Living Next Door to Alice Online Trivia | People

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Charles Dodgson was a man of many talents. For which of these vocations was he NOT qualified?

Answer: Chemist

Dodgson took his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Oxford in 1854 and, despite failing to apply himself to advanced studies, was so gifted that he remained there as a lecturer throughout his life. He was a talented photographer in the early days of photography and considered making it his career.

At Christ Church, Dodgson was required (under the college's rules at the time) to be ordained an Anglican priest. He became a deacon in 1861 but, for reasons known only to himself, requested and was granted an exemption from joining the priesthood.

2. Dodgson became a close friend of the family of Henry Liddell, his boss at Christ Church, Oxford. Dodgson enjoyed telling stories to the Liddell children and in 1862 featured a little girl much like the middle Liddell daughter as the character in his most famous book. What were the Liddell girls' names?

Answer: Lorina, Alice and Edith

In July 1862 Dodgson and a friend rowed to the village of Godstow with the children. He told them a story about a little girl named Alice who went looking for adventures - and found them. He began writing the story and expanded it for publication. Dodgson would later deny basing the story's Alice on Alice Liddell, but it is dedicated to her and her name appears in an acrostic poem in "Through the Looking Glass".

He also gave her a handwritten copy of "Alice's Adventures Underground" before it was published in 1865 as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".

It seems likely that the real and fictional Alices are essentially the same child, though there is controversy about this.

3. Charles Dodgson suffered from several physical conditions which left him somewhat sickly during his life. What condition, which he called his "hesitation", seemed to be more noticeable to Dodgson than it was to others?

Answer: A slight stammer

Most of Dodgson's 10 siblings suffered from a stammer to some degree. It seemed to bother him but many of his friends weren't even aware of it and others described it as barely noticeable. He also dealt with a slight limp caused by a knee injury, deafness in one ear and pulmonary issues resulting from whooping cough.

4. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is the best known, but certainly not the only book for which Charles Dodgson is remembered. Which of these is NOT one of his books?

Answer: The Prince and the Pauper

In addition to his well known children's books written as Lewis Carroll, Dodgson wrote nearly a dozen scholarly works on mathematics. "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" is Carroll's sequel to "Alice". "Sylvie and Bruno" is a two volume work which was Carroll's last novel published in his lifetime. "Euclid and his Modern Rivals" is one of Dodgson's academic works, along with such titles as "Symbolic Logic Parts I and II" and "A Syllabus of Plane Algebraic Geometry".

5. Dodgson illustrated his written manuscript for "Alice in Wonderland" but the pictures for the published edition were done by one of Victorian England's best known illustrators. Who was he?

Answer: John Tenniel

Tenniel later illustrated "Through the Looking Glass" as well. He was a long time contributor to "Punch," the British humor magazine, and received a knighthood for his artistic achievements. The other choices all illustrated later editions of "Alice".

6. Upon its release, "Alice in Wonderland" received glowing literary reviews and quickly became a beloved favorite of Victorian children.

Answer: False

Even twenty years after it appeared, "Alice in Wonderland" was not held in great esteem in England. When Dodgson published "Through the Looking Glass", this sequel proved fairly popular and both books gained wide acceptance. Since its initial publication, "Alice" has never been out of print.

7. In 1891, Charles Dodgson invented a device he called the Nyctograph. What was the purpose of this tool?

Answer: A system of shorthand writing

The Nyctograph allows a person to write in the dark. It consists of a rectangular card with two lines of eight small square holes. Dodgson conceived an "alphabet" using dots and lines written in the squares. He regularly awoke during the night with an idea on his mind and used the nyctograph to avoid the trouble of lighting a lamp to jot down his thoughts.

8. What 1876 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, subtitled "An Agony in Eight Fits", contained elements borrowed from his earlier poem "Jabberwocky"?

Answer: The Hunting of the Snark

"The Hunting of the Snark" is the tale of a crew of ten characters who set out to hunt the Snark - a creature who turns out to be the dangerous Boojum. "Snark" met with generally negative criticism upon it release but has remained popular. Numerous works of literature and music have been written about it or utilizing elements from it. Fouquieria columnaris, the Boojum Tree, is an oddly shaped desert plant found in Baja California.

9. Disney's 1951 animated movie "Alice in Wonderland" included characters, songs and scenes from both of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books. Which of these characters in the film appeared in "Through the Looking Glass" but not in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"?

Answer: Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Tweedledum and Tweedledee first appeared in a nursery rhyme written in the 18th century by John Byrom to satirize a dispute between the composers George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini.

Some say, compar'd to Bononcini
That Mynheer Handel's but a Ninny
Others aver, that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a Candle
Strange all this Difference should be
'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!

10. Alice Liddell lived to be 82 and remained a celebrity throughout her life. In 1880 she married Reginald Hargreaves who also brought a degree of fame to the union. For what activity was Hargreaves known?

Answer: first class cricket

Alice married well. Hargreaves was wealthy and played cricket for Hampshire. They had three sons, two of whom died in WWI. Strapped for cash after Hargreaves' death, Alice was forced to sell her handwritten copy of "Alice's Adventures Underground" in 1926. After passing through several hands, the manuscript is now a possession of the British Library.

Source: Author wilbill

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Living Next Door to Alice Trivia Quiz

Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) may not have lived next door to the little girl who inspired his best known works, but he lived quite near her. Alice Liddell's father Henry was Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, where Carroll lived and worked.

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