Limited Edition of 100 copies
Published by Studio Treasure, Toronto, Canada in 2011
Format: Hardcover, dustjacket
Dimensions: 48 Pages, 8.22 x 11.67 x 0.5
ISBN: 978-0-9783613-2-7
Printed in Canada
Collectors' Bookmark
Signed by illustrator Oleg Lipchenko
$100CAD + $30CAD shipping
"Lewis Carroll's epic nonsense poem is presented in all of its unabridged, bewildering glory.... Oleg Lipchenko's outstanding charcoal illustrations interpret the verse for a new generation. The pages are luxuriously detailed, and there's lots to pore over.... The sepia tones in the illustrations evoke a dark, brooding atmosphere ... children and the adults in their lives will all enjoy the marvelously odd characters and every curious word..."
The Hunting of the Snark is a mysterious story, but it is not told in “mysterious” language. Nothing like, for instance:
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air. . .
Edgar Allan Poe, “The City in the Sea.”
Contrariwise — it is told simply and comprehensibly. And this seemingly ordinary language works better, because suddenly we feel that “the mystery is around the corner.” We’re not misled by the seriousness of the author’s work, nor by his accuracy in description of details, characters, and their actions. A dream is still a dream, even when it is retold by the scientific language. Characters are more symbolic than real, and the surroundings are flexible, changeable, and, in most cases, impossible. Things appear and disappear without logic (like a ruff or a chair) simply because of the author’s will, just as if in a dream—but a dream that is vivid and clear. The entire poem is a dream to me. And the Barrister’s Dream is a dream within a dream...
Oleg Lipchenko - "The Butcher in the Ruff"
The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies—
Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!
Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,
The moment one looked in his face!
He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.