The Other Alice: The Story of Alice Liddell and Alice in Wonderland

The book describes the childhood of Alice Liddell and considers the connection between Alice Liddell, the Alice from the book and Dodgson/Carroll by means of anecdotes, historical information on childhood life in Victorian England, family trees for Alice, Dodgson, and Queen Victoria, biographical details, descriptions of the Oxford setting (including a walking tour), photos, etc.. The book also contains games and puzzles invented by Dodgson.

Although this book is obviously written for children (judging to the tone and style of writing), it manages to provide much information about the author of the Alice books and his relationship with Alice Liddell and her sisters, along with nicely rendered pictures and a good number of Dodgson’s photographs.

Although the ‘story’ given in the book has a few fictionalized moments, on the whole it is accurate and does not shy away from the fact that Dodgson’s relationship with Alice was rather sad and didn’t have a happy ending.