
The classic of ostensibly children’s literature that contained the imaginative, nonsensical poetic interlude
The Hunting of the Snark was original penned by
Lewis Carroll in 1876 but was not in print in Russia until 1991—authorities having perhaps detected a subversive
undertone to the rich allegory—

and is presently receiving a new treatment by Berlin-based illustrator
Igor Oleinikov to project the “Agony in Eight Fits” through the lens of despotism and disaster with uniformed and besuited men leading the expedition. The illustrator that Carroll commissioned himself, Henry Holiday (*1839 – †1927, back cover shown, the Boojum, being highly dangerous and another made-up word, is the Snark’s true nature and will make the hunter “softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met again”), for his initial publication also considered the poem a tragedy and full of existential angst and has been the topic of much academic analysis, deconstruction and debate, inspiring a great deal of other homages despite the author’s warning not read too much into it.