The Horse and His Boy [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898. He was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, where he counted J.R.R. Tolkien among his friends. "The Horse and his Boy", the third book of the Chronicles of Narnia, was first published in 1954.

Although the series is known as the "Chronicles of Narnia", much of the action takes place in the neighbouring countries of Calormen and Archenland. Shasta, the boy mentioned in the book's title, is introduced first - he's been brought up in Calormen by a fisherman called Arsheesh. One evening, a local prince stops with the pair and demands hospitality. Later, when Shasta overhears the prince and his father bartering for Shasta himself, he decides to run away. Luckily for Shasta, the prince's horse is a captured Narnian horse called Bree - and, as a Narnian, Bree can talk. Bree has also set his heart on escaping and returning home and agrees to take Shasta with him - recognising the boy as either a fellow Narnian or an Archenlander, rather than being native to Calormen. The pair make off together that night and, before long, they are joined on the road by another fleeing pair : Aravis and Hwin. Aravis is a Calormen princess being forced to marry against her will while Hwin, like Bree, is a captured Narnian horse. The four escapees must make their way through Calormen's capital, Tashbaan, and then across the northern desert to safety.

It's possible I'm seeing more in this book than was intended, and I know it's supposed to be a kid's book - but I'd have to describe the portrayal of Calormen's people as not only the book's big flaw but also very questionable. Physically, they're described as having dark faces and wear turbans, while their favoured weapon is the scimitar. As individuals, only Aravis is portrayed in anything vaguely resembling a positive light. Arsheesh, Shasta's foster-father, had no qualms about selling him into slavery, while Aravis' father was apparently happy to arrange her man to the Grand Vizier - someone old enough to be her grandfather. Meanwhile, the Tisroc - Calormen's ruler - is the sort of cheap and easy villain others have tried to fabricate again more recently : he actually sneers at the concept of freedom. Narnia's King Edmund and Queen Susan also appear briefly - Queen Lucy's appearance is barely even fleeting. Edmund, who didn't exactly cover himself in glory in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe", maintains his low standards when his refers to Prince Rabadash as Susan's "dark faced lover". He isn't long in adding that Rabadash is "proud, bloody, luxurious, cruel and a self-pleasing tyrant". (From only a slightly different perspective, of course, the very same thing could be said about Peter - Narnia's High King and Edmund's brother). All of which is a great pity, as the bones of this story are much stronger than those of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe".

"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.

The Horse and His Boy
C.S. Lewis
C. Cho
P.5

This book is about a young boy named Shasta and a horse from Narnia named Bree. Shasta and Bree have one thing in common, they both want feedom! Shasta mannages to escape from his master, Arsheesh. Bree and Shasta encounter many adventurous perils on the way to Narnia. Some people in a kingdom even mistake young Shasta as a prince. Shasta has his moments of fame and luxury until the real prince arrives...

I enjoyed reading this book because of the great relationship Bree had with Shasta. I also had fun reading this book because when I read about all the mysterious animals such as the lions, I wanted to read more about it. It was fun reading about the part when Shasta was mistaken as Prince Corin. Here is a quote from the book that I enjoyed,"Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling him that when he was left alone, his thoughts took a different turn. I couldn't believe that they couldn't tell the difference. There were many exciting parts in the book but to me, these were my favorite parts.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I did have some parts that I did not feel was very exciting. When Shasta and Bree met Aravis there was a lot of talking involved. I enjoy stories with diolouge but I dont enjoy it if there is eight full pages of it. Another reason why I disliked this book is because they talked in a different way that we Americans do. Arsheesh was a character in this story that I didn't like."My price is seventy."

My favorite part of this book was when the people of Tashban mistook Shasta as Price Corin. This chapter made me feel happy for Shasta because he got food and rest that he deserved. I did not like it when Aravis showed up. She was the daughter of a high nobleman and she was a little stuck up to me. Although Aravis was not my favorite character, I still enjoyed this book.