When
I first thought about using this short piece as part of a blog I had two
concerns: one, that it would be a conceit on my part; after all, tens if not hundreds
of thousands of things have been written and said about Lewis Carroll and Alice
over the 150 years that have passed since that fateful day in 1862 when Alice’s
Adventures Underground were first told to the three little girls in the boat on
the Thames; and second, was I to be treading on the toes of Melanie Benjamin,
author of the novel detailing Alice’s life, a fictional account but one
incorporating all the facts that are actually known? For the various
aficionados of math or photography history there is plenty for them in the life
and times of Lewis Carroll.
To
give just a clue as to the daunting nature of this minor task consider: there
have been over 8400 editions of Lewis Carroll’s work, translated into 171
languages, and illustrated by over 1000
artists. This does not mention the dozens of stage, screen, and TV adaptations
of the tales.
I
decided to take the chance because Benjamin’s recent book is such a good read
that it needs the publicity, and, two, most people today don’t realize that
“Alice In Wonderland” is no longer children’s fare, children today being so far
removed from the Victorian culture in which these stories are steeped. However,
it is Alice that draws our attention, not Lewis Carroll. He has plenty of
advocates and commentators and needs no more.
ooo
Alice,
of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, born in 1852, had an interesting but somewhat
mysterious relationship with Lewis Carroll, pen name of the Rev Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson. Alice was strictly a product of the upper classes in that Victorian
age. Her father, Henry Liddell (rhymes with ‘fiddle’), was the Dean of Christ
Church College at Oxford. The family occupied luxurious quarters in the
college. He had a lifetime job and was
at the highest social level. Christ Church College, in fact, catered to
royalty. His wife, Lorina, was the social lion and vigorously managed not only
her family with an iron hand but all social engagements for the Dean and the
College.
At
the age of seven, much too young to have structured feelings, especially concerning
sex, Alice knew that this interesting man who told such wonderful stories was very
special. She also knew that she was the dominant one of this strange relationship;
she owned him, in a sense, and she took pleasure in this knowledge of
superiority over him. Her sisters, one older and one younger than she, may have
been jealous of this apparent fact. It was Alice at the age of ten who
convinced Dodgson to publish the tale that he had told the girls on July 4,
1862 in the boat on the Thames. He produced a handmade leather bound book
titled ‘Alice’s Adventures Underground’ complete with his own hand drawn
illustrations for her.
With
no evidence it is believed that Dodgson may have approached Alice’s mother with
the suggestion that he might formally court Alice when she became of age for
such activity, 14 in those Victorian times. We do know that Alice’s trove of
letters was burned by her mother and the relationship with Dodgson was
effectively suppressed. The mother had other ideas for Alice; no impecunious
Oxford don with a stammer and strange habits for her daughter. Also, somewhat
mysteriously, three of Dodgson’s diaries for that period were destroyed after
his death in 1898, presumably by his family.
Alice
grew to young womanhood within the confines of the college and eventually at
the age of about 17 became an acquaintance of Prince Leopold, Victoria’s
youngest son, a hemophiliac. The evidence is entirely circumstantial but very
compelling that these two fell madly in love on meeting at formal balls typical
of the day. Leopold was a student at Christ Church College at the time. There
is strong suspicion that the relationship was ended when Victoria was made
aware of Dodgson’s relationship to Alice by either Alice’s mother or her older
sister, who was undoubtedly jealous of Alice’s relationship with the very
popular Mr. Dodgson. The undeniable support for this imagined series of events
lie in the fact that Leopold, married by Royal Decree to a minor continental
princess, named his second child, a girl, Alice, and Alice named her second son
in her marriage to Reginald Hargreaves, Leopold.
Alice
and Reginald lived out most of their lives on his small estate near the New
Forest and raised three sons. The youngest, Caryl, was the only one to survive
WWI. Until that tragic period Alice was never sure she really loved Reginald
even though he was as kind and generous and loving as any husband could
possibly be. After their tragic loss Alice realized that she really did love
Reginald and that she had been living a fantasy for all the preceding decades.
When
Reginald died in 1926 Alice fell on hard times. Servants were not the same and
besides she could hardly afford any. The estate had fallen into severe disarray
and disrepair. Caryl was of little help, spending most of his time in London.
His help consisted of suggesting she open a tea room and capitalize on her name
as “Alice” of Wonderland fame. It was then in these desperate times that she
chanced onto the little book that had been given her by Lewis Carroll, hand
done. She and Caryl took it to Sotheby’s in London and put it up for sale at
auction. It brought a fabulous price paid by an American buyer and the proceeds
saved the estate and essentially put them back on easy street. That little book,
through the generosity of Americans, made its way back to Britain and is now in
the British Museum. Actual photographic images of the pages of this book are
available on line. It is fascinating to examine Carroll’s style of hand
printing and drawing.
The
pictures below tell a lot of the story. The first is of Alice at 7, the second
at 17 and probably reflecting her mood with the devastating loss of her true
adult love, Prince Leopold, and the third of Alice at 80.
In
1932 Alice made a grand tour of America where she was wined and dined as the
famous “Alice” and given an honorary degree. She died in 1935.
Material
for this summary has been taken from Wikipedia and from Melanie Benjamin’s
excellent novel “Alice I Have Been.”
John
Hood, 2017, Kettering, OH
