The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis will be well known to many. A magical world of classic fantasy written for children, but enjoyable to any age group.
I am rereading the entire series and sharing succinct spoiler-free reviews. If you want some background to Narnia – it’s all in the first book review.
The reading order is open to debate. However, it’s being done in (Narnian) chronological order – and not the date they were published: The Magician’s Nephew (1955), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), The Horse and His Boy (1954), Prince Caspian (1951), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953) and The Last Battle (1956).
Review Number: 18 (2 in Narnia series)
Review Date: 29 July 2020
Title: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Author: C. S. Lewis
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: 1950
Genre: Fantasy
“All shall be done,” said Aslan. “But it may be harder than you think.”
Without doubt this is the most famous of all the Narnia novels – and it’s probably one of the greatest children’s books of all time alongside Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
Set 40 years (in Earth time) after the events of The Magician’s Nephew, four spirited and intelligent children are evacuated from London in 1940 to get away from the air raids.
In their temporary home courtesy of a kindly professor, these siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie – naturally have a wander and play games.
It’s the youngest child, Lucy, who enters the world first via the famous and magical wardrobe. It’s then onto the memorable sight of an old lamppost in the middle of a snow-covered forest. There she meets the nervy faun Mr Tumnus and they head off to have a chat and a cup of tea.
This is what makes The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe so engaging and charming. Things happen, chances are taken, mistakes can be made, but characters don’t spend four pages agonising over everything.
The other children join later and the action heats up. They may not know it but their Narnia is 1,000 years on from what Polly and Digory experienced in The Magician’s Nephew.
In this tale the quartet encounter one of literature’s great villains, the White Witch. Her nefarious power has plunged Narnia into chilly times – “always winter but never Christmas”.
With the wardrobe and the witch out the way, we know that the hero, Aslan the lion, is coming. It’s the classic tale of good versus evil.
The whole book is superior to the first one (which was very good) and can be read as a standalone story. Lewis makes a few religious points but the characters are all so lively and the adventure so pacy, it’s a brilliant and brief read.
Funnily enough, back in 1950 the initial response to Lewis’ work was a bit muted. But things changed and people eventually woke up and quite rightly began to appreciate this fantasy classic.
“Indeed, don’t try to get there at all. It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it. And don’t talk too much about it even among yourselves. And don’t mention it to anyone else unless you find that they’ve had adventures of the same sort themselves. What’s that? How will you know? Oh, you’ll know all right.“