Alice I Have Been: Summary and book reviews of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin, plus links to an excerpt from Alice I Have Been and a biography of Melanie Benjamin.
Alice I Have Been
by Melanie Benjamin
Hardcover: Jan 2010,
368 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2011,
368 pages.
But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?
Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year – the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.
That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice – he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war.
For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.
A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse 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.
Masterfully written, this "Victorian" novel will satisfy not only those who have been charmed by "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" but any reader who enjoys history, mystery, and a journey through life's vagaries with a heroine whose admonition, borrowed from Lewis Carroll, is "May we be happy. (Carol C.)" Going back in time with the real Alice is like going down a new rabbit hole with experiences following one upon the other until the final page of the imaginative roller coaster ride. A very enjoyable and often poignant adventure story with a curious twist at the end (Therese X). (Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers). Full Review (1104 words).
Media Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Historical fiction hampered by a 21st-century perspective on Victorian values.
Booklist
Benjamin's characters tend to be one-dimensional types and behave accordingly, though there are some genuinely moving moments ... As for Benjamin’s deliciously melodramatic portrait of art historian John Ruskin, it's almost worth the price of admission.
Library Journal
This novel will have wide appeal as it includes history, romance, literature, and a great deal of suspense.
School Library Journal
This is a beautiful story for readers interested in the fictionalized life of a literary inspiration (Adult Books for Highschoolers).
Publishers Weekly (Pick of the Week)
Starred Review. [A] finely wrought portrait of Alice that seamlessly blends fact with fiction. This is book club gold.
IndieBound
[A] richly woven fictional account of the life of the girl who became Alice in Wonderland. It's a mystery, and a love story, that follows Alice into adulthood after both tragic and wonderful experiences. I loved this creative and well-written book.”
-- Doreen Pierson, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, MT
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by John Mark Reality Check If you want to know the real story behind the story, the book you need to read is The Real Alice in Wonderland by her descendants, C.M. Rubin and Gabriella Rubin. The book is available in Barnes and Noble stores nationally. It has received rave... Read More
Rated of 5
by Carol Byers Behind the Story I found Benjamin's 'Alice I Have Been' to be fascinating with many of life's experiences seamlessly expressed. To gain the most of this story, I needed to read a bit about the actual life of Lewis Carroll as well as the Liddell family (Alice was... Read More
An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
After hearing the interview on NPR with the author, Ayad Akhtar, I was intrigued.
This is a timely, contemporary novel concerning topics of...
read more
I read The Healing in two sittings it is a fascinating story of plantation life at the beginning of the Civil War. Granada, a slave newborn child...
read more
Amazon to open bricks and mortar store in Seattle(Feb 07 2012) Last week, the word in the blogosphere was that Amazon was considering opening a bricks-and-mortar store. Over the weekend goodereader.com added substance to...
Full Story
Arizona bills Amazon for $53 million in uncollected sales tax(Feb 06 2012) The ongoing sales tax battle between many US states and large online retailers, most notably Amazon, continues with a thrust from Arizona which, last week,...
Full Story
(1104 words).
Kirkus Reviews
of 5
by John Mark
of 5
by Carol Byers
RSS feed
