Using new and previously unpublished material Robert Douglas-Fairhurst explores Alice in Wonderland and the life of its author, Lewis Carroll, looking too at the influence Alice in Wonderland has had on our cultural history. The author sees Wonderland as the creation of a man at odds with a changing world, a book that although inspired and written by a child it also became a refuge for Lewis Carroll himself. ~ Sue Baker
Costa Judges' comment: “This sparkling account opens doors into the life of one of the most enigmatic of 19th century writers and the inspiration behind his iconic creation.”
The Story of Alice Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland Synopsis
This title was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Biography Award. This is the secret story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. Charles Dodgson was a quiet academic but his second self, Lewis Carroll, was a storyteller, innovator and avid collector of 'child-friends'. Carroll's imagination was to give Alice Liddell, his 'dream-child', a fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up. This is a biography that beautifully unravels the magic of Alice. It is a history of love and loss, innocence and ambiguity. It is the story of one man's need to make a Wonderland in a changing world.
'It is the ultimate book about Alice - comprehensive and scholarly, but so delightfully and elegantly written that it's a true work of literature' -- Jacqueline Wilson
'The Story of Alice is the best book on the myriad enigmas of Carroll's heart-breaking wonderland I have ever read' -- Robert McCrum Observer
Author
About Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Magdalen College. His most recent book, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist, won the Duff Cooper Prize.
