The Little Lame Prince and The Adventures of a Brownie

by Mulock

In these two tales a brownie makes friends with two small children and a handicapped boy goes on wonderful journeys with his magic traveling cloak.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Classics, Classic Literature

Hardcover

Published April 1, 1977

Reviews

[Riley G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not yet finished The Adventures of a Brownie, so I will come back to that once I get to the end..

.............

But first, The Little Lame Prince!!! Can I just say, I, a seventeen-year-old girl, enjoy Children's Literature more now than I did at seven? It's true. The book did not catch my eye so much as a littler kid.

This story is SO SWEET! So sad, but SO SO SO SO VERY SWEET. I was so upset that he was locked in the Hopeless Tower, but watching him float away to see the world on his traveling cloak was always satisfying. I felt a bit of me get disappointed when he was ready to come home.

The godmother was amazing. She took such good care of Dolor, and he loved noone but her. That is so sweet.

The ending is a bittersweet one, as is the whole book, but especially the ending. It is kind of hard for me to imagine the tiny little boy at the beginning to be an old man at the end, though I imagine he kept the childish look in his eye, even as an adult and king.

One thing I adore about children's literature is the writing style. It is simple, yes. But the simple writing style is magical, beautiful, and sweet. I mean, yeah, I love the writing style of Crime and Punishment, and Jane Eyre too, but in a completely different way. I think I will love children's novels even when I'm an old lady.

[Kasandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and charming, delightful illustrations and life lessons, surprising humor, wry observations. Lots of fairy godmothers in this collection of stories, who turn into talking animals and give out magic tools. I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did; bought it for .50 at a library sale because it reminded me of the large hardcover or leather-bound children's storybooks with full page color illustrations that I loved as a child (and still do). I'd intended to donate this one after reading, but it charmed me so much, I decided to keep it.

[Roseamber Sumner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a find in an antique store on my road trip through Colorado last month. I was fully expecting the old fashioned racism, sexism and formulaic plotlines that so many old children's books unfortunately have (including, dare I say it, most of the Oz books, of which I have read many). But I was very pleasantly surprised. Mrs. Craik is a good writer with a way of serving up a moral fable quite deliciously. The illustrations are great, I found a real treasure for my amateur kids' book collection.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prince Dolor knows nothing of the world, hidden away in a tower with only a nurse for company. He knows he is a prince, but he does not know what it means, or that he has a kingdom to rule over. It is not fit for a lame prince to rule, for nothing should be wrong with royalty. But as Prince Dolor grows older, he begins to wonder: is there more to life, than his hidden tower?


I wasn’t sure what to expect, when I started reading this book, but I still found myself surprised. This story is written almost as a fairy tale, and seemed almost like a mesh of Aladdin and Rapunzel. I did enjoy it, and it was a quick read. I loved the matter of fact way the author spoke, and how she intruded on the story at times.

However, this story could get a little boring at times. I understand this is for little kids, but there was nothing really going on, and the conflict was resolved way too easily, without Prince Dolor needing to do anything.

So, it was a nice story, and the writing was fun, but nothing really happened.



I do plan on reading the rest of the stories in this book, so I will add the reviews for those in then.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a fan of this Brownie. He's mean. Oh, and also, the book is very sexist and dated. I wouldn't have a problem with it except it keeps on referring to children as "little people" which for some reason annoys me immensely. Maychance because I keep picturing "little people" as in...midgets. Also there are like...a ton of stories in this book in addition to "The Lame Little Prince" and "The Adventures of Brownie" which are all equally as dated and annoying but also appealing in that weird way that fairy tales are appealing and also mildly annoying. My favorite story was the last one (even though I'm not a fan of any of their morals).

EDIT:
Actually, I'm okay with the outdated morals. They're charming.

[Tobinsfavorite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book! It started with such promise, but it didn't go where I wanted it to. It's a lovely little thing, nonetheless, even if it's a bit more translucent than I had hoped. (I also hadn't realized that there were two stories in my book, so the ending caught me quite by surprise.)

Now, The Adventures of a Brownie, those are some cute and wicked little tales, just enough mischief for little readers (listeners) without any real harm done. The second half of the volume surpasses the first, I think.

[Corvinus Maximilus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming story about a lame prince who learns early on that being handicapped does not mean that you cannot live life to the fullest. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was quite a paradigm shift I kept expecting his godmother to remove her magic wand and heal his leg...but she didn't, and that was quite different. All in all it is a magical tale with a very deep lesson. The Brownie adventures...nothing to bad...nothing good...(children would appreciate them though)

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Words like "bland" and "inoffensive" come to mind. The first part, "The Little Lame Prince," is a dragged-out, derivative fairy tale with pretensions to allegory that are not fully realized. The Brownie stories are cute little thinigs about the eponymous sprite and the mild mischief he gets up to. Utterly forgettable.

[Kathy Kattenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over and over as a young child. I still have it, and it's one of the very few original copies of books I read as a child that I still have.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute. I love any story with a brownie in it. :)

[Mtcarlo38]

Excellent - excellent reading start to finish ... recommended for all ages

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this among my mother's books after she passed away, and vaguely remember her reading the first story ("The Little Lame Prince") to me when I was a child. That first story still has some charm to it, but it is written in a stilted old-fashioned style and has some rather glaring logical absurdities. (Example: the little prince has a magical cloak that allows him to fly anywhere, but when his caretaker abandons him in his prison tower, he assumes he is trapped and will die there.)

The group of stories about the mischievous Brownie also have charm, but are filled with gender stereotypes that made me wince. And the final two stories about princes/princesses and a bit gruesome, perhaps trying a little too hard to be high adventure stories.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute stories that teach a lesson without being obnoxious about it. I especially liked how the children in both stories were allowed to be mostly good and a little bad sometimes, but still considered good children. DMM was very forgiving of children for being children, and very positive about their abilities and behavior.

The Little Lame Prince was a beautiful story about growing up and forgiveness. The Adventures of a Brownie was a fun collection of fairly independent short stories that teach about manners and doing your work well.

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very old-fashioned, but I liked them.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Adventures of a Brownie was our favorite!

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The young listeners very much enjoyed the story of the Little Lame Prince, though I don't know whether they got the moral message. As for me, I could do without the author's asides.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never heard of this author. This was a collection of fairy tales from long ago. It included Prince Cherry, The Prince With the Nose, and The Invisible Prince. Enjoyable

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super cool old find. Fun fairy godmother stories and lots of cool illustrations. A very pretty book!

[Allison Dye]

"How nice it must be to be a bird. If legs are no good, why cannot one have wings?" The Little Prince



The little lame prince chapter four page 43 by Dinah Mulock

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I don't suppose you could ever find two leaves exactly alike, in form, colour, and size-- no more than you could find two faces alike, or two characters exactly the same. The plan of this world is infinite similarity and yet infinite variety.



The little lame prince chapter six page 67 by Dinah Mulock



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And when he was left alone at last, and crept into his little bed, where he lay asked a good while, watching what he called his "sky garden", all planted with stars, like flowers...



The little lame prince chapter five page 57 by Dinah Mulock



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The sense of the inevitable, as grown-up people call it-- that we cannot have things as we want them to be, but as they are, and that we must mean not to bear them and make the best of them-- this lesson, which everybody has to learn soon or late-- came, alas! sadly soon, to the poor boy.



The little lame prince chapter four page 48 by Dinah Mulock



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When we see people suffering or unfortunate, we feel very sorry for them; but when we see them bravely bearing their sufferings, and making the best of their misfortunes, it is quite a different feeling. We respect, we admire them. One can respect even a little child.



The little lame prince chapter five page 53 by Dinah Mulock



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There is something which we listen to daily and never notice. I mean the sounds of the visible world, animate and inanimate. Winds blowing, waters flowing, trees stirring, insects whirring, (dear me! I am quite unconsciously writing rhyme), with the various cries of birds and beasts-- lowing cattle, bleating sheep, grunting pigs, and calling hens-- all the infinite discords somehow or other make a beautiful harmony.



Chapter six page 68



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