Jenny Woolf

This was not as interesting as I thought it would be. Even though Carroll came from a large family they were all very private people so little is known about his childhood or personal life when older.
The book dwells mainly on the accusations regarding paedophilia put forth and gaining momentum after Freud, but not during Carroll's own lifetime. In regards to that people are going to believe whatever they want to believe regardless of the proof showing otherwise. I do not personally believe that he was---as stressed in the book, Dodgson should be judged as he would have been seen in his own time, not by modern society.… (mer)

I enjoyed this fairly balanced account of the life of Charles L. Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll; it was well written and well researched and I learned a lot about the subject. Two minor complaints: for a book that talks a lot about photography I thought the author could have been a bit more generous with pictures; also, it irritated me somehow that Woolf referred to Dodgson as Lewis Carroll throughout the book - this was not the name his contemporaries would have used and I don't see it as his identity. Of course, that is just a personal preference. A good read, with lots of interesting details.… (mer)