The Hunting of the Snark - An Agony in Eight Fits by Lewis Carroll - With nine illustrations by Henry Holiday - The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is typically categorized as a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Written from 1874 to 1876, the poem borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from Carroll's earlier poem "Jabberwocky" in his children's novel Through the Looking Glass (1871). Henry Holiday, the illustrator of the poem, thought of it as a "tragedy". The plot follows a crew of ten trying to hunt the Snark, an animal which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. The only one of the crew to find the Snark quickly vanishes, leading the narrator to explain that it was a Boojum after all. The poem is dedicated to young Gertrude Chataway, whom Carroll met at the English seaside town Sandown in the Isle of Wight in 1875. Included with many copies of the first edition of the poem was Carroll's religious tract, An Easter Greeting to Every Child Who Loves "Alice". The Hunting of the Snark was published by Macmillan in the United Kingdom in late March 1876, with illustrations by Henry Holiday. It had mixed reviews from reviewers who found it strange. The first printing of The Hunting of the Snark consisted of 10,000 copies. There were two reprintings by the conclusion of the year; in total, the poem was reprinted seventeen times between 1876 to 1908. Carroll often denied knowing the meaning behind the poem; however, in an 1896 reply to one letter, he agreed with one interpretation of the poem as an allegory for the search for happiness. Scholars have found various meanings in the poem, among them existential angst, an allegory for tuberculosis, and a mockery of the Tichbourne case. The Hunting of the Snark has been alluded to in various works and has been adapted for musicals, opera, plays, and music.

There was an old person of Ischia, whose conduct grew friskier and friskier; He danced hornpipes and jigs, and ate thousands of figs, That lively old person of Ischia. Edward Lear's A Book of Nonsense, originally published in 1845, is an exuberant collection of nonsense limericks, illustrated throughout with Lear's usual sharp eye for the fantastic, the bizarre, and the grotesque. This glorious gallery of Victorian eccentrics is now reproduced in a beautiful, full-color edition that reveals Lear's imagination at its most fertile.

Product Description: This vibrant collection of poems for very young children is the fourth book in the top selling "Twinkle, Twinkle, Chocolate Bar" series, which has sold over 100,000 copies to date. With pictures by a host of talented illustrators, the poems touch on a range of themes familiar to young children, like having a picnic, going swimming, baby brothers and sisters, dressing up, watching TV and bedtime...read more

The author's famous poem is given a modern visual twist as the Jabberwocky becomes a fourteen-fingered, slam-dunking beast on the basketball court.

An illustrated collection of more than thirty nonsense verses with an afterword about the author

The classic verse about the romantic duo--the owl and the pussycat--who sail off together by the light of the moon

Rhymes and colorful illustrations introduce children to the letters of the alphabet

A nonsense poem describes how a Quangle Wangle is no longer lonely once canaries and a number of other animals build homes in his enormous hat

Selects poems from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There in addition to other humorous verse, puzzles, acrostics, and riddles