Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893) is a novel by Lewis Carroll. Originally conceived as a pair of short stories published in Aunt Judy’s Magazine in 1867, Sylvie and Bruno eventually became a full length, two-volume novel. Although less popular than his Alice books, the novel remains a powerful example of Carroll’s imaginative range and ability to capture the surreal nature of everyday life. “I missed the pleasant friends I had left behind at Elveston […] but, perhaps more than all, I missed the companionship of the two Fairies—or Dream-Children, for I had not yet solved the problem as to who or what they were—whose sweet playfulness had shed a magic radiance over my life.” While traveling by train to a long-overdue doctor’s appointment, a middle-aged historian slips in and out of sleep. Each time, he enters a dream world where fairies and elves go about their lives without noticing his presence. Gradually, he begins to interact with the figures in his dreams and feels strangely attached to the young Sylvie and Bruno. In the waking world, his best friend Dr. Arthur Forester risks his life in order to care for the sick in a village undergoing a deadly fever outbreak. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno Concluded is a classic work of English literature reimagined for modern readers.
