#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge discussion

Looking forward to a great year of reading <3

And my library actually has this book and it is now waiting for me at the library, mind you, I had to order it almost 3 weeks ago. :)

I have never read either the January or the February book choices. :)

I think I own a pretty antique style copy of the second book, but not this one. I’ll have to go to the bookstore soon and see if I can find a pretty copy of this one! This is another book that’s been on my short list for years, but I never got around to. Excited to start the year off with some good books!

I'm in! I will be picking up my copy later this week!

I’m so sad! I can’t find a pretty copy! But it was definitely not the Curdie book I had a pretty copy of, so it’s ok, I guess! It was Freckles I was thinking of. This series and that author get recommended a lot together in a FB group I’m in and I’ve never read either, so I guess I confused them. Oh well. I’ll either borrow a copy or read it on Kindle. Grateful for the push to finally read this!

Oh wait! I'm writing in my planner and want to confirm that Pippi is Feb and not Birchbark House. I wasn't sure what we finally decided in the other thread. Thanks!

I am trying to read so many books at the same time, but this book has been on my TBR for years. I hope to get to this book this month. I have always wanted to read this book for awhile but kept putting it off.

Glad you're doing this one! I'll definitely check in to read comments, and I should be up for re reading it too. And the sequel is great, by the way, if quite different from book 1.

No mistake! I just wanted to confirm so I could get it right on my planner! Thanks!

I’m only half way through. Plan to finish today or tomorrow. I feel the same as you. It didn’t grab me. I recently read The Wilderking trilogy, which is a modern series, and this felt so much like that. I didn’t enjoy that very much either. It’s the structure and way the story is told that felt similar and wasn’t as engaging as other stories. I’m interested to see how the situation with the goblins ends and how Curdie and the Princess cement their relationship (which I assume happens based on the title of book 2). So far I don’t plan to read 2 unless my kids want to do these books as a read aloud or the ending turns around and gets better. I’ll come back when I’m done and update my thoughts.

I forgot to come back when I finished! But I change my mind a little. I ended up liking it more than I was liking it half way though, but I still don't know if I'll read the second one. The thing I liked the most was the relationship between Irene and Curdie, which was developed in the second half of the book. I like his character and that title of the second book almost makes me want to read it.

I think the author was going for a really good lesson with the grandma and the thread. For those who are Christian (I think McDonald is too) it suggests a route back to God that we can't see, but can follow when we listen to Him or listen to his word. It would have worked if he didn't make the grandma so dang creepy! What the heck? And why was she kept a secret from the grown ups? I am in groups with people who won't let their kids read any books that show kids disobeying parents, like Harry Potter. I don't fall in that camp. I think kids are capable of making their own decisions without following characters in a book and are smart enough to see a bad decision when it happens. But this was extreme and I didn't like it. Why could no one see her but Irene? What does that say about the adults and others around her? It's not like Santa Claus movies where the grown ups don't believe any more and the kids help them find the magic. It was just plain weird. And then she had to keep it a secret. Grandma even asked her to. That's creepy. And grandma seemed almost evil. So I'm confused by the message McDonald was trying to send. Was it meant to be a way back to God or was grandma supposed to be creepy and maybe evil? The last part made it seem like it was a good thing that they followed her string. It saved Curdie and then Curdie was able to save her, so grandma's string had to be good. But then why was she so creepy? I guess I should stop beating the dead horse here, but it really bugged me.

The rest of it would have been good though. I think the first boring half could have been worth the end if some weird things were taken out. But it's definitely not a classic that I'd say everyone has to read and I'm not even sure I'll ever read it to my kids. I don't care if they read it when they are older, but I don't think it's one I need to read to them when there are so many other good books out there! I'm glad I finally read it though, and I'm tempted to read the second one so that I know what's in it and can say I've read the series. But it's not a priority. We'll see!

TPATG is one of my all time favourites. I just finished a re read of it, and find it hard to see how anyone could dislike it, but I suppose classics are going to mean different things to different people-children's classics as much as any others.

Re. the old princess Irene, it's not so much a case of adults not being able to see her, as childlike faith being needed to be aware of her presence. Remember, even a good character such as Curdie can't see her at first due to a lack of simple faith, whereas his mother could (or at least could see the light of her lamp, and found no difficulty in believing the story which Curdie dismissed as nonsense.) And although most of the adults in the castle are ignorant of her existence, Irene's king-papa is reassured when he learns she is watching over his daughter. To me, creepiness is the last thing I would attribute to her, though certainly she is mysterious-something like the Holy Spirit perhaps, who even Christians see as more nebulous than the other persons in the trinity: i.e., Father and Son.

I'm almost certain the young Irene is a prototype for Lucy Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia, and there too (in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) there's the dichotomy between the childlike and unchildlike, rather than between children and adults per se. Lucy is the first to enter Narnia through the wardrobe, but her siblings (even the good ones) don't believe her, and the one who corrects them, like Curdie's mother, is a grown-up: the old professor who takes them in after they're evacuated from London during the war.

Anyway, The Princess and Curdie is just as good, but a bit more adult-themed, and with a slightly higher reading level. And then there's the third (unrelated) fantasy novel by MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind, which is referenced in. L M Montgomery's "Anne" series, so I'll throw that out as a recommendation, though to give you fair warning, North Wind herself is every bit as weird (and wonderful, but that's my opinion) as Irene's great great grannie...

David, that is so interesting. I don't see how she could NOT be creepy. Haha. I'm going to have to re-read those early chapters when she is introduced and see if I change my mind. The last half of the book seemed so different and she's not creepy there. I saw that parallels trying to be made. Or I assumed that's what was trying to be said. But the first half just seemed so strange and creepy.

Shannon, I forgot to say that yes, I'd love to read more fairy tales. I always enjoy reading them as an adult and getting to study them more than I did as a child.

Ashley wrote: "David, that is so interesting. I don't see how she could NOT be creepy. Haha. I'm going to have to re-read those early chapters when she is introduced and see if I change my mind. The last half of ..."

Well I suppose if we go with my Holy Spirit analogy, it's less surprising that people might be weirded out by the old woman, since something/someone so far out of our ken could easily have that effect on us. And if you're fairly new to fairy tales, that might also be a reason for not being altogether comfortable with her. The "wise woman" (not infrequently one with a spinning wheel) is one of those MacDonald tropes that just seem natural to me, but may be far less so to someone reading him for the first time. In fact, he has a short story with that name, "The Wise Woman", and she may seem yet stranger and "creepier" than old Irene, because the latter is just very mysterious, whereas the former could actually seem menacing before you know her intentions.

To use another Narnia reference (which is always apt in this context, since Lewis was so influenced by MacDonald) these characters are rather like Aslan, who "isn't tame", but is definitely and unwaveringly "good." The Horse and his Boy may be the best example of Aslan acting in odd ways to begin with, before you know what he's up to...but then you don't actually know that it *is* Aslan to begin with, and by the time his identity is revealed, his behaviour makes a lot more sense!