Book Review - 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by C.S Lewis - Book Two: 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'

‘The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by CS Lewis

“… some day you will be old enough to read fairy tales again.” ~ C.S Lewis

‘The story begins with the wardrobe, for without it Lucy would never have found her way into Narnia, or even heard of the White Witch, whose reign has been longer than anyone knows.
But work is afoot to dislodge the Witch. It is whispered that Aslan – the great Lion – is once again on the move. Only with his help is there hope of the White Witch being defeated – and she has captured Edmund.
To save Edmund, Aslan must sacrifice everything. But without him the ancient prophecy cannot be fulfilled, or Narnia made free.’

Lewis introduces us to our four main characters in the first sentence – ‘Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids.’ Clearly, this takes place during the Second World War.

The children are ‘sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country… a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him almost at once…’

As the children interact with one another, we get an idea of their personalities.

Peter, the oldest, comes across as a natural leader. Susan appears to be the sensible one. Edmund, prone to bouts of grumpiness, seems to enjoy teasing, sometimes mercilessly, the youngest Lucy with her innocent and trusting nature.

As the only other people in the house, apart from the professor, are his housekeeper and three servants, the children soon realise the fun to be had exploring such a big house with the countryside so close.

As in the first book, these children also find themselves confined indoors the day after their arrival as ‘there was a steady rain falling, so thick that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden.’

But they decide to spend their time roaming the house as it was ‘the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of… full of unexpected places…’

Soon, their exploring brings them to a ‘room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe…’

When the others turn to leave, Lucy stays, curious about the wardrobe. She’s surprised that it opens so easily and steps in, relishing the feel of the long fur coats hanging within. As she ventures further in, she finds, ‘… a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one… She took a step further in – then two or three steps – always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers…’

As she keeps going, she realises she’s stepping on ‘something soft and powdery and extremely cold… her face and hands… [were rubbing] on something hard and rough… like the branches of trees…’

‘A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air…’

And, so, Lucy finds herself in Narnia; she’s ‘a little frightened, but… felt very inquisitive and excited as well.’

When Lucy returns after having spent ages in Narnia, she’s surprised to find barely any time has passed in this world.

Her siblings don’t believe her story of another land, which upsets her.

A few days later, while playing hide-and-seek, Edmund inadvertently finds himself in Narnia and realises his sister, whom he’d teased spitefully about it, had been telling the truth.

But what happens afterwards is far from straightforward, and it’s only a matter of days before all four children are in Narnia, even though none had planned it.

Although written for children, there’s an uneasiness running through most of the story with the whole land in the harsh grip of a ceaseless winter – ‘always winter and never Christmas’ – and the creatures literally sneaking about so as not to attract the attention of the White Witch as “the whole wood is full of her spies. Even some of the trees are on her side.”

Those scenes reminded me of the ‘careless talk costs lives’ campaign in Britain during the Second World War.

With seemingly no one able to put a stop to the wickedness of the White Witch, her cruel acts, dished out on no more than a whim, are unsettling. The mean, cruel and petty bully, introduced in the first book, has only become a meaner and crueller bully, a vindictive one.

With the arrival of all four children in Narnia, things begin to move at a cracking pace, but there are still moments that let the reader catch their breath.

Midway through the book, they finally meet Aslan.

Familiar as I am with the story, I still got emotional reading certain scenes.

While I like all four children, my favourite ended up being Edmund. That surprised me as I was more drawn to Lucy at first.

I enjoyed his character development, which, considering this book is also about 170 pages, is satisfying albeit succinct.

With Lewis’ simple, easy to read writing – looks easy to do but isn’t – I, once more, found myself enjoying his descriptions:
Edmund’s first sight of Narnia, in the grip of winter, beautiful but unsettling – ‘There was crisp, dry snow under his feet and more snow lying on the branches of the trees. Overhead there was pale blue sky, the sort of sky one sees on a fine winter day in the morning. Straight ahead of him he saw between the tree-trunks the sun, just rising very red and clear. Everything was perfectly still, as if he were the only living creature in that country… the wood stretched as far as he could see in every direction.’

Aslan shows Peter the “far-off sight of the castle…”:
‘… the whole country below them lay in the evening light – forest and hills and valleys and, winding away like a silver snake, the lower part of the great river. And beyond all this, miles away, was the sea, and beyond the sea the sky, full of clouds which were just turning rose colour with the reflection of the sunset. But just where the land of Narnia met the sea… there was something on a little hill, shining… a castle… looked like a great star resting on the seashore.’

Some might find the book old-fashioned – it is of its time especially the speech – but with its themes of good versus evil, courage and compassion, betrayal and redemption, it’s a timeless story, especially today.

Yes, there are allusions to Christianity, which, in my opinion, doesn’t detract from the story; neither does the story ever descend into sentimentalism.

If you’ve read the first book, it won’t take you long to work out who the ‘old professor’ is and why a seemingly innocuous wardrobe leads to another world.

It’s a thought-provoking story and, like the first book, stays with you and gets your imagination working.

Once again, there are illustrations by Pauline Baynes.

Before I end this, I thought it would be nice to share the sweet dedication Lewis had written at the front of the book:
‘To Lucy Barfield
My dear Lucy,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realised that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather,
C.S Lewis’