Lewis CARROLL - “My dear Mabel, How you intrigued me”

Charles Lutwidge DODGSON known as Lewis CARROLL (1832.1898)

Autograph letter signed “ Lewis Carroll ” to Mabel Amy Burton.

Four pages in-12° in pink ink.

Eastbourne, August 12, 1879.

My dear Mabel, How you intrigued me the other day at Langham Hall!

Extraordinary letter, full of typically Carrollian nonsense and absurdity, to young Mabel, his new 10-year -old child friend

_______________________________________

“ My dear Mabel, How you intrigued me the other day at Langham Hall! You know, you had a funny hat on your head, something like a boy's hat, so I took you for a boy , but for one reason or another I couldn't recognize you as one of the little boys ( Willie and Ernest Nicholls) who played with Mac Donalds. If only your face had been a little longer and not quite so rosy, you would have been Ernest Nicholls. You had a narrow escape. I don't know if you would have liked that, nor would your sister, and your mother might have been really upset to hear your sister say to her, as she took you home, " I don't know how it happened, but it is no longer Mabel, she is a little boy and she says her name is Ernest Nicholls; what the hell are we going to do with it? » And I don't think they would want you at college anymore. All in all, it would have been very embarrassing if your face had been half an inch longer; I'm glad he wasn't. However, this is not the subject of my letter. What I want to say to you is simply this: Why don't you come to Eastbourne? Do you have a good reason not to come? It's so charming here. And I'll talk to you once a month more or less, so you won't really get bored for lack of company. Pay my respects to your mother and always believe me your affectionate friend Lewis Carroll. »

_______________________________________

Letters to children occupy a very particular and preponderant place in Dodgson's correspondence, since they are associated, more than any other, with the very essence of his literary work. We also know, thanks to the various volumes of published correspondence, that a very tiny proportion of letters (barely two out of a hundred) bear the legendary signature " Lewis Carroll ", since he always tried not to reveal himself. , never alluding to his work in public

If the name of the young Mabel Amy Burton appeared surreptitiously in the Journal kept by Charles L. Dodgson, no biographical element suggested that this meeting had augured one of the author's privileged relationships with his “child friends” , until the publication, in 2008, of around fifteen unpublished letters to Mabel and her family.

Indeed, as early as 1898, the same year of Dodgson's death, Mabel had refused to satisfy the request of Dodgson's first declared biographer, and to make their correspondence public. She later explained : “ When Lewis Carroll's nephew wrote his uncle's life, he wrote to me to ask if I would entrust him with the letters I had because he wanted to print various passages.  I refused and here is the reason: one day, at school, I had brought one of the letters received from him which I had shown around, but when I told him that I had done that, he replied: “my child, my letters to you are for you and for no one else. » »

Thus, it was on August 16, 1877 that Mabel – 8 years old – entered the life of CL Dodgson as evidenced by these few lines written in the latter's diary: “ Went to the pier in the evening and made a another happy encounter. My new friend is Mabel Burton. She seems to be around 8 years old (…) I have never been friends with a child so easily and so quickly. » The next day he adds: “ Went to the beach around 11 o'clock and saw my girlfriend from last night, Mabel, arriving soon and spent some time with her and her cousin. I promised him Alice. »

A week later, on August 25, he wrote to Mabel's father without knowing that he had died several years ago: "Sir, I hope you will excuse the liberty I am taking in addressing you, as well as that which I made friends with your little girl a few days ago, but I believe that even a man who is not, like me, a great lover of children, could not fail to be attracted to her. As I wish to leave for her, where she lives, a little book (which I have often given as a gift to young friends), I undertook two expeditions, in vain, to find where she lived (…) If you If you authorize me to offer him this book, would you be so kind as to tell me whether I should send it to London or, if not, to what address. The book is called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. »

Our letter testifies here, once again, to Dodgson's keen sense of the absurd, as well as his mastery of nonsense, humor and the principle of reversal, so widely deployed in his literary work. Starting from a banal observation on Mabel's hat, he enjoys playing with the confusion of genres and the question of identity, otherwise fundamental in the phantasmagorical construction of Alice's universe.

Mabel will provide some details relating to the context of our letter: “ Lewis Carroll was close to George Mac Donald and his family (it was to them that he read his Alice in Wonderland ) and when they presented the second part of The Pilgrim's Progress at Langham Hall, my mother, in response to L. Carroll's wish, allowed my elder sister to take me with her (…) After the play, we met Lewis Carroll, and I remember him teasing me by calling me “little boy”. I wore a black velvet cap with a pompom on the side, and my hair had been cut so short that I must have really looked like a boy. I thought I had to tell him who I was, as a result of which, a few days later, I received this deliciously absurd letter. »

From 1885, the links with Mabel weakened. As a teenager, the magic of her childhood had passed before Lewis Carroll's eyes.

_______________________________________

Original version :

“My dear Mabel, How you puzzled me the other day at the Langham Hall! You see, you had a funny sort of cap on, something like a boy – so I took you for a boy – only somehow I couldn't quite make you into either of the little boys (Willie & Ernest Nicholls) who had been acting with the Mac Donalds. If only your face had been a little longer, and not quite so rosy, you would have been Ernest Nicholls. You had a very narrow escape of it. I don't know how you would have liked it – or your sister either – and your mother might have been really offended to hear your sister say, when she brought you home “I don't know how it's happened but she isn't Mabel any longer – she is a little boy, and she says her name is Ernest Nicholls: what in the world are we to do with her?” And I should think they wouldn't take you at that High School any longer. Altogether, it would have been very awkward if your face had been half-an-inch longer: I am glad it wasn't. However, that isn't the subject of my letter. What I am writing to say is simply this. Why don't you come to Eastbourne ? Have you any good reason for not coming? It is so lovely here. But I would speak to you, once a month or so – so that you couldn't be really dull for want of company. Give my kind regards to your mother, and believe me your loving friend Lewis Carroll.”

Bibliography: “Lewis Carroll Unpublished Letters to Mabel Amy Burton and Her Parents”. Pierre E. Richard.Ed. of Maule. 2008