Alice at 150

摘要

Academic audiences will need little persuasion to see this volume as a relevant addition to any collection not already holding a copy of the 1969 Maecenas Press edition of the same work. However, general readers will find much to contemplate here, as some may still see Dalf as the "melting clock guy" and will be surprised to find that these gestural, high-energy gouaches were painted by the same artist who produced all of those finely wrought oil paintings with their asymmetrical use of volumes of sky and sand. Unlike more straightforward pairings of literature with surrealism, such as Max Ernst's illustrations for Rene Crevel's Babylon, the images accompanying Carroll's text do not so much explicate the story as extend it, providing both a narrative-inspired and narrative-independent dream sequence that simultaneously meanders among and augments the text's many symbols. The introduction by Burstein (president emeritus, Lewis Carroll Soc. of North America) and Thomas Banchoff (emeritus, Brown Univ.) provides a valuable grounding in the artist's interests and obsessions at the time the gouaches were created. VERDICT A worthy purchase for public and academic libraries.-Jenny Brewer, Helen Hall Lib., League City, TX.