Customer Reviews

the authoritative biography - By: charles1832, 21 Dec 2006
Cohen may have a somewhat outdated picture of Carroll but this is the standard biography, full of facts & information, so I am giving it 5 stars. Cohen had access to family papers & has seen so much unpublished material, nobody can come close to his achievement & it is the biography to turn to if you want to know what happenedin carroll's life. It's just a pity he's so convinced that Carroll was a closer paedophile as he is inclined to put fanciful interpretations on some bits of Carroll's life - & these fancies are NOT backed up by any of the facts he gives. I'm thinking specially of his interpretations of Carrolls unhappy early 1860s diary entries & meetings with little Alice. Cohen tries to tie these together but they just don't tie up at all as far as I can tell!

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out-dated but still fairly good - By: , 15 Dec 2001
the publication of Leach's book 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild' has rendered Cohen's assessment of Dodgson's sexuality & his relationship with Alice Liddell outdated & a little embarrassing.
Nonetheless I think his book is still worth reading for being the first serious attempt to fathom the enigma of Charles Dodgson.