- Paperback: 388 pages
- Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (21 Dec 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385344147
- ISBN-13: 978-0385344142
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 2.1 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 330,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Alice I Have Been: A Novel
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Product Description
Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a fictional biography of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who, at age 10, provided the inspiration for a little book called Alice in Wonderland. She grew up as the daughter of the Dean of Oxford and next door to Charles Dodgson who would publish the famous book under the name Lewis Carroll.
The book starts out with Alice as a little girl and explores her relationship with the shy author. But it doesn't stop there. It tells the complete story of her life and the ramifications the relationship had over her entire adult life.
I think I had a vague idea what some of the rumors about Charles Dodgson were before reading this book, but I would have preferred to keep them in the back of my mind. However, as things are presented here, Dodgson's interest in young girls is actually encouraged and manipulated by Alice, seemingly knowingly. The result is a first part that is uncomfortably creepy because of the underlying sexual tension between the child Alice and adult Dodgson.
When the book moves ahead to Alice's adult years, things do get better, probably because we are dealing with full grown adults now. I was much more able to get lost in the excellent writing that brought another time and place to life. But there was still that undercurrent of gross that carried over from the beginning section.
Frankly, I was ready to give the book 3 stars until I got to the ending. The climax, such as it was, was completely unbelievable to me. I set the book down and thought to myself, "That's it? That's what I've been reading to find out?"
The book is expertly written; make no mistake about that. And the way the few facts known about Alice were worked into the book were great. The characters are well drawn. But the sexual undertones to the entire book ruined what could have been a fascinating character study for me.
The book starts out with Alice as a little girl and explores her relationship with the shy author. But it doesn't stop there. It tells the complete story of her life and the ramifications the relationship had over her entire adult life.
I think I had a vague idea what some of the rumors about Charles Dodgson were before reading this book, but I would have preferred to keep them in the back of my mind. However, as things are presented here, Dodgson's interest in young girls is actually encouraged and manipulated by Alice, seemingly knowingly. The result is a first part that is uncomfortably creepy because of the underlying sexual tension between the child Alice and adult Dodgson.
When the book moves ahead to Alice's adult years, things do get better, probably because we are dealing with full grown adults now. I was much more able to get lost in the excellent writing that brought another time and place to life. But there was still that undercurrent of gross that carried over from the beginning section.
Frankly, I was ready to give the book 3 stars until I got to the ending. The climax, such as it was, was completely unbelievable to me. I set the book down and thought to myself, "That's it? That's what I've been reading to find out?"
The book is expertly written; make no mistake about that. And the way the few facts known about Alice were worked into the book were great. The characters are well drawn. But the sexual undertones to the entire book ruined what could have been a fascinating character study for me.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Have you ever wondered what happened to the little girl who inspired Alice in Wonderland? I must be honest - I'm not sure I even knew that the real Alice had existed until I read the blurb for this book. But, yes, real she was. The real Alice lived until the age of 81, had married and had three sons. But where did it all begin?
Alice I Have Been is fiction based on fact. The story is narrated by Alice herself and where no evidence remains, Melanie Benjamin takes artistic licence to fill in the gaps. Alice was the daughter of the Dean of Oxford University where she was one of 10 siblings who lived a very priviledged upbrining within the grounds of the University. It was there that the family met and befriended Mr Charles Dodgson (or better known to the world as Lewis Carrol). It was on one particularly hot summers day, while out rowing with Alice and two of her sisters that Dodgson made up the tale of Alice in Wonderland to amuse the three girls and for years afterwards Alice begged him to write it down. Little did she know that her childhood was to be immortalised forever.
The relationship between Dodgson and the three girls made me hugely uncomfortable, however. There were echoes of Lolita which I found a really unsettling experience while reading a book set in Victorian times and with such a quaint backdrop. There's something really unnerving about such little girls in their white muslin dresses with parasols being quite so obsessed with a man in his twenties. Charles Dodgson (a Mathematics professor at the Universtiy) was also a photographer in his spare time as well as writing stories. His rooms in the college were littered with toys and dressing up boxes for young girls to play with and his photograph collection contained hundreds of images if children in various, sometimes provocotave, positions. When she was eleven years old, Alice's parents had a falling out with Dodgson and he was never allowed near the family again. Nobody knows what happened, nobody ever spoke of it and after his death, Dodgsons family tore out parts of his diary that related to that particular time. One can only wonder what really happened but in the absense of any facts, Benjamin weaves her own theory around what happened one summers day to end that relationship.
The rest of the book follows Alice as she grows up, watches her as she falls in love with Queen Victoria's son Prince Leopold (there is evidence that this may have happened) and ultimately marries and has three children, only claiming fame and noteriey at the end of her life as the girl who fell down the rabbit hole and will be forever seven years old.
I really enjoyed this book. It made me feel uncomfortable at times (but then I suspect it was meant to) but ultimately the ride along with Alice was an enjoyable one. It has certainly made me want to read Lewis Carrol's famous book again too. Recommended!
I have an interview with the author, Melanie Benjamin, on my blog if anyone wants to read more.
Alice I Have Been is fiction based on fact. The story is narrated by Alice herself and where no evidence remains, Melanie Benjamin takes artistic licence to fill in the gaps. Alice was the daughter of the Dean of Oxford University where she was one of 10 siblings who lived a very priviledged upbrining within the grounds of the University. It was there that the family met and befriended Mr Charles Dodgson (or better known to the world as Lewis Carrol). It was on one particularly hot summers day, while out rowing with Alice and two of her sisters that Dodgson made up the tale of Alice in Wonderland to amuse the three girls and for years afterwards Alice begged him to write it down. Little did she know that her childhood was to be immortalised forever.
The relationship between Dodgson and the three girls made me hugely uncomfortable, however. There were echoes of Lolita which I found a really unsettling experience while reading a book set in Victorian times and with such a quaint backdrop. There's something really unnerving about such little girls in their white muslin dresses with parasols being quite so obsessed with a man in his twenties. Charles Dodgson (a Mathematics professor at the Universtiy) was also a photographer in his spare time as well as writing stories. His rooms in the college were littered with toys and dressing up boxes for young girls to play with and his photograph collection contained hundreds of images if children in various, sometimes provocotave, positions. When she was eleven years old, Alice's parents had a falling out with Dodgson and he was never allowed near the family again. Nobody knows what happened, nobody ever spoke of it and after his death, Dodgsons family tore out parts of his diary that related to that particular time. One can only wonder what really happened but in the absense of any facts, Benjamin weaves her own theory around what happened one summers day to end that relationship.
The rest of the book follows Alice as she grows up, watches her as she falls in love with Queen Victoria's son Prince Leopold (there is evidence that this may have happened) and ultimately marries and has three children, only claiming fame and noteriey at the end of her life as the girl who fell down the rabbit hole and will be forever seven years old.
I really enjoyed this book. It made me feel uncomfortable at times (but then I suspect it was meant to) but ultimately the ride along with Alice was an enjoyable one. It has certainly made me want to read Lewis Carrol's famous book again too. Recommended!
I have an interview with the author, Melanie Benjamin, on my blog if anyone wants to read more.
Format:Paperback
To me, love is a kind of divine madness. You want to do it right, make it successful, overcome and survive. But what of the love of our animal companions and friends? With them, we often never know if we've completely done the right thing, given them peace of mind. And if their and our memories and attachments persist, if only in dreams. To me, animals are our love of love. Mysterious, fascinating. Never have I met an animal that did not live the source of love, the source of meaning that it "can accomplish all things." I'm not sure why the book I'm reading now, "Alice I have been", should spark this poem. But I do know I'll have confidence to face the Wonderland of life and death remembering the eyes of all the animals I have known and loved. This poem is dedicated to Angela and Phil Harlow, the anniversaries to come, the Donkeys, Mules and Horses lost and found, and most dearly to my husband Bob, and our companion and friend, Ahna the German Shepherd. - Jenny Bates author: "Opening Doors: An equilog of poetry about Donkeys"
The Grand Petition
When I am old and out of touch
I'll wonder how you loved me...
Just so much.
I'll rustle and shake myself
Like a tree in the wind
But steady your gaze stays fixed
As you throw patches of sunshine
Down to me.
Your eyes won't look at me with disdain
Your eyes won't see what half remains
Was it all a dream?
When you are old you'll see me pale
I'll look in your face
My spirit wailing
But you'll see what you've always seen,
A journey of playing
Or settling close and sitting
For hours, if you like
In just the same spot.
It was all a dream.
And when I am old, and your not here
I'll take a step expecting a number of things
The fog will clear,
"I'm here!" you'll sing.
"Stop crying, it's me, do not be afraid. It was a long time to wait
But I'm sure we'll be happy, and you're not too late."
"Confidence", you'll whisper to my
Wonder stone soul, and I'll dry my eyes
And follow you seeming
To our new home apparently in the
Ground of dreaming.
Only then will I look
In your eyes again
Seeing where I am going
And who I have been.
There it will be, the love set in your eyes
And we'll walk side by side
During the rest of the evening.
The Grand Petition
When I am old and out of touch
I'll wonder how you loved me...
Just so much.
I'll rustle and shake myself
Like a tree in the wind
But steady your gaze stays fixed
As you throw patches of sunshine
Down to me.
Your eyes won't look at me with disdain
Your eyes won't see what half remains
Was it all a dream?
When you are old you'll see me pale
I'll look in your face
My spirit wailing
But you'll see what you've always seen,
A journey of playing
Or settling close and sitting
For hours, if you like
In just the same spot.
It was all a dream.
And when I am old, and your not here
I'll take a step expecting a number of things
The fog will clear,
"I'm here!" you'll sing.
"Stop crying, it's me, do not be afraid. It was a long time to wait
But I'm sure we'll be happy, and you're not too late."
"Confidence", you'll whisper to my
Wonder stone soul, and I'll dry my eyes
And follow you seeming
To our new home apparently in the
Ground of dreaming.
Only then will I look
In your eyes again
Seeing where I am going
And who I have been.
There it will be, the love set in your eyes
And we'll walk side by side
During the rest of the evening.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Alice Uncovered
At times uncomfortable but a well written and interesting book.
Published on 26 May 2010 by Mrs. M. L. Piscitelli
Meet the real Alice in Wonderland
Before I read this book, I knew that Alice Liddell was the girl who inspired Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but that was all I knew about her. Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2010 by H. Skinner
A piece of literary deliciousness
I am one of those people that had no idea there was a REAL girl named Alice behind Alice in Wonderland... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2010 by Amy M. Bruno
"Before there was reality, there was Wonderland."
Lewis Carroll, the famed author of Alice in Wonderland is the focus of Melanie Benjamin's exquisite novel set in Victorian Oxford 1859, here among the men in their long academic... Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2010 by Michael Leonard
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