Alice I Have Been

Alice I Have Been

by Melanie Benjamin

I just finished reading an incredible book about the girl behind the mirror, behind the tea party, behind the magic, the girl behind wonderland.

Alice I Have Been is a fictional story based on the life of Alice Pleasance Liddell Hargreaves. In her book, Melanie Benjamin paints a picture of Alice Liddell's life as she grows from an innocent 7-year-old girl posing as a gypsy girl for her friend Mr. Dodgson to an 80-year-old woman, haunted by her past.

Alice's story is filled with questions, what if's, and could have beens. It is not a happy one, although it started out as such. But as I read it, I found myself becoming deeply attached to Alice, a girl so different, yet strikingly similar to the one I remembered from my own adventures in Wonderland (while reading the book of course). I found myself hoping beyond hope that Alice would be able to find true happiness, happiness that always seemed just beyond her grasp, happiness that was, perhaps, stuck on the other side of the looking glass.

Alice I Have Been weaves fact with fiction so closely that it is hard to know where the truth ends and the story begins. It was a book I was sorry to put down and even sorrier to finish.

For more on this book, including excerpts from the book and interviews with the author, check out this website!

Can't Get Enough?
Read the book that started it all!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is one of the most celebrated children's books of all time. Full of nonsensical rhymes and crazy characters, this is definitely one you should read over and over again.

"there is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "i dare say you haven't had much practice," said the queen. "when I was your age, i always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."