A tangled tale
Ten mathematical puzzle stories, or "knots", by Lewis Carroll, first serialised in The Monthly Packet and issued in book form by Macmillan, London, in 1885, with illustrations by the American draughtsman A. B. Frost for readers who wanted arithmetic problems wrapped in comic narrative. Frost's wood-engraved plates work in fine parallel hatching against open white paper: a scaly winged monster brooding over a heap of books, travellers in pith helmets met by a robed official, a mate haranguing a ship's deck, a man in a top hat wading with a measuring pole, all useful for eccentric Victorian figures and absurdist situations.
