About Alice Liddell
nspiring the story
Alice Pleasance Liddell was Charles Dodgson’s favourite girlfriend. She was also his main inspiration for the stories "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass".
Dodgson (the real name of Lewis Carroll) told her many stories, and the Wonderland story was one of the tales he invented to amuse her and her sisters.
The life of Alice Liddell
Alice was born on 4 May
1852 and was the 3rd child and second daughter of the Dean from the Christ Church College
in Oxford, Henry George Liddell ('Liddell' is pronounced to rhyme with 'fiddle'). The
older brother and sister were Harry (1848) and Lorina (1849). Her sister Edith was born
two years later, in 1854. Her other brothers and sisters were Rhoda (1858), Violet (1864),
Eric (1865) and Lionel (1868). She had two more brothers, who died young. It was with Lorina and Edith that Alice went on the famous
boat trip, and these sisters appear in the story too.
On 25th February 1856, Henry Liddell, the new Dean, moved into the Deanery at Christ Church. At this time Dodgson was sub-librarian and the window of his room overlooked the Deanery garden, where Alice and her sisters played. Dodgson came in contact with the Liddell’s via the Dean’s niece, Fredrika Liddell, whom he had sketched. He met the Liddell family in February 1856 during a train trip. Two months later, on 25 April, he met Alice during a photo session with his friend Reginals Southey, on which occasion he was photographing Christ Church Cathedral. He was able to meet her and her sisters properly on 3 June when he photographed them.
From then on, Alice, Lorina and
Edith visited Dodgson regularly, and Dodgson formed a strong friendship with them, but his
relation with Mrs. Liddell and the Dean was not very heartily. By the latter part of 1856
Mrs. Liddell had asked Dodgson not to take anymore photographs, and he understood that he
was intruding too much. But when the Liddell’s went on a vacation and left the
children in the care of their governess, Miss Prickett (it was rumoured that Dodgson had
an affair with her, but he wrote in his diary that he thought it ‘so groundless a
rumour’), she let Dodgson visit the children again, and this continued when their
parents returned.
During the period of publishing ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, Dodgson’s relationship with Alice began to diminish; her mother became concerned about their friendship and limited his access to them. From July until December 1863 he did not see them at all, and after that he saw them rarely.
Alice was 20 years old when Prince Leopold (the youngest son of Queen Victoria) arrived at Christ Church, as an undergraduate from 1872 until 1876. It is rumoured that there was a romance, but Alice was a ‘commoner’ and a marriage was not allowed.
In 1876 Edith died, aged only 22 and just before she was to be married. This was a huge shock for the family.
In 1880 Alice married Reginald Hargreaves.
Dodgson was not present at her wedding, but did sent her, together with a friend,
a present. She had three sons; with them she lived until her death at the estate
Cuffnells, in Hampshire. It’s amusing to know that Alice called her first
son Leopold (Prince Leopold became his godfather) and Leopold called his daughter
Alice… Alice was an educated woman, she painted and 
moreover lived the life of a land-lady.
In 1928, Alice sold her manuscript of "Alice's Adventures Under Ground". Sotheby’s suggested a reserve of only £4,000, but in the event it fetched £15,400 (an enormous amount of money for those days: it was then equivalent to £77,000) and it went to America.
In 1932, when she was 80, Alice published her memoirs. She also went to New York because of the centenary of Dodgson’s birth and was made a Doctor in Literature by Columbia University. This was her last engagement on behalf of Wonderland, because at that age she got really exhausted of being ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Alice died on 15 November 1934.
The Liddell-Riddle
Hundredths of letters from Dodgson to his child friends
have been kept, but the letters to Alice Liddell have disappeared. Moreover, parts of his
diary which concerned his friendship with Alice, Lorina and Edith Liddell in the crucial
years 1858-1862 are missing. This is called the Liddell-Riddle. The pages were about the
following:
Alice and Edith were sent to Dodgson to organize
a boat trip to Nuneham. Dodgson wrote in his diary:"a pleasant expedition,
with a very pleasant conclusion". He wrote this, because he went back by
foot with Alice, Lorina and Edith. Two days later, he sent a letter to Mrs.
Liddell 'urging her to send the children over to be photographed', something
he very often did. What happened after that has been a source of speculation
for quite some time; after Dodgson's death, these pages have been ripped out
the diary and the previous page has been altered by another hand to hide the
disappearance of the chapter. The result of these days was the break between
Dodgson and the Liddells. Mrs. Liddell tore up all the letters of Dodgson to
Alice. As mentioned before, Dodgson kept in contact with Alice, but they saw
each other rarely. He sent her his books, with nostalgic dedications in it.
Recently, more information about
the possible contents of these pages has emerged.
