This Month's Books - January 2006

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
An enjoyable read, but a little disappointing. It's a fantasy set in the land of Prydain, which somewhat resembles ancient Wales, and the characters and mythos are to an extent inspired by old Welsh legends. It has lots of Welsh names too, of course, which are simply scrumptious. The story is about Taran, an Assistant Pig-Keeper, and his search for an oracular pig which draws him a bit deeper into things than he intended. It's lighthearted (the tone is closer to The Hobbit than LotR) and there's plenty of humor. Some things (in my opinion) didn't fit the mythos and the book as a whole seemed a little...loose? I'm not sure that's the right word for it. Still a good read, and recommended if nothing else as the introduction to the Prydain series (which admittedly I have not finished).


The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
The second book in the Prydain series. Also very enjoyable, and I liked it better than the first. Taran and the friends he made in the last book are part of a quest to find and destroy the Black Cauldron of Annuvin. The characters, both new and old, are good, and one in particular I liked very much (Adaon). The plot too seemed to move better than the last book. And of course, more Welsh names. :D


To Have and To Hold by Mary Johnston
An adventure set in early colonial America. Ralph Percy, a retired soldier, marries in haste and is like to repent at leisure. He gets no leisure (let's just say the Pirates and Indians saw to that) and does not repent, but he does make at least two good friends and two dangerous enemies. The story is romantic--in the way Robert Louis Stevenson's stories are romantic--and has romance also. I enjoyed it a lot, but it kept me up a' nights because I didn't want to put it down.


Farmer Giles of Ham by John Tolkien
An account of the great deeds of Farmer Giles, accidental protector of Ham against giants, dragons, and other nuisances. It is a short book, but there is more of Tolkien's humor than even in The Hobbit, which makes it a lot of fun.


Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson
Actually a re-read, but I understood it far more this time through. This is Tennyson's version of King Arthur. Most of the stories are different from the accounts in Malory or Pyle, and a lot of stories are left out. But Tennyson's version is more coherent overall: the changes all seem to have been made with a specific end in mind. He modified plots and events to "fix" them so that everything works to move the story, and each individual story is part of the larger story of the rise and downfall of Arthur and the Round Table. This larger story is an explanation, almost a musing, on how the lies of Vivien and the illicit relationship of Lancelot and Guinevere destroyed the realm from the inside. The downfall is appropriately sad, in a thoughtful way, but it begins before the halfway point and it's a little difficult to get through so much downfalling. The atmosphere has almost no traces left of the old Welsh and English legends, which is unfortunate, but the book is still well worth reading (especially for a lover of Arthurian legend like me). "Gareth and Lynette" (the story of Beaumains the Kitchen Knight), "Geraint and Enid," and "Lancelot and Elaine" are the best of the stories in my opinion.

Because of the changes Tennyson made, this seems to me the most likely of all the versions of King Arthur to be made into a film. The stories have already been adapted to fit more modern sensibilities and they "make sense" more than the old versions, at least according to film standards. (I wouldn't mind going deeper into Tennyson's changes, the history of Arthurian legends, and King Arthur in general, but this isn't the place to do it. Someday in another post, perhaps.)


The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis
Another re-read, this time reading it through with my mom. This is one of those books that really require several readings to understand. An author must always suppose that the reader has some knowledge, but this book "seems to presuppose one's having mastered almost the whole intellectual history of the West."¹

The story, like the Pilgrim's Progress, is an allegory about a man's journey through life. But this particular man ("John" in the book) often represents Lewis himself, and the Regress is about his journey from boyhood religion through many variations of Atheism to true Christianity. (Compare this with the Progress, which is about the Christian walk--life after becoming a Christian.) Consequently, the Regress is a study of different worldviews and their insufficiency to explain the world. It is also about Joy, that desire for something outside this world, and about the two great errors of mankind--roughly Atheism and Superstition, or pure intellect versus pure emotion. It goes very deep sometimes. It helps if you know something about C.S. Lewis's own life, so I might suggest reading a biography first. But I certainly recommend The Pilgrim's Regress--not just as an aid to understanding Lewis's own life, but as an enlightening look at philosophy and worldviews.



¹ "Review by Thomas Howard published in Cornerstone Magazine
Chairman, the Department of English, St. John's Seminary College, Boston
Author of The Literary Legacy of C.S. Lewis"