Résumé
Résumé de Sylvie et Bruno
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love Carroll's wordplay, are curious about his more serious side, and enjoy Victorian oddities. Fairy worlds, comic songs, strange inventions and ideas about kindness, duty and reality meet here.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Sylvie and Bruno is an odd novel by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The first part came out in 1889 and a second part, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, followed in 1893. Carroll was a mathematician and a clergyman named Charles Dodgson, and he spent years gathering scraps of verse, jokes, sermons and fairy scenes for this book. He wanted to write something for children that also spoke to grown readers about kindness, duty and the question of what is real.
The story runs on two tracks. In one, an unnamed narrator spends time in an English country village and falls in with a circle of friends who talk about love, faith and good manners. In the other, he slips into a fairy world where two small children, Sylvie and her little brother Bruno, live at a court full of quarrels and plots. The two worlds keep crossing, and the narrator is never sure which one he is in. You get comic songs, word games, strange inventions and gentle argument. Let us begin with how the two worlds meet.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A narrator caught between two worldsFree
- 2Sylvie and Bruno bring kindness to the court
- 3The Professor and his absurd inventions
- 4Elveston and the friends around Lady Muriel
- 5What the book says about love and duty
- 6Nonsense, songs and a strange way of telling
Point clé 1 sur 6
A narrator caught between two worlds
The book begins with a narrator who cannot quite say where he is. He is an older man, thoughtful and a little tired, who tells us that he drifts into a state he calls eerie. In that state he sees things that other people around him do not see. The reader is warned early that the story will move between waking life and something dreamlike, and that the borders will not be marked.
This device is the key to the whole book. In the English scenes, the narrator behaves like a polite guest at a country house or a seat in a railway carriage. In the fairy scenes, he watches from the side, unseen, as events unfold at a court far away. He is not a hero. He is a witness, and he often tells us how little he understands.
Carroll uses the narrator to ask a plain question. Which of these two worlds is the true one, and does the answer matter? A reader who expects a clear rule, such as the fairy world being a dream, will not find one. Sometimes the fairy people can see the narrator and speak to him. Sometimes the English friends prove to know more than he thought.
The effect is a book that feels slightly off balance, on purpose. You are invited to hold both worlds in mind at once and to notice how each one comments on the other. The jokes in one place often answer the sadness or the seriousness in the other. That is the first thing to listen for as you read.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Sylvie
- A gentle, sensible fairy girl, she cares for her younger brother Bruno and helps those around her.
- Bruno
- Sylvie's small brother is stubborn and funny, with baby talk and sudden bright ideas.
- The narrator
- An unnamed older man, he moves between English village life and the fairy court, describing his uncertain experiences.
- Lady Muriel Orme
- The Earl's lively daughter lives in Elveston, where her wit attracts more than one admirer.
- Doctor Arthur Forester
- The narrator's friend is a kind physician whose devotion to patients accompanies quietly held personal feelings.
- The Professor
- A kindly, absent-minded scholar at the fairy court, he creates strange inventions and delivers solemn lectures.
- The Earl
- Lady Muriel's learned, gentle father enjoys books and conversation within the narrator's English circle.
- Mein Herr
- A foreign visitor among the English company, he offers strange, witty ideas about organizing and measuring the world.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 68,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 30 min
- Listening time7 h 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Sylvie et Bruno
What is Sylvie and Bruno about?
It follows an unnamed narrator who moves between an English village and a fairy court. There he meets the fairy children Sylvie and Bruno, and the two worlds comment on each other through jokes, songs and talk about kindness.
Is Sylvie and Bruno a children's book?
Partly. Carroll wrote it for children and has comic songs and fairy scenes. But it also holds adult talk about faith, charity and love, so it reads as a book for both young and grown readers.
When was Sylvie and Bruno written?
The first volume was published in 1889 and the second, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, in 1893. Carroll had gathered ideas, verses and fragments for it over many years before putting it together.
Is Sylvie and Bruno hard to read?
No. The language is clear, and the story is led by two lovable children, gentle Sylvie and funny little Bruno. A narrator tells it all in a plain voice, and comic songs, riddles and the absent-minded Professor keep every scene lively.
What is the Mad Gardener's Song?
It is a comic poem sung by a gardener in the book. Each verse says he thought he saw some creature or object, then finds that it was something else, and ends with a wry moral.