Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis, Anthony Quayle ISBN: 0-89845-876-5 Publisher: Harper Children's Audio Pub. Date: 01 October, 1983 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (71 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Oedipus and Moses for children
Comment: Shasta wants to get away from his despot father. Bree, a talking horse, wants to return to Narnia. Meeting up with the girl Aravis and the horse Hwin, they travel together, always North, through the requisite quest adventures.
The plot seems to be a mix of the Moses story and the Oedipal story (the latter more vague), with true identities hidden and prophecies coming true. It also brings to mind A Thousand and One Nights with its nod to Middle Eastern culture. Also, for those who might be reading the book for clues and allusions, the deadly sin of Pride plays a healthy role in the plot of this edition of the series.
I found this volume to be lively and entertaining, full of intrigues and scrapes. The moral lesson is here, too, and beautifully told. The sin of pride impedes some of the characters' developments and the reader, whether adult or child, can see the needless pain and harm it brings to life. The beautiful and elusive Aslan makes his appearances in just the nick of time, bringing comfort to the characters as well as to the readers.
This story is told as a myth of Narnia, the folklore and story of a mythical land itself. It goes a long way to enrich the experience of Narnia and bring another dimension to the beloved first volume. If you only read one other book besides "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," let it be this one.
Rating: 5
Summary: Take the journey
Comment: Ok, before you even bother reading my review, buy the book (I'll wait here).
I hope you bought it. If you haven't, let me tell you why you should: The Horse And His Boy is an outstanding story. And that's not all-you can read it without having read any of the other Narnia books; not that you'd want to do that. All the Narnia books are wonderful.
The Horse And His Boy follows the adventures of Bree (a talking horse) and Shasta (a slave boy) who run away from their masters and journey to the magical land of Narnia. Along the way they meet a nobleman's daughter, another talking horse, a king and a queen, and a very special Lion (he's not a tame lion you know).
I love this book. I love all the Narnia books. C.S. Lewis is a great writer (now in glory). However, heed this warning: this book is only for children and those adults who are old enough to love fairy tales again. I hope that means you.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Narnia side adventure that works
Comment: "The Horse And His Boy" is one of CS Lewis' classic Narnia books, one of the later published but the third if taken chronologically. The tale takes place during the time period just before the end of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," (roughly during the start of "Wardrobe's" last chapter) and is largely independent of the other six Narnia books. All of the Narnia books can be read independently, but "Horse" in particular has little link to the others.
The tale is a classic "young person escapes a bad life" story, and in the end becomes a classic "downtrodden young person saves the day" and a "young person of meager background is" - well, that would be giving something away. Time-tested clichés of the genre, to be sure, but not clichés in a bad way. In Lewis' tale, this is a Good Thing. Because it works.
The story concerns Shasta, a young boy, and a talking horse, Bree, who flee their evil masters in an attempt to reach the free land of Narnia to the north. In their flight they meet up with Aravis, a young girl also fleeing with a talking horse, Hwin. They adventure their way through the country of Calormen, a thinly-veiled substitute for the Middle Eastern countries of the real world.
Like the best of children's literature, the pacing is brisk and the obstacles to be overcome are introduced quickly and almost without pause.
As in all the Narnia books, we are introduced to Aslan. This time Aslan's role initially seems minor, but is revealed to have retroactively been a major role. It is among the worst uses of the lion in the series. Much of what the lions tells Shasta feel dreadfully like the famous poem "Footsteps," in which Jesus explains to a walker looking at his life traced in footsteps on the beach that those moments when there were but one set of footsteps, not two for the walker and Jesus, were moments when Jesus carried the walker through life, not the walker walking through his troubles alone. In "Horse," it slaps the reader from the story. Worse still is the fact that the entire meeting with Aslan is written in a gratingly worshipful tone that is horribly jarring; it does the story a great disservice. The scene, however, is mercifully short.
Because "The Horse and His Boy" is a side adventure in Narnia more than anything else, it does not have as strong a connection, and therefore sentimental tug, as the rest of the books. Still, heavy-handed Aslan scene aside, "Horse" is a delightfully simple adventure about young people escaping a bad situation. Escapism is almost never a bad thing, especially for younger people who prefer to read over playing video games, and Lewis does it very well. Most readers will thoroughly enjoy this, even if it isn't essential Narnia.
 |
Title: Prince Caspian (rack) : The Return to Narnia (Narnia) by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0064471055 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 08 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: The Magician's Nephew (rack) (Narnia) by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0064471101 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 05 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0064471098 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 08 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (rack) (Narnia) by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0064471071 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 08 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Full-Color Collector's Edition) by C. S. Lewis ISBN: 0064409422 Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 30 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
