Lewis Carroll's Guide for Insomniacs

by Lewis Carroll, Gyles Brandreth (Introduction)

Overview

Here is the perfect gift for all insomniacs: a feast of intriguing puzzles, rhymes, limericks, and other entertainments devised by the author of Alice in Wonderland to help pass what he called “the wakeful hours.”

“The dilemma my friends suppose me to be in,” said Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, “has, for its two horns, the endurance of a sleepless night, and the adoption of some recipe for inducing sleep.” In this delightful book, therefore, are collected a splendid variety of the things he devised to help rid himself of insomnia.

They range from simple number problems and calming calculations to a number of whimsical activites: composing rhymes at midnight, conjuring up ghosts, planning dreams, devising shadow shows, and writing in the dark by means of Nyctograph. Take Carroll’s advice and the “wakeful hours” can be turned to your advantage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912559602
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	575,425
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898; pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was born in 1832. The son of a clergyman, he became a clergyman himself in 1861, but preached only occasionally and spent his life as a don at Christ Church, Oxford, where he taught mathematics. He published Alice in Wonderland in 1865, when he was only 33, and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There six years later. He died in 1898 and is buried in Guilford, United Kingdom.

Gyles Brandreth is a writer, broadcaster, actor, former MP and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, and now Chancellor of the University of Chester. He has been a devotee of Lewis Carroll since he saw a production of Alice Through the Looking-Glass when he was seven. In the 1970s he created a one-man Lewis Carroll stage show and TV series for the entertainer Cyril Fletcher. In the 1980s he devised the Alice in Wonderland board game for the makers of Scrabble. More recently, with Sue Pearse, he created the musical Wonderland about Charles Dodgson and his friendship with the actress Isa Bowman. In 2023, with descendants of the Dodgson family and the great-grandchildren of Alice Liddell (the original Alice), he unveiled a plaque at Folly Bridge in Oxford, on the bank of the river Isis, commemorating the boat trip that took place on ‘the golden afternoon’ of 4 July 1862 when the story of Alice’s adventures was told for the first time.

Date of Birth:

January 27, 1832

Date of Death:

January 14, 1898

Place of Birth:

Daresbury, Cheshire, England

Place of Death:

Guildford, Surrey, England

Education:

Richmond School, Christ Church College, Oxford University, B.A., 1854; M.A., 1857

Website:

http://www.lewis-carroll-birthplace.org.uk/

Editorial Reviews

01/22/2024

The second edition of this lovely bedside companion, written by Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) and originally compiled (with some tweaks) by British entertainer and politician Brandreth (Elizabeth) in the 1970s, features a litany of cures and distractions for sleepless nights. There are “pillow problems” in verse, rhymes at midnight, acrostics, limericks, shadow puppets, tangrams, nightcaps, ciphers, a board game for one, and a description of the puzzling Nyctograph—a tablet Carroll invented for writing in the dark. The Snark-hunting wit that animated Humpty Dumpty and the Cheshire Cat is present in the rules for letter writing (“put it aside till the next day”), advice for encountering ghosts (“a gentleman should always raise his hat”), and tips to aid digestion (“lobster-sauce... is entirely unwholesome”). Riddles abound (“Find a bird with the letters ‘gp’ as its nucleus”), letters turn to numbers and back again, and charming nonsense poetry comes with a moral (“never stew your sister”). Brandreth’s arrangement of Carroll’s musings, drawn from several of his published works, is charmingly formulated to pierce the darkness: “Whatever the horrors of the night, day always comes.” It’s a thoughtful gift for clever night owls. Illus. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"A medley of games, riddles, rhymes and number problems, Lewis Carroll’s Guide for Insomniacs is the perfect companion for the wee hours when sleep won’t come.  Adorned with a sprightly new introduction by Gyles Brandreth...the little volume...features the creator of Alice in Wonderland as an infinitely resourceful inventor of new entertainments, including an early form of Scrabble and a version of croquet that you can play in your head....When Alice wakes up at the end of Through the Looking-Glass, she isn’t even sure if she has dreamed her own dream or been part of someone else’e's....Better, then, to stay awake and keep busy."  —Christoph Irmscher, The Wall Street Journal

"The second edition of this lovely bedside companion, written by Carroll and originally compiled (with some tweaks) by British entertainer and politician Brandreth in the 1970s, features a litany of cures and distractions for sleepless nights....Brandreth’s arrangement of Carroll’s musings, drawn from several of his published works, is charmingly formulated to pierce the darkness: 'Whatever the horrors of the night, day always comes.' It’s a thoughtful gift for clever night owls." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher