Lewis Carroll

It may seem that this book has two heroes. One is an Oxford graduate, a devout clergyman, a pedant who delivered sermons and boring mathematics lectures, who was passionate about photography, who, as the curator of the College Club, was in charge of replenishing the wine cellar and ensuring the quality of the dishes, who developed a methodology for calculating tennis players' ratings and thought about optimizing parliamentary elections. The other is a master of paradoxes, an inventive and cheerful storyteller, who sincerely loved his little listeners, one of the most famous authors of literary fairy tales, bringing readers back to the world of childhood. How did the esteemed mathematics teacher Charles Lutwidge Dodgson transform into the writer Lewis Carroll? Why was his only trip abroad made to Russia? What did he spend his considerable fees on? What did the girl Alice, who became the heroine of his fairy tale duology, mean to him? These questions are answered in the book by Nina Demurova, a remarkable translator, who fifty years ago introduced Russian-speaking readers to the wonderful land of Carroll's heroes.