The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (#2)

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.

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)

The Magician's Nephew (#1)

By C.S. Lewis

In this book, the one that starts it all, a boy and a girl travel to another world, one where an evil witch wants to capture them. But then, they arrive in a magical world, a new one that just begun, one created by the majestic lion, Aslan.

During the summer holidays, Polly Plummer, a girl living in London, is suddenly introduced to Digory Kirke, her next door neighbour. Digory tells Polly of his father in India, and his mother being very sick. She is cared for by her sister, Aunt Letty, and her brother, Uncle Andrew. The latter, Digory feels, is an unusual person indeed, and Digory feels miserable. Through an accident, they find themselves in Uncle Andrew's secret study. To their horror, Uncle Andrew walks in and locks them inside. He offers Polly a yellow ring from a tray of rings, but when she touches it, she vanishes!

Uncle Andrew tells Digory of the box of magical powder he had received from his godmother, and how he had made contained that powder in rings, that would allow the wearer to travel to another world. Uncle Andrew figures out that the yellow rings send you to that world, and the green ones bring you back. Going to save Polly, Digory takes two green ones and puts on the yellow ring. Immediately, he seems to be travelling upwards to a green light above him, and then POP! Out he comes out of a pool, and into a quiet, and calm wood.

He finds Polly not far from the pool, and then he realises that there are many other pools in the wood, and figures out that for every pool, there must be a world below it. Marking the pool home, he and Polly jump into a random pool. They arrive in a desolate palace, and find a hall of frozen people, all sitting down. In the middle of the hall there is a bell, and Digory strikes it with a hammer. The hall crumbles, and he and Polly nearly avoid being squashed. Then, a tall and beautiful woman at the end of the hall wakes up, and she brings them out of the palace, and tells them of the history of Charn, a dying world. The woman's name is Jadis, an evil witch-queen. She demands that Digory and Polly bring her into their world, and they are aghast.

Trying to escape, they slip on their yellow rings, but Jadis holds on to them. Arriving in the woods, she seems weak, but catches Digory's ear when they jump into their pool. Uncle Andrew is surprised to see the three of them, but Jadis makes him her 'slave' and orders a 'chariot' so that she can conquer the world.

Disappearing in a cab, Jadis and Uncle Andrew go off to who knows where, and Digory waits for them, determined to catch Jadis at the first opportunity and send her back into her proper world. They finally arrive, but with Jadis whipping the horse as fast as it will go. She wrecks the cab, with Uncle Andrew inside. Polly and Digory go to the scene of the wreck, and Digory manages to catch on to the Witch's heel and Polly, holding his hand, slips on the yellow ring. Unfortunately, Jadis isn't the only one that they manage to bring to the magical wood. The horse from the cab, the horse's owner, and Uncle Andrew all vanish as well. Jumping into what they think is the pool to Charn, the whole group emerges in darkness.

Suddenly, singing erupts, and the party witness the creation of a new world. The singer is a majestic lion, and animals are created out of the ground. The world is fresh and beautiful, and peace overflows every corner of it. The lion slowly heads towards them, and Jadis screams and throws an iron bar at him. It doesn't seem to mind at all, and the iron bar grows into a lamppost. The lion chooses two animals of every species, and gives them the ability to talk. It names the land, Narnia, and reveals its name as Aslan. Wanting something to give to his mother, Digory heads towards Aslan, along with Polly and the cab driver. The other Talking Animals spot Uncle Andrew, and chase him. Thinking he's a tree, they try to plant him. Aslan crowns the cabby and his wife the first king and queen of Narnia, and tells Digory that he has to find a magical apple to plant to protect Narnia from Jadis.

Aslan makes the horse a flying horse, and names it Fledge. They make it to the garden where the apples grow, and Digory plucks one. To his horror, however, the Witch is there, and she is already eating an apple. She tries to tempt him to give the apple to his mother, but Digory holds strong and ignores her. They plant the apple beside the river that flows through Narnia, and Aslan says that it will protect Narnia for many years. The apple quickly grows into a wonderful tree. Under Aslan's bidding, Digory takes an apple from that tree for his mother. Aslan sends them back to our world and Digory gives the apple to his mother, successfully healing her. With the core of the apple, Digory plants it and it turns into a tree as well. However, it is blown down by a storm and its wood is used to make a wardrobe in Digory's house.

This book certainly is a wonderful read, however, it may seem all a bit boring to those who have read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis successfully answers all the questions as to the creation of Narnia, and the series continuity is preserved even though this book came out many years after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The explanation is simple and convincing, much more satisfying than, say, George Lucas's prequels.

The Magician's Nephew is an adventure through many worlds, and it is very entertaining. The mystery of magic, the wonder of the worlds, all combine to make The Magician's Nephew fascinating. Lewis captures the essence of country people going to live in the city wonderfully, and he plays on Digory's fear of his mother dying like a maestro, making unimportant things becoming important, and maybe the tree and its apples represents the garden of Adam and Eve, and the temptation, the difference being that Digory does not give in. The book will keep you on tenterhooks from the start, although maybe those tenterhooks start to weaken in the middle. Lewis finds his playing ground in Narnia, and from there he hits it home.

Digory epitomises the classic hero, one that makes mistakes and yet is willing to admit it, one that can change and will change, and one that is interesting to watch the development of. His first mistake is striking the bell, even though Polly warned him against it. His second is letting Jadis catch on to him and escaping to our world. His breaking point is his ill mother, and the Witch nearly manages to trick him. His courage, however, and his resilience to obey Aslan more than makes up for these mistakes, and that is what makes him excellent. One rues Lewis's fatal mistake in The Chronicles of Narnia, and that is the continual shifting of characters. While it may bring new faces to the story, it leaves Lewis no space to develop the characters. As such, we never really know much about Digory, and as he only appears in other books as an old Professor, we cannot know more about him.

Polly is the other main character, although she suffers from Lewis's bias against girls: She seems in this book only to stand back and go along with Digory's plans, and as such Digory gets all the credit for coming up with the ideas. She would have been an interesting character, but Lewis shunts her aside to make Digory the main character. One regrets this decision, as a pair would have been better suited to carry out The Magician's Nephew to the end.

Jadis, the Witch-Queen, is evil, certainly, although Lewis never manages to flesh that out, what with all the world-hopping going on. The only evil deed we ever see her do is eating the magical apple, because all the rest is simply grabbing on to people and talking about conquering Earth, which we know she can never do.

Speaking of world-hopping, Lewis seems to be running out of ideas on how to send people to other worlds, as the ring explanation takes up a good many pages and sounds like it came right out of a science textbook. Complicated as it is, the rings sound like Tolkien, and they don't make up for the page space they take up.

Aslan sounds like God, perhaps formed from Lewis's Christian beliefs. He creates the world, gives life to animals, and protects Narnia from outside dangers. He is the majestic lion, one that is good and has not a speck of evil inside him. He is the everlasting strong person, willing to sacrifice himself to save Narnia, as he does in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Magician's Nephew certainly has some pacing problems, what with the uneven slow descriptions of the creation of Narnia, and the action-paced scenes of escaping from Charn. Lewis seems to suffer from periods of lethargy and then excitement, and this escapes into his writing. However, just because it has these problems, doesn't mean that it is a fun read that lets you escape to the fantasy world of Narnia, if only for a few hours.

Perhaps it may not be the best book in Lewis's series, but it is a fine one.

Rating: 8.7/10
Advice: For those who have never discovered Narnia, this is the perfect introduction. And for those         who have, it is a wonderful read.

The Reviewer wishes all his readers a very happy Chinese New Year and he hopes that all of you will continue to have prosperity in life!

Next post: Agatha Christie follows up 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' in the fear-inducing title: 'Murder on the Links'. However, is it really that mysterious? Poirot returns in the next review!