The Little White Horse

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Cleanliness: there is a fairy-tale-like magic that is not explained with any real detail, and encompasses an old legend. Mentions alcohol and smoking. There are several romantic stories (one between tweens), none of which are mushy or detailed. Stott, Siân (27 July 2009). "The Secret of Moonacre, DVD review". The Telegraph . Retrieved 15 September 2019. So could her preoccupation with food. In all the Famous Five books their picnic’s and slap up meals with lashings of ginger beer are lovingly described. Loveday Minette – Sir Benjamin's ex-fiancée. She is known in the book to have a passion for pink geraniums. When their argument broke out about the geraniums, she left Moonacre and got married in town to a lawyer. In the movie she is Robins older sister and was Benjimens ex fiancée but they end up together in the end.

Badass Preacher: Old Parson. Admittedly, he's only badass in the context of the book, but it's enough. Well, with regard to textual descriptiveness, Elizabeth Goudge’s 1946 The Little White Horse definitely reads like an on the surface most delightful plate of richly flavoured food, appealing to all of my senses and also making me very much and very strongly understand why The Little White Horse is such an enduring classic and fondly remembered by many (including it seems Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who considers The Little White Horse as a personal favourite). And yes, if I had in fact encountered The Little White Horse during my own childhood, I would more than likely have been willing to for the most part focus on how beautifully lush and nuanced Elizabeth Goudge’s descriptions are and to also have been able pretty much ignore the oh so very many elements of pedantic didacticism (as well as the rather inherent and ever-present misogyny) of much of The Little White Horse.The Secret of Moonacre". Toronto International Film Festival 2008. Archived from the original on 6 September 2008 . Retrieved 20 September 2019. And, like the best of fairy tales, it has a few flaws that might disturb readers. One is Maria’s statement that she will marry Robin—this because Maria is only thirteen when she says this, and has not exactly had a huge opportunity to marry other people. It doesn’t exactly help that the book states that they marry about a year later, when Maria is fourteen and Robin about the same age, perhaps a couple of years older. That may have been an error on the writer’s part, and in any case, Maria sometimes seems a bit older than her actual age, and the marriage is an extremely happy one, with plenty of children. Has been adapted into both a live-action TV series, Moonacre, and a movie, The Secret of Moonacre. The latter was directed by Gabor Csupo of Bridge to Terabithia fame, and while it is an enjoyable movie in its own right, it plays up the more overt fantasy elements of the book with Maria now having to force the two families together, before the 5000th moon since the curse was laid upon the family destroys Moonacre Valley. It also eliminates any reference to Old Parson (or the surrounding village) and re-tools the character of Robin into being the Big Bad's son. Oh, and it has Tim Curry as the Big Bad, Coeur de Noir. Mr. Exposition: In the book, it's Old Parson that explains the Merryweather family history and the bad blood between Wrolf Merryweather and William De Noir.

sometimes in her dreams at night she stood beneath the branches of a mysterious wood, and looked down a moonlit glade, her eyes straining after something that she could not see. And when she woke up, there would be tears on her cheeks because her longing had been unsatisfied. Her first encounter with her larger than life cousin, a “Sun Merryweather” is memorable. “He was so tall and so broad that seemed to fill the big door way. His face was round and red and clean shaven, and his big hooked nose put Miss Heliotrope’s entirely in the shade. he had three double chins, a large smiling mouth, and twinkling eyes of a warm tawny-brown, almost lost beneath bushy white eyebrows. His clothes, most scrupulously cared for, were very old fashioned and most oddly assorted He had a huge white wig like a cauliflower on his head, and his double chins were propped by a cravat of Honiton lace.” (Goudge 1948 p.17). His kindness. love and warm welcome to the stranger that is his cousin Maria endears her to him instantly, and they continue to become closer and more indispensable to each other as the story progresses. The story opens with the red haired orphan Maria and her Governess Miss Heliotrope going to live with Maria’s cousin Sir Benjamin Merryweather after the death of her father which had left “so many debts that everything he possessed, including the beautiful London house with the fanlight over the door and the tall windows looking out over the garden of the quiet London Square, where Maria had lived through out the whole of her short life, had had to be sold to pay them.”(Goudge. 1946 p3) In part this is because, as it turns out, the villains of the piece are not actually the real villains. The actual villains are something more subtle: bad tempers, holding grudges, not making amends for wrongs. And so, Maria’s goal quest is less to defeat the supposed villains, and more to bargain with them—and learning to overcome significant character flaws along the way. (She doesn’t manage to overcome all of them—it’s not that much of a fairy tale.) Winning the Carnegie Medal in 1946, The Little White Horse went on to be translated into many languages. In 1994, it was adapted into the television mini-series Moonacre, and in 2008 into the film The Secret of Moonacre

Marmaduke Scarlet – Sir Benjamin's cook and housekeeper. Also the owner of Zachariah the cat. He does not like feminine curiosity and sees his kitchen as a private domain. He is a wonderful chef. Nice to Maria. The first time I read this children's classic, I was bowled over by the magical world that Goudge created. It was the sheer gorgeousness of the details of it which really registered with me. This time, I think I've reflected more on the theme of reconciliation/reunion which takes places on so many different levels and in all of the relationships in the book. That process is not just about forgiveness, either; it also requires making some very concrete reparations.