Astounding letter addressed to the father of his new “child-friend”, to whom he wishes to send a copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: "I hope you will excuse the liberty… I took a few days ago in making friends with your little daughter"

CARROLL, Lewis (1832-1898)

Autograph letter signed " C.L. Dodgson " to Mr Burton
Eastbourne, Aug[ust] 25 [18]77, 2 p. in-12° with pink ink

Astounding letter addressed to the father of his new "child-friend", to whom he wishes to send a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

"Dear sir,
I hope you will excuse the liberty I am taking in addressing you, as well as the liberty I took a few days ago in making friends with your little daughter, but I think that even one who is not, as I am, a great lover of children, could hardly fail to be attracted by her. Wishing to leave for her at her lodgings a little book (on I have several time given to little friends) I have made two expeditions, in vain, to find the lodgings. Not having the right address and seeing her no more on the beach, the only course seems to write to the town address. If you will allow me to present her with the book, would you kindly tell me whether to send it to London or to what address. (The book is called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).
Believe me truly yours,
C.L. Dodgson (of Christ Church Oxford)"

Addressed to Mr. Burton, this letter was written nine days after the writer's meeting with his daughter, as reported in his Journal dated August 16, 1877: "Went to the pier in the evening and had another happy meeting. My new friend is Mabel Burton. She appears to be about 8 years old. (…) She is absolutely charming and without an atom of shyness. I have never been friends with a child so easily and so quickly. "

We do not ignore the writer's taste for young girls. Carroll explicitly announces to a father – he does not know that the latter has died a couple of years ago – that he intends to befriend his daughter. Despite these considerations, a friendship begins, which goes beyond the perplexity mixed with amazement of Mrs. Harriet Burton, mother of Mabel. The daughter did not intend to tell the mother of her encounter with the "strange gentleman", expression of the girl herself. On August 28, Carroll wrote a letter to Mrs. Harriet Burton in which we understand that she had agreed to let him send a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Mabel. Although the novel predates Carroll's friendship with the little girl, it is not forbidden to imagine Mabel as the shadow cast by Alice, a heroine by the power of the writer's gaze.

Bibliography:
" Lewis Carroll Lettres inédites à Mabel Amy Burton et à ses parents ". Pierre E. Richard, ed. de Maule. 2008