The Hunting of the Snark Immediately

The poem is Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's (and Joseph Swain's) masterpiece (5 stars). In the 2010 Evertype edition I miss the "Easter Greeting" (minus one star; the publisher chose to publish it in his edition of Alice's Adventures under Ground), which Carroll inserted into the already printed book perhaps in order to defuse that explosive ballad a bit. Hint: Compare Holiday's "Billiard marker" with Henry George Liddell, Carroll's boss at Christ Church College. There are many more conundrums in the poem and in the illustrations.

Three quotes, which are related to this book:

(1) "Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as 'Alice'? And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all ... And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when my turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows." (Lewis Carroll, 1876)

This is from the "Easter Greeting".

(2) "Perhaps I may venture, for a moment, to use a more serious tone, and to point out that there are mental troubles, much worse than mere worry, for which an absorbing subject of thought may serve as a remedy. There are skeptical thoughts, which seem for the moment to uproot the firmest faith; there are blasphemous thoughts, which dart unbidden into the most reverent souls; there are unholy thoughts, which torture, with their hateful presence, the fancy that would fain be pure. Against all these some real mental work is a most helpful ally." (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: Pillow Problems and a Tangled Tale, 1885, p. XV)

Sometimes I have the feeling, that friends of "The Hunting of the Snark" are afraid of "overanalysis". Some even may fear, that the Snark may have to leave the public library. But even if one day we would speak openly about all its textual and graphical elements, the book still will be one of the greatest children books in the library. This is, because Carroll and Holiday did not place these elements into the Snark for their personal satisfaction. Henry Holiday gave us a hint:

(3) "It is possible that the author was half-consciously laying a trap, so readily did he take to the inventing of puzzles and things enigmatic; but to those who knew the man, or who have devined him correctly through his writings, the explanation is fairly simple." (Henry Holiday on Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark", January 29th, 1898)

In the preface to the Snark, Carroll points to his intentions by pretending, that he would not point to them: "I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose of this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History." (As a logician, Carroll of course knows, how such a sentence works.) I think that Carroll was very serious about this statement. It is not ironical. The book holds the readers and the beholders of the Snark ballad responsible for the meanig which THEY give to the poem and to the illustrations. That is how Carroll's and Holiday's "nonsense" works. Keep this in mind and do not underestimate the Snark or assume any inproper intentions on the side of the authors. The book just tells the readers (and they beholders of the illustrations), what they have in their mind. Take Holiday's warning about Carroll's traps serious, then you can enjoy the book without getting caught by the Boojum.

In the Snark edition published by Evertype you won't find serious analysis. That is fine, the book has been published to offer plain Snark to the whole family. (That is why I miss the Easter Greeting.) Those who want to dig deeper should turn to Martin Gardener's "Annotaded Snark" (1981): Charles Mitchell's "The Designs for the Snark" in the 1981 Kaufmann edition of the Annotaded Snark still is a great collection of information on the Snark poem and its illustrations.

Links: Victorian Approaches to Religion As Reflected in the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites (Philosphiae Doctores)|Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye, The New Version, Second edition, Revised and Enlarged|Lewis Carroll & his Illustrators: Collaborations & Correspondence 1865-1898.|The Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators: The Published Graphic Art of the English Pre-Raphaelites and Their Associates With Critical Biographical Essays and Illustrated Catalogues of the|Arne Nordheim: Hunting Of The Snark (Music Sales America)|Arne Nordheim: The Return Of The Snark (contemporary composition for trombone and tape recorder)|Nyndk: The Hunting of the Snark (Jazz, B002S395C6)Get more detail about The Hunting of the Snark.