(Photos from top: A pensive teenage Alice - photo taken by Charles Dodgson; another photo of Alice, around age 10 taken by Dodgson; Charles Dodgson; "Beyond the Looking Glass: Reflections of Alice and her family." An Alice bio I found recently at a used bookstore for my Alice collection.)
We all know the story by heart...a seven year old, golden haired girl tumbles down either a rabbit hole or disappears behind a mirror escaping the life she knows. Only to find odd creatures, bad manners, and Victorian political humor. Many people know that this story was written by a mathematics tutor at the request of a little girl who's father was the Dean of Christ Church - Oxford.
The real Alice, or rather Alice Liddell, looked nothing like her blonde counterpart. She had shorter hair, and her hair color was brown. Her family, well, her mother in particular were social climbers, who wanted the real Alice to marry one of Queen Victoria's sons. Alice was the second oldest daughter, and the fourth oldest overall in a family of ten children. Large families during the Victorian era was common among the upper class.
On the day Alice Liddell met Charles Dodgson, it was in the Dean's gardens of Christ Church college - Oxford. She was playing with her older sister Ina and older brother Harry. What the children saw was a tall man with blue eyes and wavy hair and a slight smile. Alice once remarked that Mr. Dodgson "Walked upright like he swallowed a poker." Dodgson...no stranger for having many brothers and sisters himself became friends with the children.
The laid back Dodgson seemed to encourage the Liddell children to have fun and play. It was a time of "children being seen and not heard."
He had in his room at Tom Quad, children's toys for the kids to play with while their governess, Miss Prickett looked on. Dodgson took many photos of the Liddells in colorful costumes. But what set Alice apart from the other Liddell children, and held Dodgson's affections is still to this day, speculation. It could just be that he was just fond of Alice and was inspired to write a story for her because she asked?
On one sunny July 4th, 1862; although, according to weather records at the time, it was actually a partly cloudy day and rather wet. Dodgson, his friend Robinson Duckworth and three of the Liddell girls: Alice, her older sister Ina and their younger sister Edith rowed from Folly Bridge to a shelter of hayricks along the Thames. Alice insisted on a story and what Mr. Dodgson told was a story which would first become "Alice's Adventures Underground." Before re tooling it a bit and changing the title. The then ten year old Alice, became the protagonist. Dodgson inserted himself and Duckworth as the Dodo and the Duck from the Caucus Race scene in the book, along with Ina aka Lorry and Edith aka Eaglet.
As Alice grew up she saw less and less of Mr. Dodgson. Alice's mother was never really fond of Dodgson and had burned some letters he wrote to Alice, again, to this day there is a lot of speculation to what happened. An adult Alice went on to have flirtations with Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria's youngest son. She would eventually marry Reginald Hargreaves, an heir to a wealthy textile family, and bore three sons.
I feel that the best resource to read about Mr. Dodgson is Morton Cohen's biography of Dodgson -" Lewis Carroll A Biography," which is the best bio of LC, and one I have read many times and own. Other authors have also zeroed in on why Mrs. Liddell burned the letters and why, after Dodgson's death, his family tore pages from his diaries. From Karoline Leach's research to the lost pages of Dodgson's diary in the LC bio: "Shadow of a Dreamchild," to the historical novels: "Still She Haunts Me" by Katie Roiphe to Melanie Benjamin's "Alice I Have Been," and the movie "Dreamchild," all of these versions re-examine the relationship between Alice and Dodgson through fiction and continued speculation, that will never stop for decades to come.
This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.
