Now that I've read Alice I Have Been, by Melanie Benjamin, I will never be able to hear Lewis Carroll's Alice stories without remembering the scandal and heartbreak surrounding the book's muse.In this fictionalized biography, Benjamin examines the life of Alice Liddell, a vivacious little girl being suffocated by the constraints of Victorian notions of girls and girlhood. From an affluent academic family, Alice escapes through innocent outings with a much older eccentric professor (a character based on Lewis Carroll). When their odd and sometimes cringe-inducing relationship is misinterpreted by meddling interlopers, poor little Alice is marred for life. The implications of her victimization are far reaching, costing her true love and happiness.
Poor Alice, another exploited muse.
Girl, my kind of read! Thanks for the recommendation! I've put it on my summer reading list.
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