Title: Prince Caspian
Series: The Chronicles of Narnia
Author: C.S. Lewis
Copyright: 1950
Pages: 216
Format: Paperback
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Finished: 5-17-08
I decided to reread Prince Caspian this weekend after having seen the new, big screen version (which I am very disappointed in).
It's funny, how you come at these books as an adult and take something completely different away from them than you would as a child. I read these books about 20 years ago when my uncle gave me a complete set for my birthday. I think as a child, I think I read them simply as a fantasy/adventure story. As an adult, I can see the subtle religious references sprinkled throughout, and while some may see this as a hindrance to the story, at least through the first 2 books (I go by the original published order, not the new chronological order), I can look beyond that to the story underneath.
However, in the case of Prince Caspian, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of story. It seems to me that the book can be broken up into two sections: the first being the Dwarf relating Caspian's understanding of his role of Narnia's future leader (the entire importance of this seems to be related to him over the course of one evening while star-gazing) and the second being Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy's trek through the jungle to get to Caspian. The ending seemed too contrived for my liking and far too rushed. It was all build up and no follow through as far as I'm concerned.
Looking at the story differently, it is a story about faith; about how faith can be hard to see sometimes, but it's always there and as long as you believe in that faith, it will lead you where you need it to. Overall a good moral to the story, if a little didactic in the telling.
1 comment:
the makers of the recent movie version of Prince Caspian kept to the original story better than i would have expected... i had heard they were going to make it into a silly pure-action flick, but thankfully this was not so much the case
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