Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

Note that this is not an edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as the only other review posted at this time implies. It is a collection of essays about Alice.

A very mixed collection. This is, in a way, typical of Lewis Carroll criticism: it's all over the map. Which is singularly unfortunate, because some of it is simply nonsense -- notably Phyllis Greenacre's "The Character of Dodgson as Revealed in the Writings of Carroll" and William Empson's "Alice in Wonderland: The Child as Swain." Both rely on utterly outdated psychology -- and both have been completely blown apart by the publication of Dodgson's diaries. Alice is not about Dodgson's sex life, or Freudianism; it's the flight of an autistic logician's fancy.

Less absurd, but show more no less out-of-date because of more recent publications, is Florence Becker Lennon's "Escape into the Garden."

Most of the other essays are better. But the whole book has a very peculiar air about it. The Alice books are works of nonsense, folks. Are there hidden meanings? Sure. Hidden meanings for ten-year-olds. Most of the essays seem to be trying to turn Charles Dodgson into Shakespeare, and then blaming him for not being Shakespearean. It's a silly approach. Let Dodgson be Dodgson, and let Alice be Alice. Give me The Annotated Alice and Morton Cohen's biography of Dodgson any day. Not only are they more enjoyable, but they contain less nonsense that is pure nonsense. show less

I read this because I never had read it before and Andy was assigned this book for class. I wasn't all that impressed with it, and wondered what all the fuss was about. I guess I must be missing something!

I actually read the edition illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, but I'm having a hard time finding it on goodreads.