Charles Dodgson was a brother of the famous English writer Lewis Carroll.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson had different hobbies.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson was the oldest child in the family.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson enjoyed his years in the boarding schools very much.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson was a good mathematician.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson invented fantastic stories for his friend’s daughters.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson’s children enjoyed reading his books about Alice.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Charles Dodgson travelled a lot around the world.
1) True
2) False
3) Not stated
4)
Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Dodgson, an English writer and author of two of the best loved children’s books in English Literature — "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". The characters and phrases from these books have entered and become part of the English culture so if someone calls you "Mad as a Hatter", you know whom to thank.
Charles Dodgson was talented in many ways. Apart from being a creative writer, he was also a Mathematics Don (professor) at Oxford and a well-known logician. He was interested in photography and music. He sang very well, played chess and enjoyed creating and solving puzzles.
Charles Dodgson was born on 27 January 1832 and spent the first eleven years of his life at Warrington, Cheshire where his father was the priest. His family was large; his parents had 11 children, 4 boys and 7 girls.
Charles was educated first by home-schooling, then at two boarding schools, and finally at Christ Church College, Oxford. Later in life, he remembered his boarding school experience without any warm feelings. Still, he was an excellent student and studied very well in all his subjects.
In 1854 Charles Dodgson got a 1st class degree in Mathematics and one year later he became a lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church College. It was then that he started his literary career and took his pen-name, Lewis Carroll. While his creative books and poetry were published under his pen-name, he also wrote books on Mathematics under his own name.
When a new Headmaster arrived at Christ Church College, he brought with him his family. Dodgson became the family’s close friend. The Headmaster’s little daughters, the youngest of which was called Alice, enjoyed his company very much. Charles often entertained the girls by telling them stories about imaginary worlds with fantastic creatures.
The story about the adventures of little Alice became popular all over the world. "Alice in Wonderland" is primarily a children’s story, but adults have enjoyed the novel for over a century together with children.
Many elements of "Alice" were not completely new. Talking animals, for instance, or the story idea in which a child or children are carried away from reality into a fantasy world. However, it was Carroll who established a new motif that would be used again and again in children’s literature: Peter Pan, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Narnia books, and the Harry Potter books. That is the possibility for the main characters to travel back and forth between the real world and wonderland.
Though his characters travelled a lot between one world and another, Charles Dodgson himself didn’t like being away from home. The only occasion on which (as far as it is known) he went abroad was a trip to Russia in 1867.
He died of pneumonia on 14 January 1898 at his sisters’ home. He was 2 weeks away from turning 66.
Charles Dodgson was a brother of the famous English writer Lewis Carroll.
2A. What do you know about Lewis Carroll? Share your information with the others.
B. See if you can answer these three questions about Carroll:
1) Was he a professional writer?
2) Was Lewis Carroll his real name?
3) Did he write both for children and for grown-ups?
C. Read the text to find out if you were right.
Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll was an unusual man who led three lives. One was the life of a mathematics don at Oxford University. He loved the subject he taught but his students found Carroll humourless and dry. In his second life he was a photographer, which was a rare hobby at that time. But he is best remembered as the author of the wonderful book that is read and enjoyed by children and grown-ups all over the world. The title of the book is “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
It began in July 1862. A 30-year-old Oxford don, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (that is Lewis Carroll’s real name) took out a boat and together with his friend Robinson Duckworth and three little girls, the daughters of a university colleague [?k?li: ?], had a river trip. They had tea on the river bank before returning. It was not an unusual event in itself. But the result of that journey was most unusual because during that journey Dodgson told the story that so interested one of the little girls, called Alice, that she asked Dodgson to write it down for her. Thus Dodgson created one of the best loved and most interesting children’s books under the pen name Lewis Carroll (a Latinized transformation of his first two names) .
The book had great success. As soon as it was published, it became very popular. Altogether 180,000 copies were sold during Dodgson’s lifetime. Nowadays it is difficult to find a child who doesn’t know the book and its characters.
As a famous author, Lewis Carroll had a lot of friends. When he was invited to parties, he entertained children with stories, games and puzzles. All through his life he enjoyed the company of children whom he loved and understood. He didn’t have a wife or his own children and often thought of himself as a lonely man. The history of literature remembers him as a one-book author.
D. Write an outline of the text. Compare your outlines.
