The Enchanted Places: Beyond the World of Pooh, Part 1 (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

The first book was interesting; so much so that I was quite annoyed that so much of it had been edited out. Obviously, the first book, in which Milne tells us what it was like to be the real Christopher Robin, was always going to be the most appealing; everyone wants to know about where Pooh really came from and what he and C.R. really got up to in the Hundred Acre Wood.

But as "Beyond the world of Pooh" progressed it got more and more aimless and uninteresting. Once Milne has told us (in barely more than a few paragraphs in this edition) of his wartime exploits, and then how he went on to open his bookshop, there's not much more to tell. He appears to promise to tell us about his relationship with his handicapped daughter, but never delivers; a missed opportunity to bring some life into the story. Nothing much happens, and the book stagnates.

Of course, it was Milne's right, after a lifetime of being branded with the "Christopher Robin is saying his prayers" image of him created by the media, to retire to a quiet and uneventful life.

But did he have to write a book about it?

You see, not everyone is concerned merely with either the Pooh Books or the boy who inspired the character Christopher Robin. I should know. Christopher Robin was not merely a character I enjoyed; he was my childhood alter ego, to a degree many of my readers may find hard to imagine. And yet, I knew there was a real boy behind the story, that he and I were much alike on many fundamental levels, and that I would be much interested in learning more about him. When I bought Christopher Milne's original volumes, I was happily flabbergasted to see how dead-on my intuition about him had been. Both as children and as adults, we indeed had much in common, and quite likely would have been good friends had we grown up in the same time and place.

I am far from being the pantheistic humanist that Christopher Milne became, or that A.A. Milne was before him. He says, candidly, that he never met the Christian God he heard about in church. But had I not become a Christian, I too would have become a pantheistic humanist, and for very similar reasons. I can sympathize with his viewpoint, even if I believe I can refute it. All in all, I found the original trilogy enjoyable and even challenging reading, and I'm sure I'd find the "condensed version" so as well. (Now if only someone could show me Lesley Milne's introduction to this volume...)