Editing Alice Liddell (section)

==Comparison with fictional Alice==
[[File:Alice par John Tenniel 04.png|right|thumb|[[John Tenniel]]'s Alice from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'']]
{{Wikisource|Through the Looking-Glass|''Through the Looking-Glass''}}
The extent to which Dodgson's ''[[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]]'' may be or could be identified with Liddell is controversial. The two Alices are clearly not identical, and though it was long assumed that the fictional Alice was based very heavily on Liddell, recent research{{by whom?|date=September 2024}} has contradicted this assumption. Dodgson himself claimed in later years that his Alice was entirely imaginary and not based upon any real child at all{{fact|date=September 2024}}.

There was a rumour that Dodgson sent Tenniel a photo of one of his other child-friends, Mary Hilton Badcock, suggesting that he use her as a model,<ref>Gardner, Martin, ''The Annotated Alice'' 1970, chap. 1</ref> but attempts to find documentary support for this theory have proved fruitless. Dodgson's own drawings of the character in the original manuscript of ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'' show little resemblance to Liddell. Biographer Anne Clark suggests that Dodgson might have used Edith Liddell as a model for his drawings.<ref>Clark, Anne, ''Lewis Carroll'' 1982, p. 91</ref>

There are at least four direct links to Liddell in the two books. First, he set them on 4 May (Liddell's birthday) and 4 November (her "half-birthday"), and in ''Through the Looking-Glass'' the fictional Alice declares that her age is "seven and a half exactly", the same as Liddell on that date. Second, he dedicated them "to Alice Pleasance Liddell". {{anchor|acrostic poem}}Third, in the first book, the [[Dormouse]] tells a story which begins, "Once upon a time there were three little sisters... and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie." The name Liddell was pronounced with the accent on the first syllable and would sound like "little" as spoken with the "T" sound softened. Also the name "Lacie" is an anagram of "Alice", while 'Elsie' refers to Lorina, whose second name was Charlotte, giving her the initials L.C. 'Tillie' refers to Edith's family nickname of 'Matilda'.<ref>Gardner, Martin, The Annotated Alice 1970, chap. VII</ref>

Fourth, there is an [[acrostic]] poem at the end of ''Through the Looking-Glass''. Reading downward, taking the first letter of each line, spells out Liddell's full name. The poem has no title in ''Through the Looking-Glass'', but is usually referred to by its [[incipit|first line]], "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky".

'''A''' boat beneath a sunny sky,<br/>
'''L'''ingering onward dreamily<br/>
'''I'''n an evening of July—<br/>
<br/>
'''C'''hildren three that nestle near,<br/>
'''E'''ager eye and willing ear,<br/>
'''P'''leased a simple tale to hear—<br/>
<br/>
'''L'''ong has paled that sunny sky:<br/>
'''E'''choes fade and memories die.<br/>
'''A'''utumn frosts have slain July.<br/>
<br/>
'''S'''till she haunts me, phantomwise,<br/>
'''A'''lice moving under skies<br/>
'''N'''ever seen by waking eyes.<br/>
<br/>
'''C'''hildren yet, the tale to hear,<br/>
'''E'''ager eye and willing ear,<br/>
'''L'''ovingly shall nestle near.<br/>
<br/>
'''I'''n a Wonderland they lie,<br/>
'''D'''reaming as the days go by,<br/>
'''D'''reaming as the summers die:<br/>
<br/>
'''E'''ver drifting down the stream—<br/>
'''L'''ingering in the golden gleam—<br/>
'''L'''ife, what is it but a dream?

In addition, all of those who participated in the Thames boating expedition where the story was originally told (Carroll, Duckworth and the three Liddell sisters) appear in the chapter "A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale" – but only if Alice Liddell is represented by Alice herself.