Thinking about Wonderland

One pair of books I may have been giving inadequate weight in attempting to understand the Modern century (in my current work) is Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) -- books that were, indeed, part of the middle period of that time-period -- and which, strikingly, had their first impact at the same time Jules Verne's novels were having their early and likewise enormous impact. Verne's novels were also satirical, and also relied on an absurdist approach -- although not the same absurdist approach that Dodgson-Carroll employed. The Alice books like the Verne books are "extraordinary journeys."

In a somewhat unrelated note, how interesting that Charles Carroll (of Carrollton), last surviving signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, should die in the year Charles Dodgson should be born -- in 1832. It is not of significance -- just a fun, odd coincidence.

Cheers ...