The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis is the
third book of the popular Chronicles of Narnia series. In it, a poor
young orphan runs away with a talking horse and has many adventures on the way
to discovering his true identity.

The
Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis is the third book in the seven-book Chronicle
of Narnia series. The story is set in a fantasy world. Shasta has been
raised as the son of Arsheesh, a cruel and penniless fisherman living in
coastal Calormene. One day Anradin, a powerful Tarkaan warrior arrives at
Arsheesh’s cottage. While Shasta stables his regal white horse, Anradin makes
an offer to buy Shasta from Arsheesh. When Shasta eavesdrops on Arsheesh
negotiations with the warrior, he is shocked to learn that Arsheesh is not his
real father and that he is, in fact, a foundling. With nothing to lose, Shasta
decides to run away. Talking to himself, he is surprised when the warrior’s
horse talks back to him. Bree, the talking horse, offers to help Shasta escape
if he will take Bree to his home in Narnia. So it is the two set off and head for
Tashbaan in order to get supplies in order to cross the desert. One night on
the way to Tashbaan, Bree informs Shasta that they are being followed and that
it sounds like the tread of a Tarkaan warrior on horseback soon this sound is
joined by the roar of a mighty lion. Bree gallops into a river in order to
escape the lion, and is forced to confront the other rider when s/he follows
suit. The other rider turns out to be a young Tarkheena (girl) named Aravis. She is also running away, but she is
escaping a forced marriage to a very old and powerful Tarkaan lord named
Ahoshta. She also is heading for the land of Narnia and riding a talking
Narnian horse that happens to be named Hwin. At Tashbaan, they encounter
danger. A chatty old friend of Aravis named Lasaraleen recognizes her. Shasta
is mistaken for a Narnian prince and taken to King Peter, Queen Susan, and
Tumnus, the faun, from The Lion the
Witch, and the Wardrobe. Shasta
learns that Queen Susan like Aravis has been trapped into an unwanted
engagement. Susan is engaged to Rabadash, the son of the Calormene ruler or
Tisroc. If she does not consent to marry him, Rabadash will invade Archenland
and Narnia. As Shasta, Aravis, the Narnians, and the talking horses, escape
from Tashbaan, the novel picks up pace as the main characters race to warn the
innocent people of Archenland and Narnia of the coming invasion of the
Calormenes.

Listening to The Horse and
His Boy by C. S. Lewis reminds me just how delightful the Narnia books are.
While I consider them to be Tolkein’s Lord
of the Ring for the young reader, I must admit to enjoying them as an
adult. For the theologically minded, I am told that The Horse and His Boy represents the Moses stories in the Bible.
(Personally, I find that to be a bit of a stretch, but I am no expert on their
Biblically symbolic meaning.) More mundanely, the story has a decidedly Arabian
flavor and with a bit of imagination many of the place names sound vaguely like
places I have heard associated with Afghanistan, again that is just my two
cents.  Personally, I just enjoyed revisiting the series and once more
sharing in their special brand of magic.

Clive Staples Lewis is a noted
theologian and author of children’s books. 
He was a Fellow and Instructor in English Literature at Oxford University
and the chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University.
While he wrote more than thirty scholarly tomes, he is best remember for his
fictional works including the Screwtape Letter, Out of the Silent Plant series,
and best of all for his Narnia series. The Narnia series is composed of seven
volumes The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The
Voyage of the Dawn, and The Last Battle. The Last Battle was awarded the United Kingdom’s prestigious Carnegie Award.
The series evolved out of an image Lewis had when he
was sixteen years old of a faun carrying parcels and an umbrella in a snowy
wood. It should be noted that the series is in the midst of
celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.

Alex Jennings is the narrator of this rendition of The Horse
and His Boy.  He is a
stage and television performer. Jennings won the Olivier Award for
Comedy Performance of the Year, Plays and Players Award for Actor of the Year,
Drama Magazine Award for Best Actor of 1988 for his role in Too Clever by
Half; the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his role in Peer Gynt;
the Helen Hayes Award for his role in Hamlet; and was nominated for
Outstanding Debut by an Actor in a Play by the Outer Critics’ Circle and a
Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in A Midsummer
Nights Dream. He also appeared in the film Henry
V.

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis is a
delightful adventure for children and former children. Enjoy it for the first time
or for the hundredth, the Chronicles of Narnia are sure to enchant young
and old. This book is rated “timeless”. I highly recommend it.

© 2003 Su Terry

Su Terry: Education:
B.A. in History from Sacred Heart University, M.L.S. in Library Science from
Southern Connecticut State College, M.R.S. in Religious Studies/Pastoral
Counseling from Fairfield University, a M.Div. in Professional Ministry from
New Brunswick Theological Seminary, a Certificate in Spirituality/Spiritual
Direction from Sacred Heart University. She is a Licensed Minister of the
United Church of Christ and an Assistant Professor in Library Science at
Dowling College, Long Island, NY. Interests in Mental Health: She is interested
in the interplay between psychology, biology, and mysticism. Her current area
of research is in the impact of hormonal fluctuation in female Christian
mystics.

Categories: Children