SALLY W. (thameslink) - reviewed on 4/26/2011 + 723 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

I thought this was a very well written, fictionalized account of Alice Liddell's relationship with Charles Dodgson. Because it is fiction, there is plenty of speculation about what actually happened in the course of their relationship, but I found this book more palatable than Katie Roiphe's "Still She Haunts Me" which tackles the same subject but in which Dodgson comes off as a much more tortured soul. I thought this was a well-balanced, thoughtful portrayal of Dodgson within the cultural boundaries of the Victorian age. Dodgson was a genius, a pioneer of photography and a man awkward in the society of his peers, but comfortable with the unthreatening presence of little girls. Alice was one of his first muses and it seems as though she was never able to move beyond the role she was ultimately cast in -- that of the little girl who inspired "Alice in Wonderland". Insightful and fascinating read!

Unlike a previous reviewer, I did not find any indication that Charles Dodgson was a pedophile...there was nothing sexual about his relationships with little girls that I could discern. But that is for each reader to make up his or her own mind about.

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