Terri M. LeBlanc
Written on Jan 30, 2011
Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever.
- ISBN10 0385344139
- ISBN13 9780385344135
- Publish Date 12 April 2010 (first published 12 January 2010)
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Out of Print 25 September 2012
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc
- Imprint Bantam Doubleday Dell
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 351
- Language English
Reviews
Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews
Written on Aug 26, 2010
Alice Liddell's story does not begin on this "golden afternoon" but this particular day defines her as "Alice".
Mr. Liddell is the Dean of Oxford College and living across from Charles Dodgson who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Mr. Dodgson grows a strong attachment to the Liddell girls, Ina, Alice and Edith. The girls crave his attention but grown ups find his eccentric ways alarming and are skeptical on the closeness of their relationship. The section on childhood slowly builds to the day Charles Dodgson tells a story of a girl named Alice with its muse begging the author to write it down. But, like a fall down a rabbit hole the novel does not lose interest for the reader and for the remainder of her childhood focuses on the tight knit relationship, ending with a sudden, unexplained break of the friendship.
The girl who chased a white rabbit down it's hole has since grown up but is still seen as Alice in Wonderland and begins to carry it as a cross as no one can look past and see the real Alice. She begins to date Prince Leopold, now a student at Oxford with high promise of it ending in matrimony. Yet the exclusiveness of her relationship with Lewis Carroll haunts her and goes to extreme lengths to hide it from Leo. The ending of Alice's young adulthood ends with tragedy, her younger sister Edith dies and soon after her mystery is revealed to the Prince and breaks all connection with the fairy tale.
Alice has now reached old age and is married with three boys but still cannot shake her persona and trembles at the thought of reading her story to her children. Eventually, she owns that she will always be see as just "Alice" even though her life was not a Wonderland at all.
Part of the mystery, (although it has never been proven) is the accusations towards Charles Dodgson being labeled as a pedophile, having Alice as a romantic interest. Throughout the novel memories are surfaced, but as this is told by Alice being "to young to understand" is broken into fragments like a puzzle missing pieces. Even though this brought an interesting quality to the novel, it was not overused tainting the tale. Because in reality, who wants to believe that a beloved author such as Lewis Carroll was a dirty old man?
I really enjoyed this book and looked forward to turning on my Kindle each evening. Alice I Have Been was very well written in a fairy tale sort of way, with characters developed so they seemed almost real on the pages. Because indeed this was a story within a story, after completion I got online to learn more of the real persons in this historical fiction novel. I was pleasantly surprised how accurate it was, and what an extraordinary life Alice Pleasance Liddell truly lived.
inlibrisveritas
Written on Jul 23, 2010
Benjamin's writing style is refreshing and smooth, and makes the story flow at the perfect pace. She managed to take what information she had on the Liddells and Dodgeson and create a whole story around them, and as if that wasn't enough she made it extremely believable. I had to keep reminding myself that this may not have been the true story but I can honestly say I almost want it to be. It's evident that she not only did her homework on these people but she also has a gift for writing. The characters are easy to care for and easy to hate, and I found myself doing both with great frequency. The story between Alice and Mr.Dodgeson is one that truly tore me, I wasn't sure if I quite agreed with the connection yet I hoped that they both would find their happiness. I found Dodgeson to be sweet and endearing but at the same time I knew that what he was doing was creepy and made me slightly uncomfortable. I really felt for adult Alice's plight however, and it saddened me that because of one incident that she had no control over she would love the oppertunity at something wonderful. But times were different back then. It's a wonderful, engrossing, and yet heartbreaking read.
The only issue I had with this is the 'creepy' part and that's just because I wasn't sure how to take it. It's an important part of the story and it simply can't be skipped but if you love Alice in Wonderland it may look a little different after this. Also if you want to get a feel for the world that Dodgeson lived in google his photography, it's nothing terrible but it will give you insight.I completely recommend this book to lovers of Alice and for those curious about the author, just keep in mind it is fiction.