Review
With 24 out of 28 members rating it 4 or 5 stars, Alice I Have Been
is a clear winner with our readers, and inspired many to revisit Lewis Carroll's classic. A great choice for book clubs, this controversial book will certainly inspire heated discussions.
Here's what they had to say:
Melanie Benjamin weaves historical anecdotes, her impressions gleaned from an art exhibit of Dodgson's photography, and her incredible imagination to take the reader on a journey beyond the looking glass into the reflections of "the real Alice." Looking back over her 80 years as the most famous little girl in England, Alice Liddell Hargreaves struggles to come to terms with her relationship with Charles Dodgson and the story she urges him to write down for her. Benjamin skillfully captures the voice of Alice at each of three stages in her life and gives the...
Beyond the Book
The Origin of Lewis Carroll's classic
(From author Melanie Benjamin's website)
On the "golden afternoon" of July 4, 1862, Charles Dodgson and his friend Robinson
Duckworth rowed the three Liddell girls - Ina, Alice and Edith - down the Isis
(or the Thames, as it's known as it nears London)* for a picnic lunch. During the
trip, Dodgson began to tell the sisters the story of a little girl who followed
a rabbit down a rabbit hole.
Afterward, Alice Liddell begged him to write the
story down. It took him two years, but finally in November, 1864, he presented
Alice with a handwritten, leather-bound book titled
Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
He illustrated the book himself, and pasted a photograph of Alice at the age of
seven in the...
