Editing Alice Liddell (section)

== Relationship with Lewis Carroll ==
[[File:Dressed in Her Best Outfit.jpg|thumb|Liddell dressed in her best outfit. Photo by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1858).]]
{{See also|Lewis Carroll#Controversies and mysteries}}
The relationship between Liddell and Dodgson has been the source of much controversy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Douglas-Fairhurst |first=Robert |title=The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland |date=2015 |publisher=Harvill Secker |isbn=978-1-84655-861-0}}</ref> Dodgson met the Liddell family in 1855; he first befriended Harry, the older brother, and later took Harry and Ina on several boating trips and picnics to the scenic areas around Oxford.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Morton Norton |url=https://archive.org/details/lewiscarroll00mort |title=Lewis Carroll: A Biography |date=1996 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=0-679-74562-9 |author-link=Morton N. Cohen}}</ref> Later, when Harry went to school, Alice and her younger sister Edith joined the party. Dodgson entertained the children by telling them fantastic stories to while away the time. He also used them as subjects for his hobby, photography.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15878coll18|title=Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) Photography Collection |website=Harry Ransom Center |access-date=27 April 2017}}</ref> It has often been stated that Alice was his favourite subject in these years, but there is very little evidence to suggest this; Dodgson's diaries from 18 April 1858 to 8 May 1862 are missing.<ref name="The Lewis Carroll Society">{{cite web|url=http://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk/pages/aboutcharlesdodgson/diaries/volumes.html|title=The Lewis Carroll Society Website – Charles Dodgson's Diaries|publisher=The Lewis Carroll Society|website=The Lewis Carroll Society Website|access-date=26 April 2017|archive-date=23 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823021833/http://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk/pages/aboutcharlesdodgson/diaries/volumes.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==="Cut pages in diary"===
{{more citations needed section|date=June 2014}}
The relationship between the Liddells and Dodgson suffered a sudden break in June 1863. There was no record of why the rift occurred, since the Liddells never openly spoke of it, and the single page in Dodgson's diary recording 27–29 June 1863 (which seems to cover the period in which it began) was missing;<ref name="The Lewis Carroll Society"/> it has been speculated by biographers such as [[Morton N. Cohen]] that Dodgson may have wanted to marry the 11-year-old Alice Liddell, and that this was the cause of the unexplained break with the family in June 1863.<ref name="snaogq">Cohen, Morton (1996). ''Lewis Carroll: A Biography.'' Vintage Books. pp. 30–35. {{ISBN|978-0-679-74562-4}}. pp. 100–104</ref> Alice Liddell's biographer, Anne Clark, writes that Alice's descendants were under the impression that Dodgson wanted to marry her, but that "Alice's parents expected a much better match for her."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0EfAQAAIAAJ&q=Liddell%20%22Alice's%20parents%20expected%20a%20much%20better%20match%20for%20her%22 |title=The Real Alice: Lewis Carroll's Dream Child |first=Anne |last=Clark Amor |publisher=Stein and Day |isbn=9780812828702 |page=87 |date=1982 |access-date=2024-06-24 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Clark argues that in Victorian England such arrangements were not as improbable as they might seem; [[John Ruskin]], for example, fell in love with a 12-year-old girl while Dodgson's younger brother sought to marry a 14-year-old, but postponed the wedding for six years.<ref>Clark, Anne (1981). ''The Real Alice''. Michael Joseph Ltd. pp. 86–87. {{ISBN|0-7181-2064-7}}</ref>

In 1996, [[Karoline Leach]] found what became known as the "Cut pages in diary" document<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lookingforlewiscarroll.com/cutpages.html|title=Cut pages in diary|date=4 March 2004|access-date=9 July 2006| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060614223344/http://www.lookingforlewiscarroll.com/cutpages.html| archive-date= 14 June 2006}}</ref>—a note allegedly written by Charles Dodgson's niece, Violet Dodgson, summarising the missing page from 27–29 June 1863, apparently written before she (or her sister Menella) removed the page. The note reads:
{{Blockquote|L.C. learns from Mrs. Liddell that he is supposed to be using the children as a means of paying court to the governess—he is also supposed by some to be courting Ina<ref name = "Woolf" />}}
This might imply that the break between Dodgson and the Liddell family was caused by concern over alleged gossip linking Dodgson to the family governess and to "Ina" (both Alice's older sister and her mother were named "Lorina"). In her biography, ''The Mystery of Lewis Carroll,'' Jenny Woolf suggests that the problem was caused by Lorina becoming too attached to Dodgson and not the other way around. Woolf then uses this theory to explain why "Menella [would] ''remove the page itself, yet keep a note of what was on it.''"<ref name = "Woolf" /> The note, she submits, is a "censored version" of what really happened, intended to prevent Lorina from being offended or humiliated at having her feelings for Dodgson made public.<ref name = "Woolf">Woolf, Jenny (2010). ''The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Alice in Wonderland''. St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN|978-0-312-61298-6}}</ref>

It is uncertain who wrote the note. Leach has said that the handwriting on the front of the document most closely resembles that of either Menella or Violet Dodgson, Dodgson's nieces.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} However, [[Morton N. Cohen]] in an article published in the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' in 2003 said that in the 1960s, Dodgson's great-nephew Philip Dodgson Jacques told him that Jacques had written the note himself based on conversations he remembered with Dodgson's nieces.<ref>Cohen, Morton N., "When Love was Young", ''Times Literary Supplement'', October 2003</ref> Cohen's article offered no evidence to support this, however, and known samples of Jacques' handwriting do not seem to resemble the writing of the note.<ref>See discussion on the [https://archive.today/20120527000520/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lewiscarroll/ Lewis Carroll e-list], Autumn 2003</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2014}}

After this incident, Dodgson avoided the Liddell home for six months but eventually returned for a visit in December 1863. However, the former closeness does not seem to have been re-established, and the friendship gradually faded away, possibly because Dodgson was in opposition to Dean Liddell over college politics.<ref>''Christ Church & Reform''{{full citation needed|date=June 2014}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=June 2014}}