| Vendor | |
|---|---|
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Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
| Original language | |
| English | |
IN THE SHADOW OF THE DREAMCHILD
The Myth and Reality of Lewis Carroll
In the Shadow of the Dreamchild caused quite a stir on its first publication in 1999 and remains a striking, iconoclastic piece of literary criticism and biography which does much to restore Carroll's posthumous reputation. Author Karoline Leach susbtantially revised the book for its 10th anniversary in 2009, and it is this text that we reproduce here in this special edition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice's Adventure's In Wonderland.
The book uses new research to deconstruct the long-standing image of the life of Charles Dodgson, better known to millions of fans around the world as Lewis Carroll. Traditionally thought of as exclusively child-centred and unworldly, his pre-occupation with Alice Liddell and his supposedly unnatural sexuality are shown here to be nothing more than myths. They belong to an invented persona, created around the name Carroll', and have almost nothing to do with Dodgson's real but overshadowed life.
Meticulously researched, the book traces the development of this false persona and demonstrates how generations of biographers have helped to create fictions about Dodgson's life, rather than bring the documentary facts before the public. It uses the data to re-create a startlingly new picture of Dodgson's personality, his experiences and, crucially, his all-important relationship with the Liddell family.
The dismantling of the myth and the new image that is put in its place are inevitably controversial, and since the first whisper of the book's conclusions became known last year reaction in the press and from Carrollian scholars has been intense. After all, In the Shadow of the Dreamchild challenges almost every scholastic and literary insight on Carroll that has developed over the past century.
KAROLINE LEACH trained as an actress and has written for the theatre since the early 1990s, with her play The Mysterious Mr Love being staged to critical acclaim in the West End's Comedy Theatre in 1997. Her play Tryst opened Off-Broadway in 2006 and was most recently staged at the Westport Country Playhouse in 2008. In the Shadow of the Dreamchild was her first book.
Meticulously researched, the book traces the development of this false persona and demonstrates how generations of biographers have helped to create fictions about Dodgson's life, rather than bring the documentary facts before the public. It uses the data to re-create a startlingly new picture of Dodgson's personality, his experiences and, crucially, his all-important relationship with the Liddell family.
The dismantling of the myth and the new image that is put in its place are inevitably controversial, and since the first whisper of the book's conclusions became known last year reaction in the press and from Carrollian scholars has been intense. After all, In the Shadow of the Dreamchild challenges almost every scholastic and literary insight on Carroll that has developed over the past century.
KAROLINE LEACH trained as an actress and has written for the theatre since the early 1990s, with her play The Mysterious Mr Love being staged to critical acclaim in the West End's Comedy Theatre in 1997. Her play Tryst opened Off-Broadway in 2006 and was most recently staged at the Westport Country Playhouse in 2008. In the Shadow of the Dreamchild was her first book.
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Book
Published 2015-07-01 by Peter Owen Ltd. |