The Looking Glass House: A fascinating Victorian-set novel featuring the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's children's classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

By Vanessa Tait

LONGLISTED FOR THE HWA DEBUT CROWN AWARD

Oxford, 1862. Poor, plain Mary Prickett takes up her post as governess to the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church. When Mary meets Charles Dodgson, a friend of the family, she is flattered by his attentions and becomes convinced he plans to propose marriage. But it is also clear that he is drawn to the little girls in Mary's care, and on a boating trip one sunny day Mr Dodgson tells the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a curious tale about the precocious Alice Liddell

As Mary waits for her life to change, she becomes increasingly suspicious of Alice's friendship with Mr Dodgson. Before long, everything Mary believes is turned topsy-turvy, and her determination to get to the truth will have lasting consequences for all involved...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corvus
• Release date: Jul 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781782396550

Reviews for The Looking Glass House

[blodeuedd_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story of Alice, but not really, it was the story of Alice's governess, and in turn about Alice.

Mary is from a poor family, but finds herself lucky to become a governess to the Lidell children. Maybe she even can find a match for herself.

Fiction and history is mixed since we can't know everything for sure. Mary is pretty blind at times, but she was a woman of her time. She fell for Hodgson, and thought he liked her back. She also disliked Alice a lot since Alice stole the attention she wanted. Of course she never questioned why a grown man wants to spend so much time for a kid. So she was jealous, blind, but still yes I got that she wanted more from her life.

Alice then. We only see Alice through Mary's eyes, and Alice is a spoiled child who gets way too much attention and revels in it. I can't say I liked Alice, but then, would she have been liked that if she had not been told how special she was? Oh and sidenote, I found it so interesting to see what happened to Alice when she grow up. There is another story there!

Right, the elephant in the room. We can't know, but really, he took those pics, he wrote creepy letters. Yeah. And little by little he gets creepier and creepier. Just by things he says when you think about it.

I thought it was interesting, and so creepy, about the historical explanation why he could spend time with kids. He would not have spent time with a young woman, that would have been wrong. But little girls that was ok in those times. Cos yes, who would do anything wrong? No one is that weird..right.

It was an fascinating look at the family. And I totally think there should be a book about Alice as a woman.

[vanessacw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An imaginative glimpse into a portion of time within Alice Liddell's life, the little girl who was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and who also was the great-grandmother of the author, Vanessa Tait. The story is told in the third person mainly from the viewpoint of the governess, Mary Prickett.It is very cleverly and beautifully written, but also quite whimsical and surreal. It touches on the weird and wonderful topsy turvy world of Lewis Carroll (pseudonym for Charles Dodgson) and the writing harks back to him in a certain way. I found the tale fascinsting and interesting. I loved that it combined fact with fiction. I thought the author did a fantastic job of reading between the lines. However, I did not particularly find any of the characters particularly likeable. Alice was a precocious, spoilt child and Mary a fool, in my opinion.The Looking Glass House is to be published in July to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. An engaging and unusual read which I am sure will appeal to those who love fairy tales and all things magical!Many thanks to Lovereading.co.uk for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

[lisa.isselee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars

I felt no sympathy whatsoever for Alice or mr dodgeson ! But near the ending I didn't either for miss prickett.
There were very few likeable characters in the book.

Very interesting to see how Alice's adventures in wonderland came to be. Don't know how much of it was historically accurate but I enjoyed the general outline.