Full spoilers for the entire book below. Proceed with caution.
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Title: The Horse and His Boy
Author: C.S. Lewis
Publication Date: 1954 (novel)
Narrated By: Alex Jennings
Recording time: 4 hrs and 40 mins
THE PLOT
via wiki:
Shasta is a boy who lives in southern Calormen with Arsheesh, an abusive fisherman, whom Shasta believes to be his father. A powerful nobleman demands hospitality one evening, and haggles with Arsheesh to buy Shasta as his slave. It emerges that Arsheesh is not Shasta’s father, having found him in a washed-up boat as a baby. In the stable, Bree, the nobleman’s stallion, astounds the boy by speaking. He tells Shasta that the nobleman is very cruel to his slaves, and suggests they both flee to his homeland of Narnia, from where he was captured as a foal. Shasta agrees, and they sneak away at night.
After weeks of northwards travel, during which the two companions bond, a brief chase to escape lions leads to their meeting another pair of refugees: another Narnian Talking Horse, the mare Hwin, who like Bree desires to return home, and Aravis, a young noblewoman who wants to escape a political marriage to Ahoshta, the ugly Grand Vizier. Although Shasta and Aravis immediately dislike each other, the four decide to travel together. In Tashbaan, the capital of Calormen, a party of Narnians mistake Shasta for Corin, the prince of Archenland, a Narnian ally, who has gone missing. Taken from the others, Shasta overhears the Narnians planning to escape Calormen to prevent a forced marriage between Queen Susan and Rabadash, son of the Tisroc, the Calormen ruler. Shasta escapes when Corin returns, but not before learning of a hidden route through the desert.
Meanwhile, Aravis is spotted by her friend Lasaraleen, who helps Aravis escape through the Tisroc’s garden, although she cannot understand Aravis’ motives. On the way, they overhear the Tisroc discussing the Narnians’ escape with Rabadash and Ahoshta. The Tisroc gives Rabadash permission to raid Archenland and Narnia to kidnap Queen Susan while High King Peter is away battling giants in the north, but notes that he cannot openly support such a raid and will renounce Rabadash if he fails. The four fugitives reunite at a necropolis where Shasta has had supernatural dreams. Pooling their information, they set out across the desert along the hidden route to warn Archenland; they are again chased by a lion, which injures Aravis.
A hermit tends to Aravis’ wounds, while Shasta carries on, on foot. He finds Lune, King of Archenland, and warns him of the raiders. He is separated from Lune in thick fog and encounters an unseen presence, who claims to have been not only the lion who injured Aravis, but also the lion who caused the four to join forces, and even the one who guided Shasta’s boat to Arsheesh. The presence disappears, and Shasta finds himself in Narnia. He again meets Corin, who is travelling southwards with the Narnian party (who escaped from Calormen successfully) to assist Archenland. The Narnians, led by King Edmund and Queen Lucy, arrive at the Archenland capital of Anvard, and defeat the Calormenes, who were unable to take the castle because of Shasta’s warning. Rabadash is captured and most of his men are killed, including Bree’s old master. In the aftermath, Aslan appears and turns Rabadash into a donkey after he refuses to accept defeat. His human form is restored when he returns to Tashbaan, but thereafter he is forbidden to travel more than ten miles from the city, on pain of permanent transformation. His reign as Tisroc is therefore very peaceful despite earning the nickname “Rabadash the Ridiculous.”
Lune realizes that Shasta is his son Cor, the long-lost identical twin of Prince Corin and the heir to the Archenland throne. Cor had been kidnapped as a baby in an attempt to thwart a prophecy which foretold that he would save Archenland from its greatest peril. He was lost at sea in the ensuing battle to rescue him, but Aslan made sure that the baby found his way to Arsheesh. Shasta’s warning fulfilled the prophecy. Corin is delighted that Shasta is heir, as he did not want to be king. Aravis and Cor eventually marry and rule Archenland after Lune’s death. Their son, Ram, becomes the most famous king of Archenland. Bree and Hwin found love separately after returning to Narnia and all four would reunite regularly.
My Review:
The Horse and His Boy is the fifth installment of Lewis’ series The Chronicles of Narnia. However, despite being fifth in its publication order, it actually takes places *during* the events of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (book #1). As you might recall, at the end of that story, we find out that after the White Witch was defeated, the four Pevensie children stayed in and ruled over Narnia for many years, until they left together and returned to the real world, restored to their original ages. This book is one of the adventures that takes place during their reign and before their wardrobe exit.
The original Pevensie children are not the protagonists of this story, however. They are instead background characters for the story of Shasta, who is heir to the Archenland throne, though he does not know it due to the fact he was kidnapped as a baby. I really enjoyed this book and the way that Lewis told the story. If in book 1, Narnia felt like the entire world, by book five of the allegory, Narnia feels like the Church – small, imperfect yet desirable, sometimes distant, opposed, and indomitable. I liked the view of Narnia from the outside as a strange, small, but wonderful place, and the hope and desperation of our man characters to reach it was well told.
One of the “problems” with these Narnia stories sometimes is the sense that when worst comes to worst, Aslan will show up and save the day. However, Lewis disguised the good lion’s role by having him act in confusing ways. Aslan at one point wounds Aravis and nips at the horses during their chase. “Surely this is a different lion!” I thought. But no, we see a different side of man’s relationship with God played out in these interactions. Sometimes God/Aslan allows injuries or fear to occur to teach lessons, or to provide aid in an unexpected way. It’s one thing to love a lion who makes you royalty and eats an evil witch. It’s another thing to love a lion that scratches you up, to teach you how it feels, because you caused a similar injury to happen to someone else. This is one of the more difficult aspects of any religious faith. Why do bad things happen to good people (i.e. me) and the story makes a noble effort of conveying those answers in a manner digestible for children.
From a tonal standpoint, the beginning of this novel had the feel of a Hemingway novel (if Hemingway ever had a story with a talking horse, at least.) I liked it. Thematically, this book is one about the idea of Providence. We learn at the end that a prophecy concerning Shasta had been told when he was a baby. After, the events which occurred were done in fulfillment of that prophecy, with Aslan taking an active role to bring them to fruition. Ultimately, what happened turned out well, but in the midst of the story, Aslan’s actions might have felt mean or cruel. The story thus asks the reader to wrestle with this. Wouldn’t it have been better if Aslan had just taken care of everyone’s problems for them? Or did allowing them to go through hardships create character growth? We get a great comparison inasmuch as Shasta is the twin brother of the Archenland prince, Corrin. While Shasta is humble, cautious, and protective of others, Corrin – though still ultimately a good person – is careless and self-centered. Would Shasta be the person he is now if he had not lived the life he did? The repeated refrain throughout the book is that each person’s life story is his or her own. The characters learn to trust that their lives are being worked toward their own good, and the good of others, even in the times where they cannot see it. This is a difficult and deep concept with which to deal.
I really enjoyed the audiobook narrator, Alex Jennings, and wanted to know where I might have previously seen or heard his work. In case you don’t know who he is, here is a list of what he’s known for:
Jennings is known for his film work, in particular for his performance as Prince Charles in Stephen Frears‘s film The Queen (2006) opposite Helen Mirren. His other film appearances include The Wings of the Dove (1997), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Babel (2006), Belle (2013), and The Lady in the Van (2015) starring Maggie Smith.
Jennings has won acclaim for his performances in television, including for his portrayal of Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, in the Netflix series The Crown opposite Claire Foy.[4] He also starred as Leopold I of Belgium in the ITV series Victoria (2016–2019) opposite Jenna Coleman. His other roles include Stephen Frears‘s A Very English Scandal (2018) alongside Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, and in Steve McQueen‘s Small Axe: Mangrove (2020) starring Letitia Wright.
If you are reading this book with small children, or letting them read it alone, I suggest some caution. Though the story does not give graphic detail, we get a lot of background regarding Shasta’s physical abuse. You may also need to prepare yourself to discuss slavery and arranged / forced marriages, as the latter comes up both with Aravis and Susan. Very small children might also struggle with the scene wherein the lion slashes the back of Aravis with his claws during their chase.
I highly recommend The Horse and His Boy. I really enjoyed the story and I consider it my second favorite from the series so far (just behind The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) The story was paced well and though I knew the ending would be happy, Lewis did a good job of disguising how we would get there or what it would look like when we did.
Have you read The Horse and His Boy? If so, what did you think?