Dem fine book (Magicians Nephew - C. S. Lewis)

Member Name: FairyWBO

Product:	Magicians Nephew - C. S. Lewis
Date:	29/04/04 (614 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives the background to Lion, Witch and wardrobe, Easy to read

Disadvantages: May make you want to jump in puddles

When anyone thinks of Narnia they automatically think The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, well for me it is always Magicians Nephew that comes first. (in more ways than one)

Written in 1955, five years after LWW, it is the prequel to one of the most popular childrens books. And to me it is one of the most magical books I have ever read (and I have read a lot of magical books). So if you have ever wondered why the wardrobe worked, or how it got to be in the Professors huge house, or even why the witch was in Narnia, then this is the book for you. And if you don?t know the story of LWW then shame on you!

It is illustrated by Pauline Baynes, who has a knack of bringing the characters to life in the most beautiful ways.

It is set in the days when horse drawn carriages were used instead of cars, people had servants and children generally did as they were told!

A young boy called Digory has to move to London with his sick mother, to stay with his maiden Aunt Letty and loopy Uncle Andrew. Next door lives Polly, a girl of about the same age (I?d say they are about 9, but I could be wrong) and they soon become friends as it is the summer holidays. The weather keeps the pair indoors and they start playing in the attic, finding a corridor that leads from one house to the next. Thinking they are at the empty house at the end of the row they open a door to find themselves in Uncle Andrews study. He offers Polly a ring and she vanishes!

*That's just the first chapter, C.S.Lewis has a marvellous way of getting your attention as soon as you start so there is no chance of children starting a book and getting bored, then never picking up the book again.*

Right where was I? Ah yes, Polly has vanished, and Digory wants her back. Uncle Andrew tells his nephew all about how he made the rings (from a box of dust that was supposed to be destroyed on the death of his godmother, but he kept) and that he needed someone to test them

on, as Guinea Pigs couldn?t use the homeward bound ring. He believed that one ring sent you to an alternative reality and the other was to bring you back. So poor Digory was forced to take a pair of rings (and a spare homeward ring) to find Polly.

*It may sound a bit complicated, but it isn?t hard to follow for a child.*

So Digory is whisked off to a wood full of pools of water, or giant puddles as I have always thought of them as. Here he not only finds Polly asleep under a tree, but also the Guinea Pig with a ring tied to it. The wood has a strange effect and makes the children not only sleep but also forgetful of who they are and where they came from, but they soon remember and rather than coming strait home they decide to try a different pool (after testing that rings work first, by almost returning to London, put switching rings just before they get back).And so they jump into a another pool to find themselves in another world yet again.

*This could explain a lot of childrens fascination of jumping in puddles, maybe they are all hoping to be magicked off to a different world each time (I know I was)*

Compared to the wood this was a dull, lifeless world, that seemed to be on the verge of dieing. After a search of the crumbling buildings they discover a chamber full of what appear to be waxworks of people dressed in fine clothing, and a bell. Polly is fascinated by the people, but Digory wants to ring the bell, even though there is a sign warning him not too. Polly tries to stop him but he still rings the bell. This wakes up Jadis, one mean but beautiful queen that thinks that Digory is a magician. When finding out that his Uncle is the one with power she demands to be taken to him. The children are unwilling to take her back to London, especially as she has just told them on how she destroyed the world of Charn (that is where they are) with the deplorable word.

*I have always wondered what the word was, but hop
efull
y will never find out.*

They try to escape Charn without her but she manages to grab hold of one of them just as they are disappearing. In the wood she starts to lose strength but again manages to grab one of them as they jump into the ?London? pool. And so Jadis is in London.

Uncle Andrew is thrilled to bits to find that his experiment has worked and even thinks this ?Dem fine women? might fall in love with him, but after a trip out with her soon finds out what she is like. She causes mayhem in the streets. She steals a hansom cab (horse drawn cab) robs a jewellers and is extremely unpleasant in a restaurant. Soon it seems half the local people are outside Digory?s house demanding this woman be stopped. Digory and Polly step in and grab hold of her and vanish with her back to the wood. Only it seems this time they have managed to bring not only Jadis, but also Uncle Andrew, the horse that was pulling the cab and the cabs owner.

They then jump into another pool hoping to get rid of Jadis in some other world. When they arrive at this new world, all is black and they think that they are still in the limbo between worlds, but a voice in the distance starts singing as soon things start coming to life before their eyes.

*This is the most beautiful part of the book as it is described in such a way that you can actually feel the new world come to life as each new thing springs into being around the group*

Jadis and Uncle Andrew are terrified of this new place, but the cabby and the children are totally in awe, especially when they realise that the singing is infact coming from a huge Lion. Soon everything is made, even animals that have come out of the ground and Aslan (the lion) gathers a selection of the newly formed animals around him in a meeting. He has enabled some of the animals to have the power of speech (not all, just some) and one of them is the Cabbys horse Strawberry.

Jadis is terrified and run
s away aft
er dropping part of a street light that she was using as a weapon in London. The bar when it hit?s the earth starts to grow into a small street light and soon is a full grown one (if that is the correct term) This gives Uncle Andrew a plan to bring scrap metal to this world and grow steam trains. It also gives Digory an idea that fruit from this world might be able to cure his sick mother. So he goes to speak to Aslan to see if he could have something to take back to London with him.

Aslan does want to speak to Digory too, as it was he that introduced the evil into this world called Narnia. And so he sends Digory on a quest to bring back fruit from a tree that grows on the outskirts of this land so a tree can be planted to protect the land from evil. Strawberry goes on the quest with Digory as does Polly, but before they go, to speed things along for them, Aslan grants Strawberry the gift of flight and so he becomes a winged horse called Fledge.

While on their adventure with Fledge they have another run in with Jadis, but manage to escape her and bring back a fruit.

I will not tell you anymore, as you have by now had the majority of the story and I want to leave something left so you will read the book. And I have told you about the Lion and the Witch, the wardrobe is up to you to find out about!

I know there is a lot of people that keep going on about the Christian aspect of the Narnia stories, but as a child and as a adult, I never let this hamper my enjoyment of the book. Isn?t everything in life about right and wrong anyway, which is what all religion boils down to in the end?

I highly recommend this to anyone of any age as it is a wonderfully written book and is easy to read, either aloud to small children or when children are starting out to read by themselves.

It is available anywhere that sells books. My current copy was £3.99, but you could probably find it cheaper or as part of the se
t of all the Na
rnia Chronicles.

Thank you for reading this, now go and read the book :oP

Happy reading
Sarah :o)

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