Alice I Have Beenby Melanie Benjamin - my review
Description from the amazon:
Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.
But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?
Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.
That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice–he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war.
For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.
A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.
*** Giveaway ***
Win this book from Random House.
Open to US and Canada only.
Offer ends: April 11, 2010
To do:
Go to The World of Alice on Melanie's site.
Comment below with your email and tell me at least one new thing you learned about our Alice.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Contest has ended - winner is here
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~*~
* part of Alice in Whatsitland (see schedule)
week
* wanna be a part of Alice's adventure in Whatsitland? join the challenge!
* giveaway prize
Thanks to Katie at Random House
Okay now I am hooked, I didn't realize Alice was real!!! I guess I am going to have to read all the stories about her. Thanks, this is so interesting!!! I don't know why I never knew that.......
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Margaret B
Not entering because no more US only contests for me. But I also was thrilled to discover that Alice was real! :-) So rad! I've been really wanting to read this book
ReplyDeleteI have heard so many wonderful things about this book. I'd love to win a copy!
ReplyDeleteI learned that Alice sold her original copy of the book, given to her by the author, when she was in danger of losing her house after her husband's death.
angela.donner (at) gmail.com
I had no idea Alice was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford. I thought it was all fictional.
ReplyDeletefreda.mans[at]sympatico.ca
I love this. Thanks! Alice rules!
ReplyDeleteCount me in.
natashajennex(at)gmail(dot)com
I would love to win a copy of this fantastic book!
ReplyDeleteAlice is so interesting!
natashajennex(at)gmail(dot)com
I'd love to read this!! I learned:
ReplyDeleteUpon her husband's death in 1926—and as the aristocracy in England began to decline after the Great War—Alice was in danger of losing her house, Cuffnells; this was what prompted her to sell her original version of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
-Lauren
lauren51990 AT aol DOT com
I learned that Alice was raised in Oxford and met Lewis Carroll there.
ReplyDeleteamandarwest at gmaildotcom
I learned that Alice grew up in Oxford, the City of Dreaming Spires. I didn't realize she was an actual person.
ReplyDeletefindjessyhere at gmail dot com
I learned that Alice sold her original manuscript to help her save her home.
ReplyDeletenotreallysouthernvampchick(at)gmail(dot)com
She is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad yet is the story of Alice.
misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com
This sounds like a really interesting book, and I'd love to read it. :-)
ReplyDeleteI learned that our Alice didn't get married until she was 28, which was "an alarming age for a Victorian maiden."
Thank you very much for the giveaway!
anthy_stl [ATT] yahoo [DOTT] com
I learned Alice's middle name is Pleasance...which is kinda cool, in the uber fancy way lol
ReplyDeletethanks for the giveaway!
ninefly(at)gmail(dot)com
I've heard such great things about this book and have been wanting to read it. I did not know that Alice was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford.
ReplyDeletewhatinabox at gmail dot com
ReplyDeleteI learned that Alice grew up around Oxford. Her middle name is very interesting too.
I adore the cover! Okay so this may be strange but I thought Alice was a fictional character! So I learned that she based off a living being at one point LOL
ReplyDeleteyan.pocky(at)gmail.com
I've read about Liddell before, so a lot of it I knew. But I love the idea that she met Peter Llewelyn-Davies, the inspiration for Peter Pan. It kinda feels like the world should have imploded into a fairy tale alt reality when that happened.
ReplyDeleteI have heard such great things about this book, it's really got me curious.
justpeachy36@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there was a real Alice.
Please enter me in the giveaway.
Thank you for the link to that website, I was interested in learning about how Alice came to auction off her original manuscript, and how the British Museum finally procured it for their collection.
ReplyDeleteshiloki(at)gmail(dot)com
I learned that Alice's real name is Alice Pleasance Liddell.
ReplyDeleteaikychien at yahoo dot com