Comments on: Top 100 Children’s Novels Poll #96: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

By: wolf

wolf — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:56:38 +0000

This one is my favorite of the series. I didn’t like it as much when I first read it because I had expected more of the Pensevies, but once I got used to the idea that the main character was Shasta I fell in love with it. My favorite character, however, is Bree. It’s a great story about finding one’s freedom, learning to be humble, and learning to respect others. Also I would not call this story racist, especially given Aravis is one of the main protagonists,… but rather it portrays the difference between two rival cultures… Although the Calormene government seems rather corrupt, there are quite a few Calmorenes in the series who aren’t shown in such a negative light.

By: David B

David B — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:04:02 +0000

To me, the cultural coding is unavoidable. The Calormenes manage to pull together all of the standard portrayals of the “mysterious East,” strongly colored by the world of the Arabian Nights. The combination of decadent luxury and casual cruelty, the clothing, the architecture, the fact that the currency is the “crescent,” etc. all add up to “fantasy Arabia.” And the presence of one (or two) good Calormenes does not in any way make up for the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the culture as a whole.

That said, if you can set the Orientalism aside (which I don’t think I can) this is, in my opinion, the best-written book in the whole series. It is, more than any of the others, a tightly-written adventure story. It’s well-paced and exciting, with likeable heroes who get to _do_ things, not just watch others do them.

By: Betsy

Betsy — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:01:09 +0000

Yea for one of my top 10!! We’re a rare breed, we are, who love this book. But it’s a great way to find other kindred spirits . Yes to Brandy–I never read this with “Arab” in mind–just “Calormene”….

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:28:19 +0000

Aravis was a terrific heroine, but I did still have major trouble with the Calormenes – almost all of them were portrayed negatively (the only positive ones I can remember are Aravis and that young man in The Last Battle). I would’ve had an easier time seeing them as just an invented people if they hadn’t been described with the same terms British writers of that era used to describe the Middle East all the time (turbans, long robes, curved swords, garlic and onions – which authors of that era were frequently negative about). It seemed pretty clearly to be a very negative portrait of an Arab country.

If we had seen more Calormenes who were unhappy with the rule there, then it would just be a picture of a government that was controlling its people, and good people who disagreed with that but had no power to change it. But instead, it’s written as though Aravis is the only good Calormene, and her reward is to live in Narnia. And Shasta is a good Calormene only because he’s really a Narnian.

So much in this book that I liked – mainly the things Sondy mentioned about no one is told someone else’s story, and Aravis getting scratched by the lion in amounts equal to the amount her serving girl was whipped for letting Aravis escape, the interactions between Bree and Hwin, etc. But so much that gave me serious qualms as well.

By: Sondy

Sondy — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:14:55 +0000

You’re right, Brandy, the Tisroc-may-he-live-forever has echoes of Daniel in Babylon, constantly saying “O king, live forever.” More Christian overtones — but this one, just a reference to a Bible story about a pagan king. It emphasizes the “otherness” of Calormen, like the Israelites in the Babylonian captivity, among people who didn’t worship the true God.

By: rockinlibrarian

rockinlibrarian — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:11:41 +0000

This is one of the more underrated titles in the series– definitely one of my favorites! I think it’s cool that it made the list. (I’ll second the bit about Calormenes being Calormenes).

By: Sondy

Sondy — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:08:54 +0000

Oh, and don’t forget that Aravis herself is a Calormene, so they definitely aren’t portrayed as all bad.

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:06:48 +0000

Funny, the only one you didn’t mention is my son’s favorite, The Silver Chair.
When he turned 7, he wanted to have a Silver Chair birthday party, but I convinced him to make it a Narnia party so the other guests would have some idea what we were doing.

By: Brandy

Brandy — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:01:14 +0000

This is my favorite Narnia book. Because of Aravis mostly. I love her to pieces. This is actually one I voted for but I had little hope it would actually make the list and am excited it did.

I was really surprised the first time I heard anybody describe it as anti-Arab because, like Sondy, as a child I read it as Calormenes were Calormenes. As an adult I see more similarities to Ancient Babylon than I do the Arab world, but I can see where other people are coming from with that complaint.

By: Sondy

Sondy — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:38:10 +0000

I loved this one much more on rereading. As a young adult, I loved all the Christian truths that C. S. Lewis worked in. About how Aslan guided Shasta’s journey, even when it seemed like awful things were happening. About how your reward for doing a task well is to be given a harder one. About how no one’s told any story but his own. (You see, there are many quotable moments in this book.)

I knew very little about Arab culture when I read it as a kid, so the Calormenes were just Calormenes to me, from a fantasy culture.