Q: What is the 'Carroll Myth'?

A: The accepted image of Lewis Carroll is of a shy, reclusive, unworldly man, probably pedophilic, with no interest in or experience of adult women. Karoline Leach challenged the truth of this in her book In The Shadow of the Dreamchild. She said his supposed passion for 'little girls' was a gross simplification, and pointed out that many of the female friends often referred to by biographers as 'children' were actually grown women. She termed the accepted image the 'Carroll Myth'

Q: Is there any evidence that this is true?

A: Yes. There is considerable evidence to show that the real Carroll was very different from the popular image.

Q: Was he in love with the 'real Alice'?

A: Almost certainly not. At least, despite what can be read in many biographies, there is no evidence to show he was.

Q: Did he want to marry her when she was a child?

A: There is no evidence that he ever did. The only, very vague, contemporary rumor connecting him with her dates from a time when she was a young woman of 27, and not a child.

Q: Was he 'funny' about little girls?

A: Again, almost certainly not. The idea that he was 'funny' about children developed from the mistaken belief that he had no interest in adult women. This belief came about because his first biographer, his nephew Stuart Collingwood suppressed the evidence for his uncle's numerous friendships with women.

Q: Did he hate boys?

A: No.

Q: Is it true he had no interest in adult women?

A: No it isn't. He was fascinated by adult women, had many adult woman friends. He once said his favourite age for a 'child friend' was 'about 25'. The only scandals pertaining to him during his life involved his relationships with women, not children. He actually made note of some of the gossip in his own diary.

Q: Okay, but what about those 'child friends' you just mentioned?

A: Dodgson did have 'child-friends' who were actually children (as well as many he jokingly called 'child friends' when they were actually women), and he loved the company of female children. But nothing like as much or as exclusively as has been claimed by the myth.

Q: Did he take nude photographs of little girls?

A: Yes he did. But again this has been totally misunderstood by his biographers, who completely failed to comprehend the Victorian attitude to child-nudity. Basically, in those days every artist and photographer took pictures of naked children. Such images were - incredible as it seems to us - considered innocent and mainstream, and were highly popular subjects. Naked children appeared on family Christmas cards and holiday postcards, and were considered a symbol of innocence. An equivalent now would be gambolling puppies or cute kittens. When Dodgson photographed child nudes he was being commercial, fashionable and artistic according to the lights of his time. Until recently his biographers entirely failed to understand this, presumably because they didn't bother to do the basic research into social history.

Q: Can I read more about the 'Carroll Myth'?

A: That's what this site is for.