The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge -- spoiler warning

[samnanya]

No: HPFGUIDX 84330

moorequests
---------------
Would you mind pointing me and the list in the general
direction of the interview where she told us this? I'm
particularly interested in her 'literary tracks', since
as an author, I know that anything we read in childhood
will affect us greatly down the line. 


Samnanya
---------------
Though I dont currently have the time to find the exact
interview, JKR's comments are right there on the lower
left front cover of the Penguin paperback edition of TLWH
(ISBN 0 14 2230027 6) --

 "I absolutely adored the Little White Horse" - 
J. K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter books.

Since JKR or her lawyers don't yet own Penguin Books I
assume that the quote is legitimate.

I have not quite finished reading TLWH yet but there are
a lot of VERY interesting parallells to HP -- I will post
a far more detaliled post once I have digested the book.
For now, the TLWH reader will find ....

an orphaned child with special heritage
detailed descriptions of characters appearance
detailed descriptions of objects
tons of references to moons and silver
very clever animals who arent what they seem
unusually smart cat
special archways and veil
a manor with unusual objects
a castle
"only the moon can banish the blackness of night"
prophecies about the Moon Princess
special mirror
the evils and consequences of not controlling one's temper
dichotomy - "we are really all of us two people"
a "living" chess set
"I don't believe ___ is a ___ at all! (S)he's a _____!"
a peace-loving whomping willow
a critter with a powerful tail  (Fawkeslike at end of CoS)
"shooting out such terrifying flames of fire from h**
great green eyes"
an archaic dated writing style, but still endearing story
and a VERY interesting ending .......

That said, I think that TLWH influenced the magical nature
of the HP world, but JKR updated and changed so much that 
most readers (except for people like me who have too much 
time on their hands) won't find very many overt connections
between the plots and characters of the books. More like
what one would find if JKR had put her memories of TLWH
in a pensieve that was vigorously shaken, but not stirred. 

I left in this reference to new group for the interested ----

moorequests
-------------
If literary parallels really intrigue you, I have started
a group for discussing them as they relate to Harry Potter.
Anyone is welcome, but keep in mind it's not a general
Harry Potter list. No messages will be censored, but we may
bore those not interested in going into the minutae of a
writer's life and J.K. Rowling's unconcious mind. It's here: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Writers_Group/join

Samnanya