The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature (review)

After reading this book, I came away with several impressions of Lewis Carroll. First, he was a snob. Carroll did not intend for lower-class children to read or possess his books, and even when interested in representing the children of the urban poor, he used upper-class models posed as those who were poverty stricken. Second, he was brilliant. Not only was Carroll the author of two of the most influential books ever written for children, but he also was involved intricately in the details of illustrating, publishing, marketing, and developing an Alice brand. More than an author of classic children's books, Carroll was an innovative entrepreneur and a talented photographer.

Susina's text offers a wonderful starting point to researchers who are new to the study of Carroll. The book provides many entry points into Carroll scholarship, and it is easy to read one or two chapters rather than having to dig through the whole book. For researchers, the subheadings throughout the chapters are especially useful, as are the index, the list of Carroll's works, and the references made to other useful resources on various topics. Susina explores the production of the Alice books in relation to previously published children's books, including literary fairy tales; children's books published by Carroll's contemporaries; more activist children's literature designed to draw attention to the plight of the urban poor; and adaptations and imitations of Carroll's texts. He provides interesting insights into the influence of the photographer O. G. Rejlander on Carroll's photography of children, as well as details about the entrepreneurial spirit embodied in the author's attempts to recreate his popular books for various audiences in multiple modes.

Chapter one introduces early, less-known works by Carroll, which Susina describes as "the fertile soil from which his later, and best-known, children's books grew" (13). He explains how Carroll wrote for his brother and sister and incorporated mathematical puzzles, word games, and nonsense in his writing from as early as age thirteen. Even then, Carroll's exacting standards had developed, and he "saw himself as a writer who was aiming at a dual audience of children and adults" (17).

In chapter two, Susina explores how Carroll was influenced by the traditions of literary fairy tales. He addresses Ruth Berman's conclusion that Wonderland "confirms and rejects many of the standard fairy tale elements" (25). Susina claims that even though Carroll's Alice oeuvre does not contain the "same sort of moralizing and conventional piety that appears in Kingsley's The Water Babies and MacDonald's Dealings with the Fairies (1867), it does contain a number of social lessons for its younger readers" (27). As Susina argues, Wonderland is "about a child attempting to conform to adult society" (43).

Chapter four provides details about how Carroll helped to revolutionize the publishing industry. He took it upon himself to extend the Alice brand and create Alice-related products that would appeal to audiences of various social classes and different ages. This is one of the most engaging chapters, describing how Carroll held focus groups, set fixed prices, developed dust jackets, located translators, and adapted his own text for different audiences. It appeals to anyone interested in the history of publishing and marketing children's literature. Susina notes that contemporary children's book publishers are indebted to Carroll, who must "be acknowledged for his significant innovations in the design and marketing of children's books" (137).

Chapter nine explains how Susina sees the two volumes of Sylvie and Bruno as precursors to postmodern writing. The texts "blend the supernatural with reality" (122), and the action occurs on the verge between wakefulness and dreaming, but not fully in either. The boundary crossing, paired with the alignment of characters in each realm, hints at a similar trend in current popular television shows like Once Upon a Time and Fringe.

Rather than stick solely with Carroll's historical positioning as a...