.jpg) Cover of first edition | |
| Author | Lewis Carroll |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Henry Holiday |
| Cover artist | Henry Holiday |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Nonsense poetry |
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers |
Publication date | 29 March 1876 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| OCLC | 2035667 |
| Text | The Hunting of the Snark at Wikisource |
The Hunting of the Snark, subtitled An Agony, in Eight fits, is a poem by the English writer Lewis Carroll. It is typically categorised as a nonsense poem. Written between 1874 and 1876, it borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from Carroll's earlier poem "Jabberwocky" in his children's novel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).
Macmillan published The Hunting of the Snark in the United Kingdom in at the end of March 1876, with nine illustrations by Henry Holiday. It had mixed reviews from reviewers, who found it strange. The first printing of the poem consisted of 10,000 copies. There were two reprints by the conclusion of the year; in total, the poem was reprinted 17 times between 1876 and 1908. The poem also has been adapted for musicals, movies, opera, plays, and music.
The narrative follows a crew of ten trying to hunt the Snark, a creature which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. The only crew member to find the Snark quietly vanishes, leading the narrator to explain that the Snark was a Boojum after all.
Carroll dedicated the poem to young Gertrude Chataway, whom he met in the English seaside town Sandown on the Isle of Wight in 1875. Included with many copies of the first edition of the poem was Carroll's religious tract, An Easter Greeting to Every Child Who Loves "Alice".
Various meanings in the poem have been proposed, among them existential angst, an allegory for tuberculosis, and a mockery of the Tichborne case.
While Carroll denied knowing the meaning behind the poem,[1] he agreed in an 1897 reply to a reader's letter with an interpretation of the poem as an allegory for the search for happiness.[2][3] Henry Holiday, the illustrator of the poem, considered the poem a "tragedy".[a]
- ^ Gardner 2006, p. xxxvii.
- ^ Letter by C.L. Dodgson to Mary Barber, January 12, 1897: "To the best of my recollection, I had no other meaning in my mind, when I wrote it: but people have since tried to find the meanings in it. The one I like best (which I think is partly my own) is that it may be taken as an Allegory for the Pursuit of Happiness."
- ^ Gardner 2006, p. xxxviii.
- ^ "Lot 646: Carroll, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits. Macmillan, 1876". Sotheby's. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).