Author Michelle Rene wrote a novella in which an old Alice Liddell looks back on the events that caused ‘the Liddell riddle‘. In this mixture of fiction and facts, we learn why the friendship between Charles Dodgson and Alice ended and almost all contact ceased.
“The Dodo Knight” is a short story (just a little over 100 pages) of the ‘historical fiction’ genre. It takes place in the Victorian era and uses everything we know about Charles Dodgson and the Liddell family, to tell ‘the true story’ of what happened between them to cause the rift we are still speculating about. Of course, that story was made up by the author, who is merely ‘filling the gaps in history’, as she calls it, with her own take on what might have happened.
Don’t fear: it’s not one of these books that contributes to the spreading of false claims and speculations – in the afterword, Rene clearly explains which parts were made up. Still, it is a book that can be received quite differently, depending on how much you know about the circumstances and the backgrounds of the main characters, and depending on how much you detest the idea that Dodgson could have had a love relationship with one of the Liddells.
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