Alice to the Lighthouse

JULIET DUSINBERRE is M. C. Bradbrook Fellow in English at Girton College, Cambridge, and is the author of Virginia Woolf's Renaissance: Woman Reader or Common Reader? and of the pioneering work, Shakespeare and the Nature of Women (2nd edition). She is now editing As You Like It for Arden 3.

'Each reader is likely to find some favourite writer here set in a new perspective...especially persuasive in her treatment of Stevenson, whose ideas on aesthetics, when cross-cut with those of Fry and Woolf, seem freshly modern... here beautifully explored...Alice to the Lighthouse engaged me more than any critical book I have read for a long time.' - Susan R. Gannon, Children's Literature Association Quarterly 'The central thesis of Juliet Dusinberre's engaging and beautifully written book is that many ... of the mould-breaking discoveries of modernism can be traced back to the artist's childhood experiences and insights. The exemplary modernist is Virginia Woolf, and the exemplary children's book is Alice in Wonderland... She makes out a splendid case with grace and wit and a commendable refusal of literary jargon.' - Andrew Davies, The Listener 'Wonderfully skilful and insightful study...Dusinberre deals as ably with Willa Cather as she does with Virginia Woolf, with Mark Twain as well as Lewis Carroll. Alice to the Lighthouse is an extraordinary book, learned and provocative.' - Regina Barreca, PMLA Annual of Children's Literature

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Children's Books, Childhood and Modernism The Voice of the Author Virginia Woolf and the Irreverent Generation Death The Medium of Art Making Space for a Child The Literary and the Literal Notes Select Bibliography Index