Jabberwocky and Other Nonsense - Lewis Carroll

Those who read my review of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass some years ago may remember my rather negative opinion of Carroll's (or Dodgson's) writing. This edition is the first compiled collection of his poems, including both prominent and lesser known verses. The poems range from those written for friends and family, little girls he fancied, Oxford rhymes critiquing his university's politics (some things never change), extracts from Wonderland, 'Phantasmagoria', 'The Hunting of the Snark', 'Sylvia and Bruno', and various miscellaneous. Whilst certainly a must for bibliophiles and poetry lovers, there is an overwhelming sense of fangirl fanaticism in the annotations, notes, and introduction.

Fans of the Wonderland books will no doubt find much to enjoy here, as the poems are suitably skittish, ludicrous, and surreal. The problem I had is that I like my surreality with a splash of maturity; these are written predominantly for children and the nursery. Of them all, 'Phantasmagoria', Carroll's longest poem of seven cantos, was my favourite due to the playful repartee between a grumpy man and a sanctimonious ghost he finds waiting in his house one night. The majority of the collection is regrettably forgettable, being the bits and pieces of folly composed throughout his life and sent off as letters. Indeed, aside from biographical interest, one may even question their relevance at all. Perhaps I'm missing the point of 'nonsense' entirely.

The titular poem 'Jabberwocky' from Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll's most popular, is another favourite, particularly due to its subtle, almost invisible invitation to form a Freudian analysis. Riddles, anagrams, and acrostics also form a portion of the volume, but these were too obscure and context-specific for me to bother figuring out. It often became difficult to separate the whimsy from the serious, a factor which some may consider positive. The introduction by Gillian Beer sheds some light on the origins and intentions of the poems, providing a useful framework from which to read them. She ironically states that she will not bring up the elephant in the room, namely Dodgson's association with paedophilia.

Rating: 2/5