The Horse and His Boy

by

I enjoyed reading the 3rd volume in The Chronicles of Narnia.  My son and I were taking turns reading The Horse and His Boy, but he was reading it faster than I was, so I had to pick up the pace.

I was enjoying the book, but it got much more spectacular the moment Aslan entered the story.

Book overview:

On a desperate journey, two runaways meet and join forces. Though they are only looking to escape their harsh and narrow lives, they soon find themselves at the center of a terrible battle. It is a battle that will decide their fate and the fate of Narnia itself.

The Horse and His Boy is the third book in C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, which has been drawing readers of all ages into a magical land where horses talk and destiny awaits for over sixty years. This is a novel that stands on its own, but if you would like to explore more of Narnia, read Prince Caspian, the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Favorite Quotes

In the following quotes, realize that Aslan the Lion is symbolic of Jesus and Narnia is symbolic of heaven.

  1. Oh the sweet air of Narnia!  An hour’s life there is better than a thousand years in Calormen (11).
  2. For nothing is more suitable to persons of gravity and decorum than to endure minor inconveniences with constancy (117).
  3. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one (146).
  4. I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis.  I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead.  I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept.  I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time.  And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you (164-165).
  5. I am telling you your story, not hers.  I tell no one any story but his own (165).
  6. But after one glance at the Lion’s face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at his feet.  He couldn’t say anything but then he didn’t want to say anything, and he knew he needn’t say anything (166).
  7. I was quite safe.  That is why the Lion kept on my left.  He was between me and the edge all the time (183).
  8. [Hwin speaking to Aslan] You may eat me if you like.  I’d sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else (201).
  9. But of course that was the same boat that Aslan (he seems to be at the back of all the stories) pushed ashore at the right place for Arsheesh to pick me up (207-208).