The Hunting of the Snark Becker Lennon, the poem's "motif of loss of name or identity" is typical of Carroll's work. Richard Kelly writes that the poem contains a "theme of annihilation." Furthermore, Edward Guiliano feels that the "Snark" is within the nonsense tradition of Thomas Hood and, especially, W. S. Gilbert, the librettist of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan team. According to him, a case can be made for a direct influence of Gilbert's Bab Ballads on "The Hunting of the Snark", based on the fact that Carroll was well-acquainted with the comic writing and the theatre of his age. In response to various
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