The Hunting of the Snark

by Lewis Carroll (Author), Mervyn Peake (Illustrator)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $8.61

  'Mervyn Peake has a magic in his pen. He can annihilate the dimensions.' (Charles Morgan, 1947) This is true of Peake's writing and his drawings, as these illustrations to Lewis Carroll's mock-heroic nonsense poem testify. Richly brought to life with some of Peake's most exquisite line drawings THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK is a brilliant marriage of two of the most inventive imaginations. Carroll claimed that the inspiration for THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK (1876) sprang from 'one line of verse - one solitary line of verse - For the Snark was a Boojum, you see ', that came to him one day in 1874 while he was out walking. To questions asking whether the poem was an allegory, or a political satire, or contained some hidden moral, he claimed to have 'but one answer, I don't know! ' (The Theatre, 1887). This edition, re-originated from original artwork, includes a selection of Peake's working sketches never before published.

• New

  Paperback
  2006

  $12.32

  'They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; They pursued it with forks and hope; They threatened its life with a railway share; They charmed it with smiles and soap' Ever since Lewis Carroll's nonsense epic appeared in 1876 readers have joined his ten-man Snark-hunting crew and pursued the search with great enthusiasm. What are they hunting for? What is the Snark? Numerous theories have been proposed. Carroll himself provides a helpful Preface to the poem and is recorded as having explained to one reader: 'In answer to your question, 'What did you mean the Snark was?' will you tell your friend that I meant that the Snark was a Boojum. I trust that she and you will now feel quite satisfied and happy.' This edition, previously published as The Annotated Snark, reproduces the original illustrations by Henry Holiday, including the 'supressed' Boojum drawing. Martin Gardner provides an introduction, notes and bibliography, and an Appendix contains F. C. S. Schiller's 'Commentary on the Snark' and J. A. Lyndon's 'Fit the Seven-and-a-Halfth'.