By C. S. Lewis
THE SHORT
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was originally the first book to be published in The Chronicles of Narnia series. Needless to say, the reason for its success was Lewis's ability to transport the reader to another fantasy world. Narnia is extremely creative, and Lewis' imagination in creating a new land, not so different from his friend Tolkien's Middle-earth, is brought to life and fleshed out brilliantly by Lewis' writing. The plot moves steadily along, although the climax is a bit rushed and readers feel rather put out by the lack of description of the action in the great battle. The first part of the novel is a bit slow paced, and it is only at the end that things really start to speed up. However, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an amazing novel nonetheless.
THE REVIEW
The main character, or should I say characters (because really, there are four of them and Lewis just doesn't know who to focus on), are very underdescribed. We never truly get to know through Lewis' writing, and he doesn't give us a description, just plunges into the story without letting us get to know them first. The characters display relatively little emotion in the story, and Lewis makes things rather clear and obvious instead of hiding behind layers and layers of text. (SPOILER ALERT) For example, when Aslan is killed by the Witch, Lucy and Susan don't go into a state of shock, or 'sit there wondering what to do while the world around them seemed to freeze into small little chunks'. Lewis doesn't really know how to describe well, so he has to resort to "they burst out crying again". (ALERT OVER) While this may make the book easy to read for young readers, older ones may feel like this is too simple for them. Nevertheless, the characters are interesting ones, especially Edmund, who develops a lot over the course of the book.
Which brings me to my next point: Development of characters. Edmund really is the only one who undergoes development at all. Lewis has too many characters on his hands, and as such doesn't know who to focus on. At first, it's Lucy, and then Edmund, and then the trio of Lucy, Susan and Peter, and finally at the end it's just a jumble of all of them mixed together. The classic "too-many-characters" syndrome strikes again. As such, the four of them are no more than paper cut-outs, 2D pictures of themselves.
Next, let's look at the antagonist, the White Witch, and the saviour, Aslan the Lion. The Witch never actually does anything to earn our hatred, except for turn it winter and turn people into stone. She never allows to feel that strike of fear when ever you hear her name, unlike what Tolkien did with Sauron and Rowling did with Voldemort. Sure, sure, it's a kid's book, but one wishes she could have been more evil. Aslan, is, as always, the pure and good, like Gandalf, or Dumbledore. His motivations and reasons for caring about Narnia is never revealed here (although it is in The Magician's Nephew), and who is the Emperor-over-the-sea anyway? Do we know? Do we care? So much potential for both of these characters, but Lewis fumbles both of them.
Next, the themes in this book: There is one rather large overarching theme in this book, and while it may not be much of a theme, it may have come from Lewis' Christianity. Yup, you guessed it, it's the striking parallels between this book and the Bible. First of all, there is Lucy. She comes back from Narnia and tells her siblings about it, much like how Jesus preached about another land, Heaven. Edmund's traitorous dealings with the Witch, telling her about Aslan, is similar to Judas' treachery and revealing to the Romans where Jesus was.
Aslan's death at the hands of the Witch is like how Jesus was crucified on the cross by the Romans, and before that, Aslan had been shaved and tied up, like how Jesus had been tortured by the Romans before his death. And again, Jesus' resurrection is exactly like Aslan's return back to life. The emperor-over-the-sea is like God, who sends Jesus down to Earth (this time, Aslan is sent to Narnia) to help the people there. Lewis manages to cram all this in a short book, and one wonders if it was his intention to simultaneously worship Christ and spread Christianity's messages.
Aslan's death at the hands of the Witch is like how Jesus was crucified on the cross by the Romans, and before that, Aslan had been shaved and tied up, like how Jesus had been tortured by the Romans before his death. And again, Jesus' resurrection is exactly like Aslan's return back to life. The emperor-over-the-sea is like God, who sends Jesus down to Earth (this time, Aslan is sent to Narnia) to help the people there. Lewis manages to cram all this in a short book, and one wonders if it was his intention to simultaneously worship Christ and spread Christianity's messages.
Let's take a look at the plot now. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has a simple plot, although Edmund's betrayal of Lucy, Susan and Peter was indeed unexpected, and that is about all the plot twists there are. Aslan's return to life, does not count, because, honestly, who didn't see that coming?
One gets the feeling that this book was more of a test, a dip of the foot in the water first to see if it was suitable, for Lewis. He really doesn't introduce that many important messages that characterize his later books, for example in The Last Battle. As such, nothing ground-breaking is introduced in this book, although it may serve as an entertaining distraction for readers. The plot moves along at a rather moderate pace, and every once in a while there is the action and the magic that is associated with fantasy books.
The pacing of the novel, however, is a flaw. For the first several chapters or so, the pace is so slow, one feels like falling asleep. Lewis builds up slowly to the part where they all arrive in Narnia. Lucy has to go to Narnia, and then Edmund, and then (finally!) they arrive at Narnia. And then, the rest of the novel is carried out at breakneck pace, so much so that Lewis doesn't have time to go through fully all the details that we had wanted to know. So he just rushes through it. The whole description of the battle only takes a few pages, mindboggling when you consider that Lucy's conversation with Mr. Tumnus alone took more pages than it, and the battle is supposed to be the climax of the book!
As for flaws in the plot, there are none, although there are some existential questions, like: If the four of them grew old in Narnia, but returned the same age in our world, then wouldn't it mean that they were old people in young kid's bodies? Did they lose all the experience they had gained in Narnia? At the beginning, the plot is stretched, like too little jam over too much bread. However, Lewis makes up for it by delivering a convincing plot later on.
All in all, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe certainly is good, it just doesn't live up to expectations. But perhaps those were set too high.
Rating: 8.2/10
Advice: Worth reading, and a brilliant introduction to fantasy. However, it's not the best example, for those of you who want hardcore fantasy. :P
Did you spot the clues I dropped earlier in the review? The subtle hints and links back to another book series...Yup, you guessed, it!
Next week: Return to another fantasy series, only one longer, and more epic: THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Prepare for the start of the journey of young Frodo Baggins across Middle-earth, to destroy the One Ring to Rule Them All, in my review of The Fellowship of the Ring: BOOK ONE. I look back on the beginning of the epic saga, and be sure to check out my review of The Fellowship of the Ring: BOOK TWO, being published the week after next! (Just to clear things up, BOOK ONE and BOOK TWO refer to the two separate parts of The Fellowship of the Ring)
One gets the feeling that this book was more of a test, a dip of the foot in the water first to see if it was suitable, for Lewis. He really doesn't introduce that many important messages that characterize his later books, for example in The Last Battle. As such, nothing ground-breaking is introduced in this book, although it may serve as an entertaining distraction for readers. The plot moves along at a rather moderate pace, and every once in a while there is the action and the magic that is associated with fantasy books.
The pacing of the novel, however, is a flaw. For the first several chapters or so, the pace is so slow, one feels like falling asleep. Lewis builds up slowly to the part where they all arrive in Narnia. Lucy has to go to Narnia, and then Edmund, and then (finally!) they arrive at Narnia. And then, the rest of the novel is carried out at breakneck pace, so much so that Lewis doesn't have time to go through fully all the details that we had wanted to know. So he just rushes through it. The whole description of the battle only takes a few pages, mindboggling when you consider that Lucy's conversation with Mr. Tumnus alone took more pages than it, and the battle is supposed to be the climax of the book!
As for flaws in the plot, there are none, although there are some existential questions, like: If the four of them grew old in Narnia, but returned the same age in our world, then wouldn't it mean that they were old people in young kid's bodies? Did they lose all the experience they had gained in Narnia? At the beginning, the plot is stretched, like too little jam over too much bread. However, Lewis makes up for it by delivering a convincing plot later on.
All in all, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe certainly is good, it just doesn't live up to expectations. But perhaps those were set too high.
Rating: 8.2/10
Advice: Worth reading, and a brilliant introduction to fantasy. However, it's not the best example, for those of you who want hardcore fantasy. :P
Did you spot the clues I dropped earlier in the review? The subtle hints and links back to another book series...Yup, you guessed, it!
Next week: Return to another fantasy series, only one longer, and more epic: THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Prepare for the start of the journey of young Frodo Baggins across Middle-earth, to destroy the One Ring to Rule Them All, in my review of The Fellowship of the Ring: BOOK ONE. I look back on the beginning of the epic saga, and be sure to check out my review of The Fellowship of the Ring: BOOK TWO, being published the week after next! (Just to clear things up, BOOK ONE and BOOK TWO refer to the two separate parts of The Fellowship of the Ring)
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