The Little White Horse

I knew going into reading The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge was going to be different from the movie that is based off of it, The Secret of Moonacre, but I didn't know it was going to be completely different!  I'm not sure that anything is the same except for the names of the characters and the name of the setting, Moonacre Valley.  How did I know that it was going to be different?  Well, I am certain that I caught a few negative reviews of the movie that stated that it was, and I figured, well, normally movies are different from the books that are based on them and just shrugged my shoulders in a "eh whatever" movement.


Now that it took me a few weeks to finish the book (the difficulties of having a 6 month old do not outweigh the joys), I can honestly say that the book and the movie are different as different can be.  I have to say that I did enjoy the movie, even though I felt that it had serious issues (read my review of it here), and the same goes for the book.  Overall I feel like for the length of the book, hardly anything happened in it.  There was a serious over use of the words, "silver, silvery and silvered", and a lot more description of landscape then I am used to, mostly because the land was another character, at least that's the reasoning I am sure lovers of this work would say.  Not to mention the number of times the word "ejaculate" is in the book, which I understand just shows the year it was written, as I'm aware that it means the same thing as exclaim but it just shocked me.  :)


Since I couldn't help but spend the entire time that I was reading comparing the movie and the book I'm going to list the differences, there's many.


In the book there is no curse, Uncle Benjamin is a fat older gentleman not the striking face of Ioan Gruffudd, Miss Heliotrope does NOT marry Digweed but marries the Old Parson who happens to be her first love.  Robin is not a De Noir but is Loveday's son.  There is no weird gifting of a Black Lion and Unicorn as wedding gifts between the two families.  It's just SO different that it made my head spin.  These aren't even all the differences, but I don't want to give too much away.


It was worth reading, but I wouldn't read it again.

Ioan Gruffudd

Title:  The Little White Horse

Author:  Elizabeth Goudge

Ideal Age Range:  Middle School

Mass Market Paperback:  238 pages

Copyright Date:  1946

Blurb: "When orphaned young Maria Merryweather arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels as if she's entered Paradise.  Her new guardian, her uncle Sir Benjamin, is kind and funny; the Manor itself feels like home right away; and every person and animal she meets is like an old friend.  But there is something incredibly sad beneath all of this beauty and comfort-a tragedy that happened years ago, shadowing Moonacre Manor and the town around it-and Maria is determined to learn about it, change it, and give her own life story a happy ending  But what can one solitary girl do?

My Rating:(★★)  

Quotes:  

"Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people - those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment, and those who find comfort in food;" 

☆«·´`·.¸★☆★¸.·´`·»☆

My Rating System:

★ = didn’t like it

★★ = it was ok

★★★ = liked it

★★★★ = really liked it

★★★★★ = it was amazing

© demureconnoisseur/ Stacy Grey