Phantasmagorial Notes and a Grammar of Ghosts

In 1868, Lewis Carroll published a long poem about ghosts under the title "Phantasmagoria," which was also the title of the book in which his 755-line poem appeared. He revised the poem and included it in his book Rhyme? and Reason? published in 1883. This article traces the meaning of the word "phantasmagoria" back to the very late 18th-century Belgian illusionist and magic-lantern impresario, Etienne-Gaspard Robertson, explains how Carroll’s "Phantasmagoria" differs from Robertson’s Phantasmagorie and what it might tell us about Carroll’s belief in spirits, provides a grammar or explanation of the many kinds of ghosts who figure in Carroll’s poem (including kobold, banshee, kelpie, spectre, and many others), and finally lists the major textual differences [for example, lines and stanzas deleted, added, or changed] between the 1868 and 1883 versions of the poem