In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass,
Lewis Carroll created fantastic worlds that continue to delight and
trouble readers of all ages today. What is often overlooked,
however, is that Carroll conceived his Alice books during the
1860s, a moment of intense intellectual upheaval, as new
scientific, linguistic, educational, and mathematical ideas
flourished around him, in Oxford, and far beyond. Alice in Space
reveals the contexts within which the Alice books first lived,
bringing back the zest to jokes lost over time and poignancy to
hidden references. Gillian Beer explores Carroll's work through the
speculative gaze of Alice, for whom no authority is unquestioned
and everything can speak. Parody and Punch, evolutionary debates,
philosophical dialogues, educational works for children, math and
logic, manners and rituals, dream theory and childhood studies all
fueled the fireworks. While much has been written about Carroll's
biography and his influence on children's literature, Beer
convincingly shows him at play in the spaces of Victorian cultural
and intellectual life, drawing on then-current controversies,
reading prodigiously across many fields, and writing on multiple
levels to please both children and adults in different ways. With a
welcome combination of learning and lightness, Beer reminds us that
Carroll's books are essentially about curiosity, its risks and
pleasures. Along the way, Alice in Space shares Alice's exceptional
ability to spark curiosity in us, too.
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