Lewis Caroll biography. Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge (Lutwidge) Dodgson(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) - English children's writer, mathematician, logician and photographer. Known under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

Born on January 27, 1832 in Dairesbury near Warrington, Cheshire, in the family of a priest. In the Dodgson family, men were, as a rule, either army officers or clergymen (one of his great-grandfathers, Charles, rose to the rank of bishop, his grandfather, again Charles, was an army captain, and his eldest son, also Charles, was the father of the writer ). Charles Lutwidge was the third child and eldest son in a family of four boys and seven girls.

Young Dodgson was educated until the age of twelve by his father, a brilliant mathematician who was predicted to have a remarkable academic career, but chose to become a rural pastor. Charles’s “reading lists,” compiled together with his father, have survived, telling us about the boy’s solid intellect. After the family moved in 1843 to the village of Croft-on-Tees, in the north of Yorkshire, the boy was assigned to Richmond Grammar School. From childhood, he entertained his family with magic tricks, puppet shows, and poems he wrote for homemade home newspapers (“Useful and Edifying Poetry,” 1845). A year and a half later, Charles entered Rugby School, where he studied for four years (from 1846 to 1850), showing outstanding abilities in mathematics and theology.

In May 1850, Charles Dodgson was enrolled at Christ Church College, Oxford University, and moved to Oxford in January of the following year. However, in Oxford, after only two days, he received unfavorable news from home - his mother had died of inflammation of the brain (possibly meningitis or stroke).

Charles studied well. Having won the Boulter Scholarship competition in 1851 and received first-class honors in mathematics and second-class honors in classical languages ​​and ancient literature in 1852, the young man was admitted to scientific work and also received the right to lecture in the Christian church, which he subsequently enjoyed for 26 years. . In 1854, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from Oxford, where subsequently, after receiving his master's degree (1857), he worked, including the position of professor of mathematics (1855-1881).

Dr. Dodgson lived in a small house with turrets and was one of the landmarks of Oxford. His appearance and manner of speech were remarkable: slight asymmetry of the face, poor hearing (he was deaf in one ear), and a strong stutter. He delivered lectures in an abrupt, even, lifeless tone. He avoided making acquaintances and spent hours wandering around the neighborhood. He had several favorite activities to which he devoted all his free time. Dodgson worked very hard - he got up at dawn and sat down at his desk. In order not to interrupt his work, he ate almost nothing during the day. A glass of sherry, a few cookies - and back to the desk.

Even at a young age, Dodgson drew a lot, tried himself in poetry, wrote stories, sending his works to various magazines. Between 1854 and 1856 His works, mostly humorous and satirical, have appeared in national publications (Comic Times, The Train, Whitby Gazette and Oxford Critic). In 1856, a short romantic poem, “Loneliness,” appeared in The Train under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

He invented his pseudonym in the following way: he “translated” the name Charles Lutwidge into Latin (it turned out Carolus Ludovicus), and then returned the “truly English” appearance to the Latin version. Carroll signed all his literary (“frivolous”) experiments with a pseudonym, and put his real name only in the titles of mathematical works (“Notes on plane algebraic geometry,” 1860, “Information from the theory of determinants,” 1866). Among a number of Dodgson's mathematical works, the work “Euclid and His Modern Rivals” (the last author's edition - 1879) stands out.

In 1861, Carroll took holy orders and became a deacon of the Church of England; This event, as well as the statute of Oxford Christ Church College, according to which professors had no right to marry, forced Carroll to abandon his vague matrimonial plans. At Oxford he met Henry Liddell, dean of Christ Church College, and eventually became a friend of the Liddell family. It was easiest for him to find a common language with the dean’s daughters - Alice, Lorina and Edith; In general, Carroll got along with children much faster and easier than with adults - this was the case with the children of George MacDonald and the offspring of Alfred Tennyson.

Young Charles Dodgson was approximately six feet tall, slender and handsome, with curly brown hair and blue eyes, but it is believed that due to his stuttering, he had difficulty communicating with adults, but with children he relaxed, became free and fast in his speech.

It was the acquaintance and friendship with the Liddell sisters that led to the birth of the fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland” (1865), which instantly made Carroll famous. The first edition of Alice was illustrated by the artist John Tenniel, whose illustrations are considered classics today.

The incredible commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson's life. Since Lewis Carroll became quite famous throughout the world, his mailbox was flooded with letters from admirers, and he began to earn very significant sums of money. However, Dodgson never abandoned his modest life and church positions.

In 1867, Charles left England for the first and last time and made a very unusual trip to Russia for those times. Along the way I visited Calais, Brussels, Potsdam, Danzig, Koenigsberg, spent a month in Russia, returned to England via Vilna, Warsaw, Ems, Paris. In Russia, Dodgson visited St. Petersburg and its environs, Moscow, Sergiev Posad, and a fair in Nizhny Novgorod.

The first fairy tale was followed by a second book, “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (1871), whose gloomy content reflected the death of Carroll’s father (1868) and the many years of depression that followed.

What is remarkable about Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, which have become the most famous children's books? On the one hand, this is a fascinating story for children with descriptions of travel to fantasy worlds with whimsical heroes who have forever become idols of children - who doesn’t know the March Hare or the Red Queen, the Quasi Turtle or the Cheshire Cat, Humpty Dumpty? The combination of imagination and absurdity makes the author’s style inimitable, the author’s ingenious imagination and play on words brings us finds that play on common sayings and proverbs, surreal situations break the usual stereotypes. At the same time, famous physicists and mathematicians (including M. Gardner) were surprised to discover a lot of scientific paradoxes in children's books, and episodes of Alice's adventures were often discussed in scientific articles.

Five years later, The Hunting of the Snark (1876), a fantasy poem describing the adventures of a bizarre crew of variously misfit creatures and one beaver, was published and was Carroll's last widely known work. Interestingly, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti was convinced that the poem was written about him.

Carroll's interests are multifaceted. The end of the 70s and 1880s are characterized by the fact that Carroll publishes collections of riddles and games (“Doublets”, 1879; “Logic Game”, 1886; “Mathematical Curiosities”, 1888-1893), writes poetry (the collection “Poems? Meaning?”, 1883). Carroll went down in literary history as the writer of “nonsense,” including rhymes for children in which their name was “baked” and acrostics.

In addition to mathematics and literature, Carroll devoted a lot of time to photography. Although he was an amateur photographer, a number of his photographs were included, so to speak, in the annals of world photographic chronicles: these are photographs of Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, actress Ellen Terry and many others. Carroll was especially good at taking pictures of children. However, in the early 80s, he abandoned photography, declaring that he was “tired” of this hobby. Carroll is considered one of the most famous photographers of the second half of the 19th century.

Carroll continued to write - on December 12, 1889, the first part of the novel “Sylvie and Bruno” was published, and at the end of 1893 the second, but literary critics reacted lukewarmly to the work.

Lewis Carroll died in Guildford, Surry County, on January 14, 1898, at the home of his seven sisters, from pneumonia that broke out after influenza. He was less than sixty-six years old. In January 1898, most of Carroll's handwritten legacy was burned by his brothers Wilfred and Skeffington, who did not know what to do with the piles of papers that their “learned brother” left behind in the rooms at Christ Church College. In that fire, not only manuscripts disappeared, but also some of the negatives, drawings, manuscripts, pages of a multi-volume diary, bags of letters written to the strange Doctor Dodgson by friends, acquaintances, ordinary people, children. The turn came to the library of three thousand books (literally fantastic literature) - the books were sold at auction and distributed to private libraries, but the catalog of that library was preserved.

Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was included in the list of twelve "most English" objects and phenomena compiled by the UK Ministry of Culture, Sport and Media. Films and cartoons are made based on this cult work, games and musical performances are held. The book has been translated into dozens of languages ​​(more than 130) and has had a great influence on many authors.

Based on materials from Wikipedia, site jabberwocky.ru

Which to this day leaves many piquant questions and reveals a multifaceted and talented person. He is both a capable mathematician and a talented writer. More than 100 films in different genres have been made based on the author’s works.

Place of birth England

The 19th century is famous for many geniuses, everyone knows one of them - Lewis Carroll. His biography begins in the picturesque village of Daresbury, which was part of Cheshire. There were a total of 11 children in the vicarage of Charles Dodgson. The future writer was named after his father; he was born on January 27, 1832 and was educated at home until he was 12 years old. Then he was sent to a private school, where he studied until 1845 inclusive. He spent the next 4 years in 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 Church, and in 1851 he transferred to Oxford.

At home, the head of the family himself taught all the children, and the activities were like fun games. To better explain the basics of counting and writing to young children, the father used objects such as chess and an abacus. Lessons on the rules of behavior were like cheerful feasts, where, through “tea drinking in reverse,” knowledge was crammed into children’s heads. When young Charles studied at grammar school, science was easy, he was praised, and learning was a pleasure. But in the subsequent study of science, the pleasure disappeared, and there was less success. By Oxford he was considered an average student with good but unused ability.

New name

He began writing his first stories and poems 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 proposals, but Charles settled on this short version, and most importantly, convenient for children to pronounce. He published his works on mathematics under his real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Mathematician and logician

Studying in college was boring for the writer. But he received his bachelor's degree easily, and in a competition for lecturing in mathematics, he won the opportunity to teach a course at Christ Church. Charles Dodgson devoted 26 years to Euclidean geometry, algebra and mathematics. analysis, became seriously interested in probability theory 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 make an impressive contribution, but teaching brought a constant 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 were simply ahead of the mathematical science of that time. Developments of simpler solutions to sorites are set out in “Symbolic Logic”, and the second volume has already been adapted for children’s perception and was called “Logic Game”.

Spiritual ordination and travel to Russia

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

Meetings between Russians and Englishmen, conversations through interpreters 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 1864, the first work about the fairy-tale Alice was published. After a trip to Russia, Carroll creates a second story of the main character's adventures, published in 1871. The writer's style went down in history as “a peculiar Carrell style.” The fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland” was written for children, but enjoys lasting success among all fans of the fantasy genre. The author used philosophical and mathematical jokes in the plot. The work has become a classic and the best example of absurdity; the structure of the narrative and action had a strong influence on the development of 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 a hall where there are many small doors. To enter the flower garden, Alice uses a fan to reduce her height. In the magical world, she meets the leisurely Caterpillar, the funny wise man and the mischievous Duchess, who loves to chop off heads. Alice attends a mad tea party with the March Hare and the Hatter. In the garden, the Heroine meets card guards who repaint white roses red. After playing croquet with the Queen, Alice ends up in 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 into 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 divided into mathematical and philosophical problems, tries to ask difficult questions in his works. Flight through in its slowness resembles the theory with decreasing acceleration towards the center of the Earth. When Alice remembers the multiplication table, which is used in which 4X5 really equals 12. And in the girl’s decreases and increases and in her fear (of not disappearing completely) you can recognize E. Whittaker’s research on changes in the Universe.

The smell of pepper in the Duchess's house is a sign of the severity and harshness of the hostess's character. And also a reminder of the habit of the poor to pepper their food to hide the taste of cheap meat. The conflict between science and ethics is clearly visible in the Cheshire Cat's remark: “If you walk for a long time, you will definitely come somewhere.” During the tea party, Carroll gives the phrase about cutting Alice's long hair to the character Hatter. A contemporary of the writer claims that this is a personal shout-out to all those who were dissatisfied with Charles’s hairstyle in life, since he wore his hair longer than the fashion of that time allowed.

And these are just 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 a hidden rebel of his time. “Hidden” means he expressed his disagreement with the rules of behavior in society with veiled barbs. For example, hair that is too long.

• If only I could meet a reasonable person for a change!
• Life is serious, of course, but not very...
• Time can't be wasted!
• The right way to explain something to someone else is to do it yourself.
• Morality is everywhere - you need to look for it!
• Everything is so different, that’s normal.
• If you rush, you will miss the miracle.
• Why does anyone need morality so much?!
• Entertainment of the intellect is necessary for the health of the spirit.

Juicy 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 his mothers) photographed young beauties naked for his collection. In life and in college, Charles Dodgson was introverted, stuttered, and couldn't hear out of one ear. His ecclesiastical rank did not allow him to marry.

There are several refutations of rumors born during the writer’s lifetime. Yes, he felt inferior and that is why he avoided women his age. All the girls he interacted with were over 14 years old. For that time, these were already young ladies looking for 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 communicate freely with a man, but a decent lady cannot.

Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) - English writer, mathematician, logician, philosopher, deacon and photographer - born January 27, 1832 at the vicarage in the village of Daresbury, Cheshire.

In total there were 7 girls and 4 boys in the family. He started studying at home and showed himself to be smart and quick-witted. His father was in charge of his education. Was left-handed; according to unverified data, he was forbidden to write with his left hand, which traumatized the young psyche (presumably this led to stuttering).

At the age of 12 he entered a small grammar private school near Richmond. He liked it there, but in 1845 Lewis had to go to Rugby School, where he liked it much less. He studied at this school for 4 years and showed excellent abilities in mathematics and theology.

In May 1850 was enrolled at Christ Church, one of the most aristocratic colleges at Oxford University, and moved to Oxford in January of the following year. He was not a very good student, but thanks to his outstanding mathematical abilities, after receiving his bachelor's degree he won a competition to give mathematical lectures at Christ Church. He gave these lectures for the next 26 years. They provided good income, although they were boring to him.

According to the college charter, he was ordained, but not as a priest, but only as a deacon, which gave him the right to preach sermons without working in the parish. He began his writing career while studying in college. He wrote poems and short stories, sending them to various magazines under the pseudonym “Lewis Carroll.” This pseudonym was invented on the advice of publisher and writer Yates. It is formed from the author's real names "Charles Lutwidge", which are equivalents of the names "Charles" (Latin: Carolus) and "Louis" (Latin: Ludovicus). Dodgson chose other English equivalents of the same names and swapped them.

Other options for a pseudonym are Edgar Cutwellis (the name Edgar Cutwellis is obtained by rearranging the letters from Charles Lutwidge), Edgard W.C. Westhill and Louis Carroll were rejected. Gradually he gained fame. Since 1854 his works began to appear in serious English publications: The Comic Times and The Train. In 1856 A new dean appeared at the college - Henry Liddell, with whom his wife and 5 children arrived, among whom was 4-year-old Alice.

In 1864 wrote the famous work "Alice in Wonderland". Three years later, Deacon of the Anglican Church Dodgson, together with the theologian Reverend Henry Liddon (not to be confused with Deacon Henry Liddell), visited Russia. This was a period of theological contacts between the Anglican and Orthodox churches, in which Lyddon and the influential Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, whose letters of recommendation were secured by both clerics, were especially interested.

Together with Liddon, Carroll was received in Moscow and Sergiev Posad by Metropolitan Philaret (the visit was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his tenure at the Moscow see) and Archbishop Leonid (Krasnopevkov). The trip route was as follows: London - Dover - Calais - Brussels - Cologne - Berlin - Danzig - Koenigsberg - St. Petersburg - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod - Moscow - Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius - St. Petersburg - Warsaw - Breslau - Dresden - Leipzig - Ems - Paris - Calais - Dover - London.

This was Carroll's only trip abroad. He described it himself in the “Diary of a Travel to Russia in 1867” (not intended for publication, but published posthumously), which provides tourist impressions from the cities visited, notes about meetings with Russians and Englishmen in Russia and recordings of individual Russian phrases.

He also published many scientific works on mathematics under his own name. He studied Euclidean geometry, linear and matrix algebra, calculus, probability theory, mathematical logic, and fun mathematics (games and puzzles). In particular, he developed one of the methods for calculating determinants (Dodgson condensation).

However, his mathematical works did not leave any noticeable mark on the history of mathematics, while his achievements in the field of mathematical logic were ahead of their time.

Lewis Carroll died January 14, 1898 in Guildford, Surrey. He was buried there, along with his brother and sister, in the Ascension Cemetery.

Works:
"Useful and edifying poetry" ( 1845 )
"Algebraic analysis of the Fifth Book of Euclid" ( 1858 )
"Alice's Adventures Under Ground" (written before "Alice in Wonderland" in November 1864, Russian translation by Nina Demurova ( 2013 ))
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" ( 1864 )
"Information from the theory of determinants" ( 1866 )
"Bruno's Revenge" (the main core of the novel "Silvia and Bruno") ( 1867 )
"An Elementary Guide to the Theory of Determinants" ( 1867 )
"Phantasmagoria and Other Poem" ( 1869 )
“Through the Mirror and What Alice Saw There” (“Alice Through the Looking Glass”) ( 1871 )
"The Hunt for the Snark" ( 1876 )
Mathematical work "Euclid and his modern rivals"; "Doublets, word riddles" ( 1879 )
"Euclid" (Books I and II) ( 1881 )
Collection “Poems? Meaning?" ( 1883 )
"A Tangled Tale" 1885 ) - a collection of riddles and games
"Logic game" ( 1887 )
"Mathematical Curiosities" (Part I) ( 1888 )
"Silvia and Bruno" (Part I) ( 1889 )
"Alice for Children" and "Round Billiards"; "Eight or Nine Words of Wise About Writing Letters" ( 1890 )
"Symbolic Logic" (Part I) ( 1890 )
“Conclusion of “Sylvie and Bruno”” ( 1893 )
The second part of “Mathematical Curiosities” (“Midnight Problems”) ( 1893 )

Introduction

Translated literature has always occupied a large place in children's reading. It, just like native literature, has a serious influence on the moral and aesthetic education of children. The best works of progressive foreign writers instill in young citizens humanism, devotion to moral ideas, love of knowledge, and hard work. This is the most important means of exchanging cultural values, helping to bring people closer together and interact. It contributes to the study of social conditions and the culture of the peoples of different countries, since without sociocultural knowledge real communication and understanding cannot take place. “Art has the magical ability to overcome barriers of nationality and tradition, making people aware of their universal wealth. The scientific and technical achievements of a nation win it respect and admiration, but the creations of art make everyone fall in love with this nation,” wrote S.Ya. Marshak.

Of particular importance in translated children's literature are the works of British writers such as: Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, Alan Alexander Milne, Hugh Lofting.

Lewis Carroll: biography and creativity

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, whom everyone knows under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was born on January 27, 1832 in the small village of Daresbury, located in Cheshire. He was the first child of the parish priest Charles Dodgson. The future writer's mother's name was Frances Jane Lutwidge. At baptism, the child received two names: the first, Charles, in honor of his father, the second, Lutwidge, in honor of his mother. Later, Charles had seven more sisters and three brothers - at that time large families were common. Lewis Carroll was British to the core. He had a special appearance: asymmetrical eyes, the corners of his lips were turned up, he was deaf in his right ear; stuttered.

All children in the Dodgson family received home education: the father himself taught them the law of God, literature and the basics of natural sciences, “biography” and “chronology”. The boy was then sent to Richmond Grammar School. After six months of study, young Charles managed to enter Rugby School, where he studied for four years. During his studies, teachers noted the boy's outstanding abilities in theology and mathematics. Carroll's entire subsequent life was connected with Oxford.

In May 1850, Dodgson was admitted to Christ Church College, Oxford University, and in January of the following year he moved permanently to Oxford. Charles graduated from college with honors in two departments: mathematics and classical languages, which was a rare case even at that time. Considering the young man’s outstanding abilities, he was offered to stay and work at Oxford, and in the fall of 1855 he was appointed professor of mathematics at one of the colleges. In those years, a prerequisite for scientific work was taking holy orders and a vow of celibacy. Dodgson hesitated for some time, fearing that taking holy orders would force him to give up his favorite pastimes - photography and going to the theater.

In 1861, Dodgson was ordained deacon, the first step in the priesthood process, but university rules soon changed and ordination became optional.

Dodgson wrote a large number of scientific books and brochures on logic and mathematics. The most famous books are The Fifth Book of Euclid Treated Algebraically (1858, 1868), A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry (1860), An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, 1867) and Euclid and His Modern Rivals (1879), Mathematical Curiosities (Curiosa Mathematica, 1888 and 1893), Symbolic Logic (1896).

In Oxford, Charles Dodgson lived in a small, cozy house with turrets. In his youth, he wanted to learn to be an artist, so he drew a lot, mainly with charcoal or pencil, and he himself illustrated his own handwritten magazines, which he published for his brothers and sisters. Once he sent several of his drawings to the humor supplement of the Time newspaper, but the editors did not publish them. Then Charles became acquainted with the art of photography, a passion for which he retained throughout his life. He bought a camera and took up photography seriously. In the era of the birth of photography, the process of photographing was unusually complex: photographs had to be taken with a long shutter speed, on glass plates coated with a colloidal solution. The plates then had to be developed very quickly after shooting. For a long time, Dodgson's photographs were not known to a wide circle, but in 1950, the book “Lewis Carroll - Photographer” was published, which revealed Dodgson as a talented photographer.

Lewis Carroll loved Alice Liddell, a seven-year-old beauty with wide eyes, the rector's daughter, who, thanks to Carroll, turned into fairy-tale Alice.

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.

Alice. Photo by Carroll

Dodgson was a rather strange person - he avoided making friends, had poor hearing in one ear and had diction defects. He delivered his lectures in a abrupt, lifeless tone. Carroll simply loved the theater. This was clearly visible from the outside when he, already a famous writer, was personally present at the rehearsals of his fairy tales on the theater stage, showing a deep understanding of the theater and the laws of the stage.

Dr. Dodgson often suffered from severe insomnia. At night, while trying to sleep, he would invent “midnight problems”—various mathematical puzzles—and solve them himself in the dark. Having collected these problems together, Carroll published them as a separate book, Mathematical Curiosities.

In 1867, Dodgson went on a very unusual trip to Russia. On the way, he visited Calais, Brussels, Potsdam, Danzig, and Koenigsberg. The journey was very exciting. In Russia, Dodgson visited St. Petersburg, Sergiev Posad, Moscow, and a fair in Nizhny Novgorod. After a month in Russia, he returned back to England. The return route passed through Vilna, Warsaw, Ems, and Paris. Dodgson loved children very much: as a young boy, he wrote stories, small poems, invented various games, and drew pictures for his younger brothers and sisters. Dodgson had such a strong attachment to children (mostly girls) that it even confused his contemporaries. It is difficult to say unequivocally what attracted Carroll to little girls, but in our time many biographers and critics, studying the psychology of the writer, never cease to accuse him of pedophilia.

Of Dodgson's childhood friends, the most famous were those with whom he had been friends since his youth - these were the children of the dean of his college, Liddell: Harry, Lorina, Alice (Alice), Rhoda, Edith and Violet.

Favorite Alice became the main character of Dodgson's improvisations, with which he entertained his young girlfriends on river walks or in his house, in front of the camera. Charles's photo models were his little girlfriends. He told the most unusual and fascinating story on July 4, 1862 to Lorina, Edith, Alice Liddell and Canon Duckworth near Godstow, walking in the upper reaches of the Thames. Young Alice persuaded Dodgson to write down his story on paper, which he did. Then, on the advice of J. MacDonald and Henry Kingsley, he rewrote his book so that it would be interesting not only for children, but also for adults. Charles added several more fascinating stories to the future book that he had previously told to Liddell's children. In July 1865, the book was published under the title Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Soon a continuation of Alice's adventures appeared, also collected from earlier and later stories. This continuation was published at Christmas 1871. The new book was called “ Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. The illustrations for both books were created by D. Tenniel, who carried them out according to the exact instructions of Dodgson himself.

The fairy tales “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” are loved by adults and children. They are quoted, philologists and physicists refer to it, they are studied by philosophers and linguists, psychologists and mathematicians. Many articles, scientific papers, and books have been written about them. Movies have been made based on Lewis Carroll's books and plays have been staged. Hundreds of artists drew illustrations for his books, including Salvador Dali himself. Alice's Adventures have been translated into more than a hundred languages.

Dodgson wrote wonderful and original humorous poetry. Carroll published some poems from the books about Alice in 1855 in the Comic Times and in 1856 in Train magazine. He published many more of his poetry collections in these and various other periodicals, anonymously or under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll. Carroll's most famous poetic work is the nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark."

In the winter of 1898, Lewis Carroll fell ill with influenza in Guildford. The flu caused a complication - pneumonia, from which Charles Dodgson died on January 14, 1898.

Carroll's ability to skillfully “juggle” words and invent various new words made it impossible to unambiguously translate his works. Despite the efforts of the translators, some of the subtext was still lost. Now there are dozens of different translations into Russian of Lewis Carroll's works. In the Soviet Union, the works of L. Carroll were first translated by A.P. Olenich-Gnenenko. From 1940 to 1961, the publication was published five times. The 1958 edition contained the first Soviet illustrations for "Alice", which were made by the artist V.S. Alfeevsky.

Lewis Carroll, real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Dodson). Date of birth: January 27, 1832. Place of birth: the quiet village of Dersbury, Cheshire, UK. Nationality: British to the core. Special features: asymmetrical eyes, the corners of the lips are turned up, deaf in the right ear; stutters. Occupation: Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, deacon. Hobbies: amateur photographer, amateur artist, amateur writer. Emphasize the last one.

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 count.

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

Lewis Carroll, the beloved author of the classic works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and The Hunting of the Snark (1876), was a man who spent three-quarters of his free time with children, able to tirelessly tell children fairy tales 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 - that's two.

Perhaps (only perhaps, and not necessarily!), there was also a third one - let's call him “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 it was a failure at the international level, a sensational failure. 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 hint at all sorts of quirks of the third (about whom almost nothing is known, and what is known is impossible to prove!). But in fact, Carroll - like a liquid terminator - was all of his hypostases at once - although each of them with its entire being refuted the others... Is it any wonder that he had his own oddities?

The irony of fate, or the 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, the wide-eyed seven-year-old beauty, the rector’s daughter, who, thanks to Carroll, turned into Fairytale Alice.

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 girls I know. But “owls are not what they seem.” As the queen of Russian Carroll studies N.M. notes in her study. Demurova, the well-known version of Carroll’s “pedophilism” is, to put it mildly, a gross exaggeration. The fact is that relatives and friends deliberately fabricated a lot of evidence about Carroll’s supposedly great love for children (and girls, in particular) in order to hide his overly active social life, which included many acquaintances with “girls” of quite mature age - behavior that at that time absolutely unforgivable for either a deacon or a professor.

Having selectively destroyed much of his archive immediately after Carroll’s death and created a heavily “powdered” biography, the writer’s relatives and friends deliberately mummified the memory of him as a kind of “Grandfather Lenin” who really, really loved children. Needless to say, how ambiguous such an image has become in the twentieth century! (According to one of the “Freudian” versions, Carroll developed his own reproductive organ in the image of Alice!) The writer’s reputation, ironically, fell victim to a word of mouth conspiracy, precisely created with the aim of protecting his good name and presenting him in a favorable light before his descendants...

Yes, even during his lifetime, Carroll had to “conform” and hide his versatile, active and sometimes even stormy life under an impenetrable mask of Victorian respectability. Needless to say, it’s an unpleasant task; for such a principled man as Carroll, this was undoubtedly a heavy burden. And yet, it seems, 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 full-length film will finally be filmed 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 Vision of Lewis Carroll", and it is being directed by - who do you think? - none other than... Marilyn Manson! (I wrote more about this.)

However, even if Carroll was indeed tormented by insomnia at night, he also could not find peace during the day: he constantly needed to keep himself busy with something. In fact, Carroll invented and wrote so much during his life that you are simply amazed (again, one involuntarily recalls grandfather Lenin, who was also distinguished by his literary prolificacy!). But at the center of this vigorous creativity was conflict. Something weighed on Carroll: something prevented him, for example, from getting married and having children, whom he loved so much. Something turned him away from the path of the priest, which he had set out on 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 the whole world revealed to our eyes, and incomprehensible, like the invisible world! What it was, we can now only guess, but there is no doubt about the existence of this deepest “abyss”.

So, 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 during the final editing, contains a bitter complaint about the double - not to say “two-faced” life that he had to lead under social pressure. I will quote the poem in full (translated by O.I. Sedakova):

When I was gullible and young,
I raised my curls, took care of them, and loved them.
But everyone said: “Oh, shave them off, shave them off,
And get a yellow wig as soon as possible!”

And I listened to them and did this:
And he shaved his curls and put on a wig -
But everyone shouted when they looked at him:
“To be honest, this is not what we were expecting at all!”

“Yes,” everyone said, “he doesn’t sit well.
He’s so unbecoming of you, he’ll forgive you so much!”
But, my friend, how could I save? –
My curls couldn’t grow back...

And now, when I am not young and gray,
And the old hair on my temples is gone.
They shouted to me: “Come on, you crazy old man!”
And they pulled off my ill-fated wig.

And yet, wherever I look.
They shout: “Rude! Dude! Pig!"
Oh my friend! What kind of insults am I 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! The following is a clarification:

“I sympathize with you very much,” said Alice from the bottom of her heart. “I think if your wig fit better, they wouldn’t tease you like that.”

“Your wig fits perfectly,” muttered Bumblebee, looking at Alice with admiration. - That's because your head shape is suitable.

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 tradition, is played out on the stage of the whole world. Carroll - if, of course, we take it on faith that in the image of Bumblebee Carroll portrayed 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 exist visible!) - so, Carroll is tormented by both 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 doesn’t 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 adult world somewhere out there, far away. And the world of adults, with all its conventions - is it worth spending your life on? And in general, what is this whole world, social life, etc. really worth, Carroll asks himself. After all, people are generally strange creatures who walk with their heads up all the time and spend half their lives lying under the covers! “Life, what is it but a dream?” (“Life is just a dream”) - this is how the first fairy tale about Alice ends.

Professor Dodgson's head

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

To the point of gnashing of teeth, 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 that ill-fated “eternity hostage to time in captivity,” and he was extremely aware of this.

Carroll's character was characterized by an unbending determination to realize his dream. He worked all day long, without even stopping to eat 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 precisely to bring his mind to perfection. He was painfully aware of himself being locked in the cage of his own mind, but he tried to destroy this cage, not seeing a better method, with 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 very forbidden door into a wonderful garden that would lead him to freedom. Mathematics and linguistics are two areas in which Carroll conducted 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 strived 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 eternal, endless, imperishable peace.

According to contemporaries, Deacon Carroll did not believe in eternal torment of hell. 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 transformation into another reality - a reality that he conventionally called Wonderland. He admitted - and passionately desired - such liberation... Of course, this is just a guess. Within the framework of the Christian tradition, to which, without a doubt, Deacon Dodgson 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 is for the Cheshire Cat himself!) .

It is a fact that Carroll tirelessly conducted 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 upside down” (or rather, the usual combinations of words that people use to describe this world, out loud and to themselves, during 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 he never achieved his main goal.

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

Those around him (part of the environment) considered Dojohn-Carroll a man with quirks, a little out of his mind. And he knew how crazy and bizarre everyone else was - people who “think” in words while they play “royal croquet” in their own heads. “Everyone here is out of their minds, both you and me,” says the Cheshire Cat to Alice. Reality, when you apply reason to it, becomes even crazier. It becomes, deconstructed, the world of “Alice in Wonderland.”

The life story of Dodgson-Carroll is a story of search and disappointment, struggle and defeat, as well as that special disappointment-defeat that comes only after victory at the end of a long, life-long search. Carroll, after a long struggle, won his place in the sun, and the sun went out. “For the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see” - with this sentence (offer of one’s head, or (de-) capitulation) ends Carroll’s last famous work - the nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. Carroll got a Snark, and that Snark was Boojum. In general, Carroll's biography is the story of Snark, who *was* Boojum. Carroll's 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 a liquid terminator that no one loved or understood well, and who dissolved into oblivion. A story that doesn't leave you indifferent.

Carroll got involved in a fight that no reasonable person could win. Only when (and if! And this is a big If!) thoughts are transcended, states known as intuition appear beyond 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 his hair. Intuition is higher than any and all intellect: the mind and intellect operate with the help of words, logic and reason (in which Carroll achieved significant heights) and are therefore limited. Only the state of super logic and intuition surpasses reasonable logic. While Carroll used his mind, he was a good mathematician, an innovative logician, and a talented writer. But when the “golden city” stood before him - Wonderland, the Radiant Himalayas of the Spirit - he wrote under the inspiration of something superhuman, and these glimpses of the Supreme can be seen even through the translation: Carroll, like a dervish, spins in his mystical dance, and before ours Words, numbers, chess pieces, poems flash with a mental (and sometimes thoughtless!) gaze; finally, gradually, the very texture of the world, the lines of the Matrix, begins to appear... Is it possible to demand more from a writer? This is his gift to us - something that he could only allow to happen - our dear Uncle Carroll, visionary mathematician, theatrical deacon, humorous prophet in an awkward yellow wig.