The story of Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carrol is ... complicated. On the one hand there is a lot of fishy stuff going on with young girls. On the other hand, he deliberately cultivated the image of himself as a friend of children because it was, at the time, believed to be a mark of innocence and absence of worldly desires. And on the other other hand, he had many relationships with adult women, flouting convention and going on unescorted excursions with them, well into his old age.
A good treatment of this complexity is found in the biography of him, "In the Shadow of the Dreamchild" by Karoline Leach. The book posits the theory that Dodgson may have been pursuing an affair with Alice Liddel's older sister, or even her mother, which may not be convincing. But the book is well researched and has a lot to say about Charles' love life, or apparent lack of.
A good treatment of this complexity is found in the biography of him, "In the Shadow of the Dreamchild" by Karoline Leach. The book posits the theory that Dodgson may have been pursuing an affair with Alice Liddel's older sister, or even her mother, which may not be convincing. But the book is well researched and has a lot to say about Charles' love life, or apparent lack of.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Dreamchil...