served as the opening of a new form of shorthand - nyctography. Initially, the writer called the device a "typhlograph", but renamed it "niktograph" at the suggestion of one of his comrades. Carroll also invented the book dust jacket, worn on the binding or the main cover and road chess.

Lewis Carroll died on January 14, 1898 in Guildford, Surrey, at the home of his seven sisters, from pneumonia that flared up after the flu. He was buried there, along with his brother and sister at Mount Cemetery.

The biography of Lewis Carroll will not leave anyone indifferent, because we all love a wonderful series of books. Alice Lewis Carroll has been filmed many times, which indicates the popularity and universal love for this work.