Synopses & Reviews
A penetrating work that explores the amazing imagination and mathematical genius of the man who wrote
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Just when we thought we knew everything about Lewis Carroll, here comes a highly original biography that will appeal to Alice fans everywhere. Fascinated by the inner life of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, Robin Wilson, a Carroll scholar and a noted mathematics professor, has produced this revelatory book filled with more than one hundred striking and often playful illustrations that examines the many inspirations and sources for Carroll's fantastical writings, mathematical and otherwise. As Wilson demonstrates, Carroll who published serious, if occasionally eccentric, works in the fields of geometry, logic, and algebra made significant contributions to subjects as varied as voting patterns and the design of tennis tournaments, in the process creating imaginative recreational puzzles based on mathematical ideas. In the tradition of Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind and Andrew Hodges's Alan Turing, this is an engaging look at the incredible genius of one of mathematics' and literature's most enigmatic minds. 100 illustrations.
Review
"Readers will find rare magic...in Carroll's conversion of Dodgson's professional analysis of terrestrial rotation into a whimsical Wonderland exchange between Alice and the Duchess on the nature of time. A biography as full of twists as the capering of the Jabberwocky!" Booklist
Synopsis
Just when we thought we knew everything aboutLewis Carroll, here comes a highly originalbiography that will appeal to Alice fanseverywhere. Fascinated by the inner life ofCharles Lutwidge Dodson, Robin Wilson, a Carroll scholar and a noted mathematics professor, hasproduced this revelatory book-filled with morethan one hundred striking and often playfulillustrations-that examines the manyinspirations and sources for Carroll'sfantastical writings, mathematical andotherwise. As Wilson demonstrates, Carroll-whopublished serious, if occasionally eccentric, works in the fields of geometry, logic, andalgebra-made significant contributions tosubjects as varied as voting patterns and thedesign of tennis tournaments, in the processcreating imaginative recreational puzzles basedon mathematical ideas. In the tradition ofSylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind andAndrew Hodges's Alan Turing, this isan engaging look at the incredible genius of one of mathematics' and literature's most enigmatic minds.
Synopsis
'\'A fine mathematical biography.\"John Allen Paulos,
New York Times Book Review\n
'
About the Author
Robin Wilson is the author of Four Colors Suffice and other books, the head of the Pure Mathematics Department at the Open University, and a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. He lives in London.