Review: Alice I Have Been

A new fondness for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has sprung up this year due to the Tim Burton movie adaption (more of a continuation).  New editions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have lined the shelves of bookstores since the movie’s release in March.   It seems like the story will always have a following in each new generation, but who would think there would be an even darker and more disturbing story behind the little blonde girl.  Alice I Have Been is a historical novel by Melanie Benjamin that blends fiction with known facts about Lewis Carroll, whose real name is Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and a little girl he knew at Oxford named Alice Liddell.  Benjamin takes you through three stages of Alice’s life and the profound effects that a much older man has on her soul as a child, a young woman in her 20s, and a wife and mother of three boys. This tale of Alice Liddell’s life is haunting and unsettling, which is prominent in a scene where Dodgson photographs seven year old Alice in rags as a gypsy girl and watches her frolic in the grass.  Benjamin upholds the mystery and strangeness of the beloved Wonderland tales, but the story she weaves may disturb some Lewis Carroll fans. Although, it should be a fascinating read for those who can separate Carroll’s Alice from Dodgson’s Alice, a task that Alice Liddell had struggled with throughout her life.

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