November 17, 2009 / Leslie (LadyMin)

Review: Alice I Have Been

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: January 12, 2010 by Random House
Rating: 3½ of 5 stars

Alice I Have Been is historical fiction of the life of Alice Liddell, the real life Alice in Wonderland. It is written in the first person with a Victorian style and follows Alice from the time she is a young girl through old age. As the book begins, Alice is selling her original manuscript and proclaims that she is “tired of being Alice in Wonderland”. With good reason we soon find out as she goes on to tell her story beginning with her childhood.

I liked the book and I really wanted to like it more, but I had a difficult time getting involved in it at first. It was partly the writing style, which took a little getting used to, but more Alice’s relationship with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who was much older than her. While portrayed as friendship, it seemed that through Alice’s eyes there was something more, something she wasn’t saying, and that was a bit creepy to me. And even more so her relationship with John Ruskin was a bit unsettling. Once we moved past Alice’s childhood, the story picked up for me.

Before reading this I did not know much about Alice, only that she was a real person. At the end of the book the author does explain what were actual facts and what was fictionalized. I didn’t do any research before I read the book because I didn’t want to spoil any surprises. And for me there were a few. All in all, Alice had a haunting and sometimes tragic life.

Overall, I liked it, and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical or Victorian novels.
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Source: Advance Reading Copy