He first began to write comic poetry and prose in the 1850s and had several pieces published in magazines, where he first began to use the name Lewis Carroll. Dodgson continued the academic family tradition and studied mathematics and theology, eventually becoming a mathematician at Oxford University. His father, the local rector, came from a family of distinguished scholars and clergymen.

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, born in 1832 in Cheshire in the north of England.

This latter poem is thought to have introduced two entirely new words into the English language: they are ‘chortle’ and ‘galumph’. The time Carroll spent with the sons and daughters of his colleagues at the University was crucial in the creation of this entertaining story.Ĭarroll also wove into his story a heap of puzzles, even poems – the book contains the famous verses ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ and ‘Jabberwocky’. The two books were revolutionary: while most children’s novels had been written to educate and instruct, Carroll’s two book were produced firmly to amuse.Ĭarroll, a mathematics lecturer at Oxford University, was always comfortable around children – its told that an incurable stammer which troubled his communication with adults would disappear in their company. Like the first Alice book, Looking-Glass is a brilliantly plotted, wonderfully inventive nonsense story, full of humour, riddles and rhymes. Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871, and is the famous sequel to Alice in Wonderland. On her travels she meets a whole host of characters: the White Knight Tweedledum and Tweedledee the Walrus and the Carpenter the Rocking-Horse Fly – and even Humpty Dumpty himself. All the world’s citizens are a part of this great game of chess, explains the White Queen, who appoints Alice to be her pawn, and sends her on a magical journey across this strange country. The looking-glass world she enters takes the form of a giant chessboard, the squares divided by green hedges and brooks. Suddenly the glass turns to mist – and Alice passes through it to the other side.

Gazing into a huge mirror above the drawing room mantelpiece, she wonders what the world would look like if everything in it was turned around, like a reflection. A winter’s day, and Alice is feeling thoughtful.

Glass in lewis carroll's book