Description

This delightful and beautifully illustrated nonsense poem, written by beloved author Lewis Carroll of Alice in Wonderland fame is sure to entertain readers of all ages. The story revolves around an unlikely crew of characters who set out on a crazy adventure to hunt the Snark, a mysterious creature. A group of ten, whose names all begin with the letter B, arrive in a strange land in pursuit of the elusive Snark. They have been guided across the ocean by the Bellman’s map—which is, strangely, a blank sheet of paper. As they prepare for the hunt, the Banker warns them all to be careful, because if they encounter a Snark who is a Boojum, they will suddenly vanish. Ready to go, the group splits up, and various hilarious and confusing things happen to each member. Friendships are formed and minds are lost, but the Snark remains tantalizingly out of reach. As Carroll’s irreverent verse makes clear, the joy exists not in the outcome of the hunt but in the actual process of discovery itself—a process that we take part in as we try to understand who or what the elusive Snark really is.

About the Author

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) was a magician of wordplay and imagination. Not only a writer, he was a gifted mathematician, logician, and a pioneering expert in the field of photography. Seeming at times to hail from one of the whimsical lands of his own making, Carroll led a charmed existence filled with friendships and admiration. An aura of glamour and mystery continues to surround Carroll's legend, as his work and identity are continual subjects of debate to this day. Although he is best known for his masterpiece, Alice in Wonderland, Carroll's other novels and poems, among them Through the Looking Glass, Jabberwocky, Sylvie and Bruno, and The Hunting of the Snark, offer timeless delight to readers of all ages.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

"Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes."
take the more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened.
used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board ...