Paperback, 288 pages
English language
Published April 1, 2008 by Rayo.
My 7 year-old grandson and I just finished this wonderful tale. He rates the second Narnia book every bit as good as the first. He is very sad that both Peter and Susan are now too old to appear in the further Narnia adventures.
It is a true joy reading to an enthralled audience of one.
I did really like that all the children got to go back to Narnia. I also liked that I got to learn a bit about Caspian. What I didn't like however was that not a whole lot happened in this book. The They all meet, a couple characters die, Peter meets with Aslan, and we learn that he and Susan aren't going back to Narnia. Sort of blah, in my opinion.
I used to love these books, but they've started making me sad. C. S. Lewis was not a big fan of women.
First, a note: the re-ordering of the Narnia series by the publisher should be ignored. It is utterly misguided, spoils some of the charm of the series, and makes no internal sense. Prince Caspian was the second Narnia book that C.S. Lewis wrote, not the fourth.
In many ways, this is the dullest book of the series. It lacks a true villain, such as the White Witch or Queen Jadis; the only villains are the Telmarine nobility, and Lewis didn't make them particularly strong or interesting characters. There isn't even a hint of balance or tension. The villains have no way to overpower or overthrow Aslan. Once he shows up, the struggle and story are effectively over.
There are some lines which are remarkable for their unintended humor. The one that has really stuck with my son was "And the feasts on the poop and the musicians." Since the …
First, a note: the re-ordering of the Narnia series by the publisher should be ignored. It is utterly misguided, spoils some of the charm of the series, and makes no internal sense. Prince Caspian was the second Narnia book that C.S. Lewis wrote, not the fourth.
In many ways, this is the dullest book of the series. It lacks a true villain, such as the White Witch or Queen Jadis; the only villains are the Telmarine nobility, and Lewis didn't make them particularly strong or interesting characters. There isn't even a hint of balance or tension. The villains have no way to overpower or overthrow Aslan. Once he shows up, the struggle and story are effectively over.
There are some lines which are remarkable for their unintended humor. The one that has really stuck with my son was "And the feasts on the poop and the musicians." Since the next book in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, takes places mostly on board a ship with a poop deck, that line is being constantly quoted back to me every time the word "poop" comes up in the text (which is often) - invariably preceded and followed by a torrent of uncontrollable giggles. Coprophagy and cannibalism!
I must also admit that I found it difficult to read the line "...the Maenads who whirled her round in a merry dance and helped her take off some of the unnecessary and uncomfortable clothes she was wearing" while keeping a straight face. Lewis describes Bacchus and the Maenads as slightly naughty English madcaps and jackanapes, which is simply ridiculous to anyone who knows anything of Greek mythology. And of course Lewis' mixture of Greek and Christian mythology which so offended Tolkien is rather jarring, to put it mildly.
While still an excellent book, Prince Caspian is definitely the weakest and least interesting book of the Narnia series. Fortunately it's followed by one of the best books in the series.
One last note: although the movie that was made of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was relatively faithful to the book, the same can't be said of the movie of Prince Caspian. That movie is violently at odds with the book, so much so that my son complained often about the differences between the two (he much preferred the book, thank goodness). I'd urge anyone who loves the Narnia books to avoid the movie like the plague, but if you must let your children see it, be sure to read the book to them first. The filmmakers simply lifted the characters, the title, and a few plot elements from the book and then made a film that stole equally from Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings movies, and some sort of tawdry Spanish love story. Caspian is a child, not a hot-blooded teenage hunk bursting with passion, and the attraction between Susan and Caspian in the movie is simply wrong.
Reading with Abby and Liam
I've just finished reading [b:Prince Caspian|121749|Prince Caspian (Chronicles of Narnia, #2)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308814880l/121749.SY75.jpg|3348636] for the fourth time, and this time I read it chapter for chapter with [b:Inside Prince Caspian|1040658|Inside Prince Caspian A Guide to Exploring the Return to Narnia|Devin Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348780282l/1040658.SY75.jpg|1027030] by [a:Devin Brown|117931|Devin Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361984614p2/117931.jpg], and most of my comments on it will be found in my review of Inside Prince Caspian.
I will add one thing here, though -- that on this reading I was struck even more by how [a:C.S. Lewis|1069006|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564671804p2/1069006.jpg] got it absolutely right about the notion of white supremacy -- which in Prince Caspian appears as Telmarine supremacy.
Back in the 1960s, when I first read it, Kenya had just become independent, and there was a flood of disgruntled white immigrants from Kenya into apartheid South Africa. They soon became known as "whenwes" because of their habit of prefacing most things they …
I've just finished reading [b:Prince Caspian|121749|Prince Caspian (Chronicles of Narnia, #2)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308814880l/121749.SY75.jpg|3348636] for the fourth time, and this time I read it chapter for chapter with [b:Inside Prince Caspian|1040658|Inside Prince Caspian A Guide to Exploring the Return to Narnia|Devin Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348780282l/1040658.SY75.jpg|1027030] by [a:Devin Brown|117931|Devin Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361984614p2/117931.jpg], and most of my comments on it will be found in my review of Inside Prince Caspian.
I will add one thing here, though -- that on this reading I was struck even more by how [a:C.S. Lewis|1069006|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564671804p2/1069006.jpg] got it absolutely right about the notion of white supremacy -- which in Prince Caspian appears as Telmarine supremacy.
Back in the 1960s, when I first read it, Kenya had just become independent, and there was a flood of disgruntled white immigrants from Kenya into apartheid South Africa. They soon became known as "whenwes" because of their habit of prefacing most things they said with the phrase "When we were in Keen-yah...".
They were also given much air time on South African radio (no TV in those days), especially by current affairs host Ivor Benson, who seemed to have a whenwe from Kenya every week on his prime-time propaganda show, where they spread the message that the white man should rule, and black people were incompetent and unfit to govern.
One of the things we wondered about was why, if they wanted to get away from black people, white Kenyan immigrants didn't go to a country where there were no or few black people. Why did they come to South Africa, where the majority of the population were black?
It soon became apparent, however, from what they said on the radio, that they could not do without black people, because there would be no one to "clean my carpets, scrub the floors, and polish up the hearth". They needed black people, but only if they were subservient to white rule -- and that is exactly how C.S. Lewis portrays the Telmarines in Prince Caspian -- as the ultimate whenwes. They were unwilling to stay in Narnia if they were no longer the ruling race, with all others subservient to them.
And C.S. Lewis nails it. He nails it absolutely. The Telmarines are the ultimate whenwes, white supremacists to the core.
