> Skip to content
  • Published: 29 August 1996
  • ISBN: 9780140434910
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $37.00

The Hunting of the Snark




This edition, previously published as The Annotated Snark, reproduces the original illustrations by Henry Holiday, including the 'supressed' Boojum drawing.

'They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; They pursued it with forks and hope; They threatened its life with a railway share; They charmed it with smiles and soap' Ever since Lewis Carroll's nonsense epic appeared in 1876 readers have joined his ten-man Snark-hunting crew and pursued the search with great enthusiasm. What are they hunting for? What is the Snark? Numerous theories have been proposed. Carroll himself provides a helpful Preface to the poem and is recorded as having explained to one reader: 'In answer to your question, 'What did you mean the Snark was?' will you tell your friend that I meant that the Snark was a Boojum. I trust that she and you will now feel quite satisfied and happy.' This edition, previously published as The Annotated Snark, reproduces the original illustrations by Henry Holiday, including the 'supressed' Boojum drawing. Martin Gardner provides an introduction, notes and bibliography, and an Appendix contains F. C. S. Schiller's 'Commentary on the Snark' and J. A. Lyndon's 'Fit the Seven-and-a-Halfth'.

  • Published: 29 August 1996
  • ISBN: 9780140434910
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $37.00

About the author

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was born on 27th January 1832 at Daresbury in Cheshire. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford University and later became a mathematics lecturer there. He wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1872) for the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church. He was very fond of puzzles and some readers have found mathematical jokes and codes hidden in his Alice books. His other works include Phantasmagoria and Other Poems (1869), The Hunting of the Snark (1876), Rhyme? And Reason? (1882), The Game of Logic (1887) and Sylvie and Bruno (1889, 1893). Dodgson was also an influential photographer. He died on 14th January 1898.

Also by Lewis Carroll

See all