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Writer's pictureLily Newman

Lewis Carroll - Research

Lewis Carroll is the second name of mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson which he came across and renamed himself when he published his famous children's books. He grew up in a large family all of which enjoyed composing magazines and putting on plays. He was a lecturer in mathematics and occupied a tower in the college he worked in for the rest of his life. During his life he wrote many books on mathematics and logic and also enjoyed inventing puzzles and games and playing croquet. In 1865 he wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland after his love for children. He began writing the story whilst rowing Lorina, Alice and Edith, the three small daughters of the College Dean H G Liddell, up the Thames for a picnic near Binsey. A sequel was then created of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. When Alice was interviewed when she was older Alice remembered Carroll as a tall and slender man with blue/grey eyes and longish hair.

https://www.bl.uk/people/lewis-carroll


I found a website which gave me 10 facts that I didn't know about Alice in Wonderland but only found 6 useful.

"1. Alice's character was based on a real life little girl named Alice Liddell. he also wasn't blonde as it's illustrated in the book but brunette.

2. The tree that is said to have inspired the Cheshire Cat's tree stands in the garden behind Alice's home at Christ Church College in Oxford.

3. Mock Turtle soup is actually real. It was popular in the Victorian time, made as a cheaper version of green turtle soup.

4. The names of the three little sisters in the Dormouse's story refer to the names of the three Liddell sisters.

5. Lewis Carroll suffered from a rare neurological disorder that caused strange hallucinations and affected the size of visual objects, which can make the sufferer feel bigger or smaller than they are, which is a significant part of what Alice and Wonderland is about.

6. The novels were banned in China in 1931, on the grounds that "animals should not use human language"."

https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/apr/17/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-alice-in-wonderland-lewis-carroll


Because Lewis Carroll was a mathematician I wanted to know whether there was any maths behind the story of Alice in Wonderland. Carroll created Alice in Wonderland as a sort of protest to to imaginary numbers in maths, as maths in that time was very complicated. Alice represented the old math and the wonderland represented the madness of the new math that was being formed.

https://www.thegamer.com/dark-secrets-you-didnt-know-about-disney-kids-movies/




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