Darker rethink of children’s classic
Unsettling peek behind Alice in Wonderland tale
The Looking Glass House Vanessa Tait Corvus/Amazon
”It can get very dull being oneself all the time, if there is such a thing as oneself,” says Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) to his young muse, Alice Liddell, in The Looking Glass House, while taking her photograph.
The mystery of the self is at the heart of this short novel by Vanessa Tait, the great-granddaughter of that Alice.
Drawing heavily on her family’s recollections of Dodgson, Tait recreates the world of the Liddell family from the perspective of the children’s governess.
Mary Prickett, a “plain, poor, obscure” spinster, is rigidly moral and fond of rules — a foil to the freewheeling imagination of Dodgson. She feels her life has begun when she starts to work for the Liddells, “the most important family in Oxford.”
Yet Mary has fallen down a rabbit hole into an unfamiliar realm. She is at ease neither with herself nor her place in the dean of Christ Church’s family. She does not warm to the children — least of all the obnoxious Alice — nor to the haughty Mrs. Liddell. But the charming Mr. Dodgson, the Christ Church mathematics tutor, offers an enchanting escape, unravelling meaning out of muddle. His attentions flatter the often-overlooked governess.
Mirroring real-life events, Mary chaperones the children on a punting trip with Dodgson, during which he tells the story that would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
But when Mary realizes that only Alice can be Dodgson’s muse, she sets out enviously to discredit him.
Extensively researched, Tait’s engaging novel peeps behind Carroll’s story, which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary. Despite her connection to the real Alice, Tait has resisted the temptation to romanticize her family’s past.
Her view into the looking glass has all the unsettling, shapeshifting charm of a fairground house of mirrors, as we are both drawn to and repelled by the enigmatic Dodgson. Her style is sensuous and lyrical, her story neatly infused with Wonderland imagery and historically accurate dialogue.
Yet for all the source material underpinning this short novel, it lacks complexity. Tait has added vivid colour to historical facts where they are available, but she is held back by the obscurity of Dodgson’s “inner life” and Alice Liddell’s silence about their relationship.
This allows us to sympathize only with Mary, leaving the narrative one-sided. The character of Alice — denied heroine status — is reduced to an unlikable, spoiled child.
Then again, this story isn’t about Alice. It runs, White Rabbit-like, away from childhood towards a more grown-up reflection on one of the greatest children’s books.