Category Archives: Lewis Carroll

O frabjous day!

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

TED Ed has released a fun animated retelling of Lewis Carroll’s epic nonsense poem, Jabberwocky from his classic novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Poem by Lewis Carroll, directed by Sjaak Rood. Dive into Lewis Carroll’s epic … Continue reading →

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Four Reviews of Children’s Books (1872)

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

Sing-Song: a Nursery-rhyme Book. By Christina G. Rossetti. With 120 Illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Routledge. The Princess and the Goblin. By George Macdonald. Strahan. Through the Looking-glass, and what Alice saw there. By the Author of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland. … Continue reading →

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Easter Reading Suggestions

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

Several articles on Edward Lear and Nonsense literature from Conceição Pereira: Pereira, Conceição. “Nonsense e Literatura Infantil: os Limericks de Edward Lear.” A Criança, a Língua, o Imaginário e o Texto Literário. Actas do II Congresso Internacional. Universidade do Minho – … Continue reading →

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John Lennon, Edward Lear, and Nonsense

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Marco Graziosi

An English exercise book from his junior year at Quarry Bank—neatly covered in brown paper and titled MY ANTHOLOGY—demonstrates what pains he [John Lennon] would take if his enthusiasm were aroused. Quotations from classic poems like Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha … Continue reading →

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Katharine West, Nonsense and Wit (1946)

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Marco Graziosi

SHOULD the British Council or arty other body concerned with the “projection of Britain” endeavour to make known abroad the unique British heritage of nonsense? Every country has its nursery rhymes and fairy tales; but, as M. Emile Cammaerts writes … Continue reading →

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Nonsense Programmes

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Marco Graziosi

As usual for the Christmas period, the BBC has a few Nonsense-related programmes you can listen to while still available on iPlayer Radio: Drama of the Week, which you can download as a podcast, is Jeremy Iron’s reading of T.S. … Continue reading →

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More Houghton Manuscripts

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Marco Graziosi

In his Course in Nonsense Tom Swifty comments on the feud between Learians and Carrollians: The nonsense of these two could not have been more different. We can make fun of rules by blithely ignoring them, like Lear, but also by … Continue reading →

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WS Gilbert’s Nonsense Poems

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Marco Graziosi

W.S. Gilbert never really wrote Nonsense; his Bab Ballads and other collections, while obviously influenced by Edward Lear ― especially in the strongly caricatural style of the pictures accompanying his poems in the early editions – are rather in the … Continue reading →

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Gustave Verbeek’s Cruel Tales and the Nonsense Tradition

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Marco Graziosi

[I wrote this short article for The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek: The Complete Sunday Comics 1903-1905, edited by Peter Maresca, foreword by Martin Gardner. Palo Alto, CA: Sunday Press Books, 2009, where it appeared under the title “Verbeek’s Loony Lyrics … Continue reading →

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Unnatural History Lessons

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Marco Graziosi

The early newspaper comic supplements used a wide variety of materials to fill their pages, among them alphabets — which could be put to several uses: satiric or purely nonsensical — seem to have been particularly appreciated. Here is an … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Edward Lear, Gustave Verbeek, Lewis Carroll | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment