This Enduring tale has been claimed to be a satire on language, a political allegory, a parody of Victorian childrens literature, or even a reflection of contemporary ecclesiastical history. It was perhaps, as the author might have said, no more than a dream, a fairy tale about the trials and tribulations of growing upor down, or all turned roundas seen through the expert eyes of a child.

Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), English author, mathematician, and photographer. One of eleven children of a scholarly country parson, he studied mathematics at Oxford, obtained a university post, and then was ordained as a deacon but found true success with his masterpiece, Alice's Adventures Under Ground, now known as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which originated as a story told to a young friend, Alice Liddell, during a boating trip on the Thames.