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Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
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Alice I Have Been

A Novel

A Novel

A Novel

By Melanie Benjamin

By Melanie Benjamin

By Melanie Benjamin

By Melanie Benjamin

By Melanie Benjamin
Read by Samantha Eggar

By Melanie Benjamin
Read by Samantha Eggar

Best Seller
Paperback $17.00

Dec 21, 2010 | ISBN 9780385344142

Ebook $5.99

Jan 12, 2010 | ISBN 9780440339540

Audiobook Download $22.50

Jan 12, 2010 | 734 Minutes

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    Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
    Paperback $17.00
    Dec 21, 2010 | ISBN 9780385344142

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    • $17.00

      Dec 21, 2010 | ISBN 9780385344142

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jan 12, 2010 | ISBN 9780440339540

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jan 12, 2010 | ISBN 9780307713452

      734 Minutes

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    About Alice I Have Been

    Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever.

    About Alice I Have Been

    BONUS: This edition contains an Alice I Have Been discussion guide and an excerpt from Melanie Benjamin’s The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

    Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.


    But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?

    Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.

    That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice–he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war. 

    For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.

    A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.

    About Alice I Have Been

    Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.


    But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?

    Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.

    That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice–he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war. 

    For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.

    A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Listen to a sample from Alice I Have Been

    Also by Melanie Benjamin

    California Golden
    The Children's Blizzard
    Mistress of the Ritz
    The Girls in the Picture
    The Swans of Fifth Avenue
    See all books by Melanie Benjamin

    Also by Melanie Benjamin

    California Golden
    The Children's Blizzard
    Mistress of the Ritz
    The Girls in the Picture
    The Swans of Fifth Avenue
    See all books by Melanie Benjamin

    Also by Melanie Benjamin

    California Golden
    The Children's Blizzard
    Mistress of the Ritz
    The Girls in the Picture
    The Swans of Fifth Avenue
    See all books by Melanie Benjamin

    About Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children’s Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator’s Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Alice I Have… More about Melanie Benjamin

    About Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children’s Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator’s Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Alice I Have… More about Melanie Benjamin

    About Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children’s Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator’s Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Alice I Have… More about Melanie Benjamin

    Product Details

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Bantam
    Dec 21, 2010 | 400 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780385344142

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Delacorte Press
    Jan 12, 2010 | 368 Pages | ISBN 9780440339540

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $22.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 12, 2010 | 734 Minutes | ISBN 9780307713452

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    Praise

    “This is magic!” —Diana Gabaldon

    “Excellent . . . a finely wrought portrait of Alice that seamlessly blends fact with fiction. This is book club gold.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “A seamless tale of love, loss, and myth . . . storytelling at its finest.”—Sarah Addison Allen, author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon

     
    “A smashing tale—mostly true—of the overlap of childhood and womanhood, a compelling mystery, an exposé of Victorian mores, an exploration of love that came too soon and too late, an explosive trail of emotions and human foibles, a heartbreak—written with compassion and grace: I loved it!” —Susan Vreeland, author of Clara and Mr. Tiffany
     
    “The novel doesn’t just fill in the blanks of a literary life, but tells the story of someone who was more than a muse; Alice may have been immortalized as a girl but, as Benjamin imagines, she grew up to be a great woman.”—New York Post

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