Prince Caspian, Book Review Example

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is a children novel by C. S. Lewis, written in 1949 and originally published in 1951. It is the second book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, while in the general chronological order it comes fourth. Prince Caspian, the lawful Telmarine King, who eventually becomes King of Narnia, also reappears in the next two books in the series: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair, putting a short appearance in the end of The Last Battle. The author initially brings in Caspian as the young nephew and heir to King Miraz of Narnia. Little prince is brought up in ignorance of what is truly going on in the kingdom of Narnia. However, with doctor Cornelius being appointed as his tutor, Caspian starts to find out the true facts of his uncle’s misdeeds. Fleeing from the castle for the sake of own life, Caspian go through numerous adventures and eventually becomes King Caspian X.

Prince Caspian has some kind of connection with the world of ours. When facing Narnia in crisis and being in extreme need for help he calls for Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, four earthly British children who live ordinary lives and yet are somehow able to help this fictional realm out of a catastrophe. They don’t appear to him immediately though, and when he at last runs into them, he’s dissatisfied. “I thought you’d be older,” he tells them, obviously taken aback by his “saviors” young age. His expectations of our world are quite fantastic. We see him as an ordinary teenager, believing that somewhere there is a better world where true heroes are in power, and he puts too much trust in the fairytales he is fed with from early childhood.

Therefore, Prince Caspian is a teenager, and he behaves as one in most situations, even though he is a prince and an heir of a Narnia throne. Through Caspian’s character we actually observe a quite commonplace story of how individuality is formed at young age. “‘Caspian’ is a coming-of-age and, to some degree, loss-of-innocence story,” Adamson says, “with Caspian starting out quite naïve, then craving revenge and finally letting go of the vengeance.”  (Character Guide from Prince Caspian) His situation is exceptional, since he faces crisis when still being an adolescent. He has to fight for own life, he has few people he can trust. In fact, he is totally deprived of a normal childhood, he grows up being surrounded by lies and danger, and he cannot escape from responsibilities being imposed on him by birth.

Prince Caspian is very much like an ordinary human of a specific age. He is a really nice young man, who is very sensitive to others’ feelings and is quite intelligent. He is attractive, as princes are usually supposed to be, good-looking and physically fit. No doubt he is very brave, and is already getting rather masculine. He is a typical prince in fact, however the one who is not yet mature, self-confident and independent, but the one who is still in process of becoming a man. Observing his current behaviour, we naturally expect him to grow into someone truly worthy. As to me, he doesn’t differ much from other princes that we meet in various fairytales and fiction novels. He possesses most of the qualities typical princes are supposed to have. However, I like him, and have enjoyed his adventures when reading the book. He appears to be so real at moments that he actually serves to increase story’s plausibility. It is believed that Lewis’ fiction communicates some sort of religious implication. If that is truly so, Prince Caspian’s character contributes to making the story look like an analogy to true historical events where humans, not some mystical creatures, are involved.

Works Cited

“Character Guide from Prince Caspian.” Film Grenade. 10 Apr. 2008. 6 Nov. 2009. < http://www.filmgrenade.com/?p=1128 >.

Lewis, Clive S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Prince Caspian.  New York: HarperFestival, 2008.

“Prince Caspian – Chronicles of Narnia 4. C.S. Lewis Book Review.” AllReaders.com. 6 Nov. 2009. <http://www.allreaders.com/topics/info_3527.asp>.

The Chronicles of Narnia. Prince Caspian. Dir. Andrew Adamson. Digital Video Disk. Walt Disney Video, 2008.