During our  discussion last week of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin, a question was posed that I couldn't answer and I promised I'd find a way to ask the author. Last time I asked an author a question for the group, it took months to get a response, so I wasn't expecting anything soon. However, I got a response within two days of my posting my question on Goodreads.com (a great site for book lovers, by the way.)

Here's the question:

Hello!
The evening book club at Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville, which I facilitate, just discussed Alice I Have Been this past week. We had a lively discussion and all enjoyed learning more about Alice Liddell and her world.

We've read other historical fiction titles and this group is especially interested in what really happened vs the author's own interpretation of what happened.

In the background reading I did in preparation of our discussion, I was left puzzled about the real cause of the break between Dodgson and the Liddells. The group thought that you seemed to be leading the reader to conclude that something inappropriate had indeed happened between Alice and Charles, but that it had been initiated by her and misinterpreted by her sister and then Pricks.

I was asked a question which I couldn't answer and am hoping that you might be able/willing to shed some light for our group:

Was your intent to make the book as historically accurate as possible or did you want to draw a conclusion about what really happened between Charles and Alice?

I told the group I would see if I could find a way to ask you the question and would hopefully be able to report your answer back to them.

I truly appreciate your time in reading this and hope to hear back from you.

My email address at work is:

ejennings@cooklib.org

Thanks for writing such wonderful books!

Best,
Ellen Jennings

And here is Melanie Benjamin's answer to our question:

Melanie Benjamin
to:	Ellen Jennings
subject:	re: question from my book club
message:	My intent is always to explore the hidden closets of history. In ALICE, I explore the nature of the relationship between Alice Liddell and Charles Dodgson,and the source of the ever-mysterious "break" in their relationship, while adhering to known historical facts. We know the facts - when they met, when he photographed her, when he first told her the story of Alice, when this "break" in the relationship occurred. But since we do not, nor will we ever, know for sure what happened, I felt free to put my own fictional take on it based on my personal interpretation of the people involved. But it's just that; my personal interpretation. Although I always do hope to allow the reader to contribute his/her own thoughts on characters and their relationships. In a nutshell, it's that - the characters, their relationships and choices - that are what I explore in fiction.