The little white horse

CLM at Staircase Wit said her sentimental favorite childhood book is The Little White Horse, so I found a copy and spent a day reading it.

The Little White Horse is the story of Maria and her governess, Miss Heliotrope, and Maria's dog, Wiggins, who go to live with Maria's cousin, Sir Benjamin, after the death of Maria's father. There are troubles at Maria's new home, the family estate called Moonacre, and it soon becomes clear that it is up to Maria to fix the problems there.

I loved the way all the little incidents in the story fit together beautifully, like the pieces of a puzzle. The story was lit from within by a sense of enchantment, a feeling of the magical, and the little white horse was central to that feeling. But even the smaller parts of the story—even the initial meeting between Maria and her cousin—had a shimmer of magic to it in the way that the two took to each other on first sight. Maria and Miss Heliotrope were described as ordinary, dull even, and yet as they came to live at Moonacre and came to enjoy their new lives, the two changed to present a beautiful appearance.

I can easily see why this is a beloved story.

One of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.