The Hunting of the Snark letters asking for the meaning of the poem, Carroll often replied that he did not know. However, in an 1896 reply to one letter, he agreed with one interpretation of the poem as an allegory for the search for happiness. Widely varying interpretations of "The Hunting of the Snark" have been suggested: an allegory for tuberculosis, a mockery of the Tichborne case, a satire of the controversies between religion and science, the repression of Carroll's sexuality, and a piece against vivisection, among others. According to Cohen, the poem represents a "voyage of life", with the Baker's disappearance caused by his
Lewis Carroll: A Biography intimate woman-friends that Dodgson had through his life, yet still concludes that his existence revolved exclusively around friendships with small girls!" Jo Elwyn Jones and J. Francis Gladstone in "The Alice Companion: A Guide to Lewis Carroll's Alice Books" (1998) criticises the book for what they say is a poor treatment of Carroll's involvement in controversies at the University of Oxford. Megan Harlan in "Entertainment Weekly" writes that "This beautifully written bio never shies away from the house-of-mirrors complexity of its subject." An issue of "Victorian Studies" reported that there were issues with inconsistent references. Miles Edward Friend compares Cohen's