ALICE I HAVE BEEN

The real little girl who inspired the children's classics about Alice in Wonderland was as provocative and almost as mysterious as the character in the books. In this well-researched novel, Melanie Benjamin uses the freedom of fiction to explore the complicated relationship between Alice Liddell Hargreaves and the man who created her alter ego, Oxford professor Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). Samantha Eggar provides a sympathetic, enlightening narration throughout. Her wonderfully warm, crisp British voice sounds right, and she varies pace and tone beautifully to sustain our interest throughout the book's captivating, if occasionally overwrought, narrative. Eggar also changes her pitch just enough to let us know when Alice the child versus Alice the adult is speaking—important in this circuitous tale. An altogether beautiful read of an intriguing novel. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2010]