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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
The writing in this book is absolutely exquisite - almost making up for the fact that the messages in this book are way off base. The main character Maria is a fiery, curious girl but is constantly being told that these qualities are bad and exclusively feminine...
She must not ‘quarrel’ or act upon her inquisitiveness - these are BAD and it is made clear to the reader that these are seen as exclusively feminine traits.
There’s a character who literally says that he hates females - he literally says this. The entire household prides itself on having no females within the house for many years before Maria arrives.
We love a bit of 19th century sexism.
She must not ‘quarrel’ or act upon her inquisitiveness - these are BAD and it is made clear to the reader that these are seen as exclusively feminine traits.
There’s a character who literally says that he hates females - he literally says this. The entire household prides itself on having no females within the house for many years before Maria arrives.
We love a bit of 19th century sexism.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism
It has adopted siblings to lovers (with a 15 year age gap) , which is in the background of the story
Before coming across it while on a search of a unicorn book to review for Zombies vs. Unicorns week, I had never heard of A Little White Horse. I’m surprised by that now, because not only was it made into a TV mini-series in 1994 called Moonacre and a movie in 2008 called The Secret of Moonacre, but J.K. Rowling praises it as one of her favorite childhood books.
I can easily understand why Rowling considers this a childhood favorite. If I had read it as a younger girl, I no doubt would have been head over heels in love with it. As it is, even though I thought it was charming, I also thought that a great deal of it was boring. It moved very slowly and there was never much action. There were a lot of positive things about it, however. The language is so lush and descriptive that it makes the story inviting. Everything down to the food is described in beautiful detail: in fact, if the book doesn’t make you hungry several times I will be surprised.
When the book opens, the recently orphaned Maria Merryweather is traveling with her governess Miss Heliotrope to live with a relation she has never met at her ancestral home. Also on the journey with them is her dog Wiggins. Wiggins might actually be my favorite character. So much humor was infused into the descriptions of his thoughts and actions; you can’t help but become rather attached to him throughout the story. He is a very beautiful and self-centered dog, who only loves Maria because he knows it is in his best interests to do so (she is the source of food, you see).
As Maria arrives at Moonacre manor and gets to know all the people that are now a part of her life, she realizes that she feels like she has finally come home. Unfortunately, she also discovers that there is a curse hanging over the Merryweathers as well as Moonacre, and as the book progresses, she learns more about the curse and how she can be the one to break it. With a whole lot of resolve and a smidgen of magic, Maria is able to save the manor, bring harmony to the valley, and right some love stories gone wrong (she also manages quite the happy ending for herself, of course).
While an important part of the story, the unicorn is not meant to be a physical part of the story as much as a figurative one. The “little white horse” is more of a background figure threaded heavily in the legends surrounding Moonacre Manor. The book opens with a verse that ends:
The raised hoof, the proud poised head, the flowing mane?
The supreme moment of stillness before the flight, the moment of
farewell, of wordless pleading for remembrance of things lost to
earthly sight.
Then the half-turn under the trees, a motion fluid as the movement of
light on water...
Stay, oh stay in the forest, little white horse!
He is lost and gone and now I do not know if it was a little white
horse that I saw, or only a moonbeam astray in the silver night.
So, even though the unicorn is far more symbolic than literal, he adds a lot of meaning to the narrative. Maria sees him as a source of hope and power. I think he also represents both the happier times before the curse and the resolution of the curse.
Overall, this book definitely celebrates some of the awesomeness that is the unicorn, although I was a little disappointed that there was not a real unicorn frolicking through the fields with Maria throughout the book.
I can easily understand why Rowling considers this a childhood favorite. If I had read it as a younger girl, I no doubt would have been head over heels in love with it. As it is, even though I thought it was charming, I also thought that a great deal of it was boring. It moved very slowly and there was never much action. There were a lot of positive things about it, however. The language is so lush and descriptive that it makes the story inviting. Everything down to the food is described in beautiful detail: in fact, if the book doesn’t make you hungry several times I will be surprised.
When the book opens, the recently orphaned Maria Merryweather is traveling with her governess Miss Heliotrope to live with a relation she has never met at her ancestral home. Also on the journey with them is her dog Wiggins. Wiggins might actually be my favorite character. So much humor was infused into the descriptions of his thoughts and actions; you can’t help but become rather attached to him throughout the story. He is a very beautiful and self-centered dog, who only loves Maria because he knows it is in his best interests to do so (she is the source of food, you see).
As Maria arrives at Moonacre manor and gets to know all the people that are now a part of her life, she realizes that she feels like she has finally come home. Unfortunately, she also discovers that there is a curse hanging over the Merryweathers as well as Moonacre, and as the book progresses, she learns more about the curse and how she can be the one to break it. With a whole lot of resolve and a smidgen of magic, Maria is able to save the manor, bring harmony to the valley, and right some love stories gone wrong (she also manages quite the happy ending for herself, of course).
While an important part of the story, the unicorn is not meant to be a physical part of the story as much as a figurative one. The “little white horse” is more of a background figure threaded heavily in the legends surrounding Moonacre Manor. The book opens with a verse that ends:
The raised hoof, the proud poised head, the flowing mane?
The supreme moment of stillness before the flight, the moment of
farewell, of wordless pleading for remembrance of things lost to
earthly sight.
Then the half-turn under the trees, a motion fluid as the movement of
light on water...
Stay, oh stay in the forest, little white horse!
He is lost and gone and now I do not know if it was a little white
horse that I saw, or only a moonbeam astray in the silver night.
So, even though the unicorn is far more symbolic than literal, he adds a lot of meaning to the narrative. Maria sees him as a source of hope and power. I think he also represents both the happier times before the curse and the resolution of the curse.
Overall, this book definitely celebrates some of the awesomeness that is the unicorn, although I was a little disappointed that there was not a real unicorn frolicking through the fields with Maria throughout the book.
reading this book over and over again for the undefined times, bring me the hue from my childhood. i love how the story was written here. it was such an art crafted in luminosity, full of enchanting scenes. i feels like the magic inside the book posses me whenever i read it. and that's indeed astonishing.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
extremely descriptive book - my vocab has definitley expanded, and i thoroughly enjoyed it even though there is quite a lot of sexism in it! a very enjoyable and happy story
my only problem with this book is that the last chapter was incredibly rushed - Sir Benjamin's wedding and the Old Pastor's wedding took up two paragraphs and i think it was a bad contrast to the amount of detail in the rest of the book. then, Maria and Robin's wedding was described in a huge amount of detail? i felt the last chapter was not nearly as strong as the rest. it was also quite unrealistic - the bad guys giving up straight away and 'forgive and forget'
all in all it was a very good book and would highly recommend!!
my only problem with this book is that the last chapter was incredibly rushed - Sir Benjamin's wedding and the Old Pastor's wedding took up two paragraphs and i think it was a bad contrast to the amount of detail in the rest of the book. then, Maria and Robin's wedding was described in a huge amount of detail? i felt the last chapter was not nearly as strong as the rest. it was also quite unrealistic - the bad guys giving up straight away and 'forgive and forget'
all in all it was a very good book and would highly recommend!!
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Charming and slightly whimsical, thought not without regular reminders for girls to be quiet and keep both their emotions and curiosity curbed.
The plot didn't begin until half way through the book. It was quite a fantastical tale though and I'm sure younger readers would quite enjoy it.
At first I had a hard time getting in to the book because it is different from the movie. I saw the movie long before I ever read the book and it has always been one of my favorite's and now this book is definitely a favorite too. I personally like the differences between the book and the movie both are great in there own way. I liked the small romance with Ms. H (I'm not going to try and spell her name cause I don't know how). Robin was awesome and so was the scene where him and Maria fight, I wish that would have been in the movie. Only one thing really bothered me about the book, I seem to recall at the beginning of the book it says Maria is 13 and then at the end of the book she's getting married a year later. Please correct me if I'm wrong because that's just crazy. Anyway, other that that, I loved it!