The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories 17 страница

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Dodgson, an English writer and the author of two of the best loved children's books in English Literature – 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass'. The characters and phrases from these books have entered and become part of the English culture, so if someone calls you 'Mad as a Hatter', you know whom to thank.

Charles Dodgson was talented in many ways. Apart from being a creative writer, he was also a Mathematics Don (professor) at Oxford and a well-known logician. He was interested in photography and music. He sang very well, played chess and enjoyed creating and solving puzzles.

Charles Dodgson was born on 27 January 1832 and spent the first eleven years of his life at Warrington, Cheshire where his father was the priest. His family was large; his parents had 11 children, 4 boys and 7 girls.

Charles was educated first by home-schooling, then at two boarding schools, and finally at Christ Church College, Oxford. Later in life, he remembered his boarding school experience without any warm feelings. Still, he was an excellent student and studied very well in all his subjects.

In 1854 Charles Dodgson got a 1^st class degree in Mathematics and one year later he became a lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church College. It was then that he started his literary career and took his pen-name, Lewis Carroll. While his creative books and poetry were published under his pen-name, he also wrote books on Mathematics under his own name.

When a new Headmaster arrived at Christ Church College, he brought with him his family. Dodgson became the family’s close friend. The Headmaster’s little daughters, the youngest of which was called Alice, enjoyed his company very much. Charles often entertained the girls by telling them stories about imaginary worlds with fantastic creatures.

The story about the adventures of little Alice became popular all over the world. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is primarily a children’s story, but adults have enjoyed the novel for over a century together with children.

Many elements of ‘Alice’ were not completely new. Talking animals, for instance, or the story idea in which a child or children are carried away from reality into a fantasy world. However, it was Carroll who established a new motif that would be used again and again in children’s literature: Peter Pan, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Narnia books, and the Harry Potter books. That is the possibility for the main characters to travel back and forth between the real world and wonderland.

Though his characters travelled a lot between one world and another, Charles Dodgson himself didn’t like being away from home. The only occasion on which (as far as it is known) he went abroad was a trip to Russia in 1867.

He died of pneumonia on 14 January 1898 at his sisters' home. He was 2 weeks away from turning 66.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain wrote ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ in 1884. Since then, the book has been published in at least sixty languages, and some people say it is the best book ever created by an American writer. American students have ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ on their school reading list and parents, teachers and literary experts still debate the problems touched in the book.

The writer’s real name was Samuel Clemens. Samuel was born in 1835. He grew up in the state of Missouri on the Mississippi River. After his father died, young Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words "mark twain!" That was a measure for the depth of water. Later he used this word combination as a pen-name.

In 1861 Clemens travelled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California. He wrote news stories, editorials and sketches under his pen-name Mark Twain. He became one of the best known storytellers in the West. He developed his own narrative style – friendly, funny, and often satirical, which won him a wide audience. The first success came with the story ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’.

Mark Twain travelled a lot during his lifetime not only round the USA but also to Europe and the Holy Land. He naturally began writing books about his travels. ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ was published in 1876, and soon after he began writing a sequel, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’.

It took Mark Twain longer to write ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ than any of his other books. He started writing in 1876, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in 1883, and the following year it was published.

From the beginning, the book was strongly debated. Some critics praised its realism and honesty, but the others strongly disliked it. They protested against the personality of Huck – a rough, dirty and disobedient boy. They could not agree that such a person should be the main character of a book. What's more, critics disliked the way Mark Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story; no writer had ever done that before.

Today there is no longer any debate about the importance of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ in American literature. In 1935 Ernest Hemingway wrote: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.' There was nothing before. And there has been nothing as good since."

No wonder then that the novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ was a great inspiration for film producers – more than 20 screen versions of the book have been shot not only in America, but also in Europe, Russia and Japan. There are feature films, musicals, cartoons and even Japanese anime.

The will

One day young William was called to a lawyer’s office. The lawyer announced that William’s uncle had left him a thousand dollars. He also added that William was required to give the lawyer a report of how he used the money as soon as he spent it. That was his uncle’s last wish.

William promised to follow his uncle’s wish and went straight to his club. He looked for Bryson, a calm wise man of about forty, who was sitting in a corner reading a book. When William told him about the contents of the will, Bryson did not seem at all surprised. He only remarked that the uncle was worth about half a million.

William told Bryson that his uncle had left a lot of money to charity while his servants had received only ten dollars each. There was one more person mentioned in the will, Miss Hayden, a distant relative who lived in the uncle’s house. She was a quiet, musical girl and the dearest woman in the world to William. William had been in love with her for two years but he had never told her about his feelings.

William had no idea how to spend a thousand dollars and he hated making the report. He had a feeling that his uncle was making fun of him.

In the street William saw a blind man selling pencils. William went up to him and asked him what he would do with the money. The blind man shrugged his shoulders and said that he had never seen such a huge amount of money and therefore had never had the problem of spending such a sum. William bought all his pencils and gave him ten dollars above the asking price.

William was walking down the empty street when he had an idea.

He got into a cab and went to his uncle’s house where Miss Hayden lived. He found her, sad and beautiful, writing letters in the library. William knew that like the servants she had received nothing from his uncle but ten dollars. So he said that there was an addition to his uncle’s will that allowed her to have a thousand dollars and he gave her the money there and then. Miss Hayden turned white, took the banknotes and put them in the drawer of the writing desk. Then she quietly thanked William and gave him a shy smile.

In excitement William went back to the lawyer’s office, ready to hand over the report. Suddenly the lawyer took out another document which had been given to him by William’s uncle and started reading. It said that in the case that William spent the money wisely, he was to receive another fifty thousand dollars. On the contrary, if he had spent it in a foolish way, the fifty thousand would go to Miss Hayden.

Smiling brightly, William destroyed the report and said he had lost a thousand dollars on the races. William realised that he was going to lose much more than that, but he felt happy about it.