It began with Alice in Wonderland, a film from the silent era released in 1903. Since then, many films have been released either with the same title or a different one. Here, we’ll see some of the best films based on these two famous fictional works of Lewis Carroll.

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

This British musical was released in 1972. It was based on Lewis Carroll’s 1865 fantasy novel of the same name and its sequel. The film was directed by William Sterling, an Australian television producer and director. John Barry had rendered the music for this film and it had lyrics written by Don Black. 

The film had won the awards for best cinematography and costume design at the BAFTA Film Awards Ceremony. The make-up for the artists was created by Stuart Freeborn. It was based on the drawings originally done by John Tenniel for the first edition of the novel.

2. Alice ou la Derniere Fugue

The title of this 1977 French film translates as Alice or the Last Escapade. This fantasy film was written and directed by the French film director, Claude Chabrol. It is loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll’s novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The protagonist’s name in the film was Alice Carroll. 

It was a combination of the central character of the novel, Alice, and its author’s pseudonymous last name. The cast of this brilliant film included Sylvia Kristel playing the role of Alice Carroll. She was best known for playing the eponymous character in five of the Emmanuelle films.

3. Alicja

Based on Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this film was released in 1982. The musical-fantasy film is a modern take on the Lewis Carroll classic starring Sophie Barjac in the lead role. It was co-produced by Polish and Belgian film companies. The role of a jogger whom Alice falls in love with was played by Jean-Pierre Cassel.

The supporting roles were played by Paul Nicholas, Peter Straker, Tracy Hyde, Paul Nicholas and many other British artists. Despite the participation of some famous talents from the world of films, Alicja remains quite obscure.

4. Alice Through the Looking Glass

This 1998 film is based on the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. It starred Kate Beckinsale in the lead role. This British fantasy television film was directed by John Henderson. In the film, Kate Beckinsale is a mother who reads the Lewis Carroll novel to her daughter, Alice.

She then finds herself traveling into the Looking-Glass Land. Though she becomes Alice, she remains an adult. The screenplay of this film preserves almost word for word the dialogues in Carroll’s novel. The only apparent difference is that it shows Alice as an adult.  

5. Abby in Wonderland

This film adapts Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with the puppet characters of Sesame Street called The Muppets. Abby Cadabby stars in the role of Alice in the film. In addition to being released on DVD, the film had a limited theatrical release in 2008. A website for DVD reviews stated that the film was targeted at a young audience, but it had some adult jokes. However, it also said that the film was certainly not a bad remake of Alice in Wonderland.

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Such societies are dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his fabulous works. He had begun displaying a few of his talents at a young age. Later, as he progressed through life, he used them to create some wonderful works. Now, let’s look at some of his amazing talents:

Storytelling

Today, the entire world knows that he had an exceptional talent in storytelling. From a young age, Carroll had started writing short stories. He was a regular contributor to the family magazine called Mischmasch. During a rowing trip with the children of dean Henry Liddell, he came up with the outline for a story. 

When he narrated it to Alice Liddell, she urged him to write it down. This developed into an illustrated manuscript, which was eventually published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Later, he also wrote a sequel to this novel tiled Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Poetry

Carroll also wrote many poems. Some of his earlier works appeared in The Comic Times and The Train, which were national publications. The smaller magazines like the Oxford Critic and the Whitby Gazette also published some of his works. He used the pseudonym ‘Lewis Carroll’ in his first piece of work published in The Train. 

It was a romantic poem called Solitude. Another famous poem by Carroll was The Hunting of the Snark, which received mixed reviews. It gained enormous popularity with the public and was reprinted between 1876 and 1908 seventeen times.

Photography

In the mid-19th century, Carroll took up photography. He was influenced by his uncle, Skeffington Lutwidge, and his friend from Oxford, Reginald Southey. He went on to become a famous gentleman-photographer after excelling in this art. 

Some believe that he had even thought of making a living out of it in his early years. More than half of his surviving works on photography depicts young girls. Carroll also photographed boys, men, women, and landscapes. 

Mathematics

Carroll also excelled in the academic discipline of mathematics. He produced several books dealing with geometry, mathematical logic, recreational mathematics, and linear and matrix algebra. He published these books under his real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. 

There was a renewed interest in his mathematical work in the late 20th century. His contribution to symbolic logic was re-evaluated by Martin Gardner and William Warren Bartley. He had also employed mathematical ideas of great sophistication in his ciphers.  

Invention

He had made several inventions and one of them was ‘The Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case’. He invented it in 1889 to promote letter writing. Another fascinating invention was the ‘nyctograph’. It was a kind of writing tablet that allowed anyone to take notes in the dark. 

This invention enabled individuals to note down an idea without getting up from the bed. He also invented many games and puzzles.

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Patience. We’re now going to unfold some of those secrets right here. You’ll find these facts about him quite amusing and they may even leave you stunned! So, without further ado, let’s dive right in and uncover some amusing facts about Lewis Carroll.

1. He created a writing tablet of sorts to write in the dark

You might’ve had this experience at some point of time in your life. All of a sudden, in the middle of the night, you came up with an idea. You thought it was so revolutionary that it should be written down, but felt too lazy to get up. 

Carroll must’ve understood the feelings of folks like you and he came up with a great idea. He invented a kind of writing tablet and called it nyctograph. It allowed individuals to take notes in the dark. Now, they didn’t need to get out of bed and switch the lights on. Whenever an idea struck them at night, they could just grab this device and note it down. 

The device was actually a card with two rows of eight square-shaped holes. He also provided a guide for the user to enter a shorthand code of dots and dashes. He thought that even the blind could benefit from it!

2. He was the dodo in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

This book was the one that made him immensely popular across the world. The book itself gained massive popularity and has been adapted into many movies. The outline for it was created during one of the rowing trips that he made with the kids. 

They were the children of his boss, Henry Liddell. He later narrated the story to Alice Liddell. She liked it so much that she begged him to write it down. Carroll wrote it down and presented Alice with the handwritten and illustrated manuscript. It was eventually published by Macmillan as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The rest is history, as they say! 

It went on to become a worldwide best-seller. Not many know that he based the character of dodo on himself. He stammered during his childhood and often introduced himself as ‘Do…Do…Dodgson’. This might’ve been the idea behind the character.

3. Someone thought he was Jack the Ripper!

Jeez, that’s gross! How can somebody say things like this? Now, the number of people suspected of being this serial killer makes for a long list. Well, the one who said this weird thing was none other than the author, Richard Wallace. 

Jack the Ripper had committed the murders during 1888, when Carroll was in his 50s. Richard Wallace came up with the theory as he thought of Carroll’s writings as confessions. He examined that the author behind the creation of Alice had an unhappy childhood. 

Right from his strict religious upbringing to bullying while at school, he was subject to many internal struggles. Carroll included codes and clues in his creations, but thinking they were confessions about killings is something extreme!

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Carroll produced almost a dozen books on mathematics under his real name. He also came up with new ideas in the subjects of linear algebra and probability. There was a renewed interest in his mathematical works during the late 20th century. Given below are some of his prominent works on mathematics:

Euclid and His Modern Rivals

Published in 1879, this book considers the teachings of thirteen contemporary geometry textbooks. It demonstrates how each of them are identical or inferior to Euclid’s Elements. Carroll supported Euclid’s geometry textbook Elements as the geometry textbook that was ideal for use in schools. 

Carroll defends Euclid’s book against its rivals of modern age. It also tries to show how all of them are inferior to Euclid’s book. Euclid of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and is often referred to as the ‘founder of geometry’. He lived in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy. 

Elements is among the most influential works in the history of mathematics. It was the main textbook for teaching mathematics from its time of publication until the early 20th century. Euclid and His Modern Rivals takes the form of a whimsical dialogue despite its content and scholarly subject. 

In this book, the dialogue is primarily between Minos and Professor Niemand. Minos is a mathematician and Professor Niemand represents the rivals of Euclid.

The Alphabet Cipher

This cipher by Carroll was published in 1968 in a children’s magazine. It describes a popular scheme in cryptography called the Vigenere cipher. While it was mentioned as ‘unbreakable’ by Carroll, Friedrich Kasiski had already described how to break such ciphers. 

Besides this, Charles Babbage had found ways to break polyalphabetic ciphers during the Crimean War. The cipher begins with a tabula recta. In cryptography, it is a square table comprising of alphabets. Each row of these alphabets is made by shifting the previous one to the left. 

Each column of the table makes up a dictionary of symbols that represent the alphabet. In order to use the table, the two correspondents must agree to some word or sentence. This can be called ‘key word’ or ‘key sentence’ and must be carried only in the memory. 

While sending the message, the key word is written over it, letter for letter. Repetition is made as often as necessary. The letters of key word indicate which column must be used for translation of each letter. This makes it impossible for anyone to decipher the message who ignores the key word.  

The Game of Logic

Published in 1886, this book on mathematical logic by Carroll was written in addition to his several other books. It must be noted that Lewis Carroll or Charles Dodgson used to work as an academic mathematician. This book describes the usage of board game to represent logical inferences and propositions. 

It provides the description in an informal and playful way. He had incorporated this game into a book called Symbolic Logic, which was published in 1897. This book is a longer and more formal introduction to logic. These two books have been reprinted in a single volume at certain times.

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He spent most of his life as a teacher and scholar in Christ Church, Oxford. The character of Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is believed to have been inspired by Alice Liddell. She was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church.

Childhood

The real name of Lewis Carroll was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was born in a conservative, High-Church Anglican, and predominantly northern English family having Irish ties. He received education at home during his early youth and had an exceptional intellect. 

Even at the age of seven, he read theological fiction. Just like most of his siblings, he spoke with a stammer. This greatly inhibited his social life. He attended Richmond Grammar School when he was 12 years of age.

Youth

He did his matriculation at the University of Oxford in 1850. He got first-class honours in the Final Honours School of Mathematics and received his Bachelor of Arts. In 1855, his talent in mathematics won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship. He remained at Christ Church in several capacities.

Literary Works 

Carroll wrote poetry and short stories from a young age. He contributed heavily to Mischmasch, the family magazine, and later sent them to several magazines. In the mid-19th century, his works appeared in national publications, such as The Train and The Comic Times. His works also appeared in smaller magazines like the Whitby Gazette and the Oxford Critic.

Most of the works that he produced were humorous and occasionally satirical. He published his first piece of work under the pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, in 1856. As he was close to Dean Henry Liddell’s family, he often took the children on rowing trips. During one such expedition, he created the outline for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

When he completed the manuscript and sent it to the publisher, Macmillan, it was liked immediately. The book was published in 1865. It eventually became his first and biggest success commercially. The sequel of this book titled Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871. The darker mood in this book is a reflection of his depression resulting from his father’s death.

Photography and Inventions

Dodgson also excelled in photography and became a well-known photographer. He had created portraits of notable people, such as Michael Faraday, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Alfred Tennyson. In 1889, he invented the Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case to promote letter-writing. 

He also invented ‘nyctograph’, a writing tablet that facilitated note-taking in the dark. His other inventions include several games and puzzles.

Illness and death

Charles Dodgson died on the 14th of January, 1898. The reason for his death was pneumonia which followed his influenza. He could’ve turned 66 after just two weeks had he not died. His death occurred at his sister’s home and his funeral was held at St Mary’s Church located nearby.

He is commemorated on the stained glass windows of All Saints’ Church in Daresbury. It depicts several characters from his book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

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