A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll (best novels for beginners TXT) 📕

R.

White Sugar.

C. R.

Delta.

Magpie.

Simple Susan.

Dinah Mite.

M. F. C.

I have received more than one remonstrance on my assertion, in the Chelsea Pensioners’ problem, that it was illogical to assume, from the datum “70 p. c. have lost an eye,” that 30 p. c. have not. Algernon Bray states, as a parallel case, “suppose Tommy’s father gives him 4 apples, and he eats one of them, how many has he left?” and says “I think we are justified in answering, 3.” I think so too. There is no “must” here, and the data are evidently meant to fix the answer exactly: but, if the question were set me “how many must he have left?”, I should understand the data to be that his father gave him 4 at least, but may have given him more.

I take this opportunity of thanking those who have sent, along with their answers to the Tenth Knot, regrets that there are no more Knots to come, or petitions that I should recall my resolution to bring them to an end. I am most grateful for their kind words; but I think it wisest to end what, at best, was but a lame attempt. “The stretched metre of an antique song” is beyond my compass; and my puppets were neither distinctly in my life (like those I now address), nor yet (like Alice and the Mock Turtle) distinctly out of it. Yet let me at least fancy, as I lay down the pen, that I carry with me into my silent life, dear reader, a farewell smile from your unseen face, and a kindly farewell pressure from your unfelt hand! And so, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say “good night!” till it be morrow.

Endnotes

“Maskee,” in Pigeon-English, means “without.” ↩

Note by the writer.⁠—For the above Essay I am indebted to a dear friend, now deceased. ↩

List of Illustrations

Score for “Chelsea Buns.”

A diagram of the genealogy of the dinner party.

A diagram of the square and its doors.

Colophon

A Tangled Tale
was published between 1880 and 1885 by
Lewis Carroll.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Robin Whittleton,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2009 by
Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Lindy Walsh, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
The Tribuna of the Uffizi,
a painting completed in 1777 by
Johan Zoffany.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
June 24, 2020, 5:37 p.m.
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Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
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