The best known of all Victorian books for children is, of course the immortal fantasy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1832-98)

C arroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and was educated at Rugby and at Christ Church College, University of Oxford. For 25 years, he was a member of the faculty of mathematics at Oxford. He was the author of several mathematical treatises. In 1865 he published under his pseudonym Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, appeared six years later. These were followed by The Hunting of the Snark, and a novel, Sylvie and Bruno.

Always a friend of children, particularly little girls, Carroll wrote thousands of letters to them, delightful flights of fantasy, many illustrated with little sketches. Carroll gained an additional measure of fame as an amateur photographer. Most of his camera portraits were of children in various costumes and poses, including nude studies; he also did portraits of adults, including the actress Ellen Terry and the poets Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Christina Rossetti.

"Some people", said Humpty Dumpty, looking away from her as usual, "have no more sense than a baby!"

Alice didn't know what to say to this: it wasn't at all like conversation, she thought, as he never said anything to her; in fact, his last remark was evidently addressed to a tree – so she stood and softly repeated to herself:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the King's horses and all the King's men

Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.

"That last line is much too long for the poetry," she added, almost out loud, forgetting that Humpty Dumpty would hear her.

"Don't stand chattering to yourself like that," Humpty Dumpty said, looking at her for the first time, "but tell me your name and your business".

"My name is Alice, but – "

"It's a stupid name enough!" Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. "What does it mean?"

"Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully.

"Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh: "my name means the shape I am – and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost."

The Alice stories, which have made the invented name – Lewis Carroll – famous throughout the world, and have been translated into many languages, were originally written for Alice Liddell, a daughter of Dean of Christ Church College. On publication, the works became immediately popular as books for children.

Their subsequent appeal to adults is based upon the ingenious mixture of fantasy and realism, gentle satire, absurdity, and logic. The names and sayings of the characters, such as the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the White Knight, have become part of everyday speech.

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