I had first read this book way back when, but never finished it. I only got to about the second chapter and didn't think it was that interesting. How wrong I was! This is the first book (as I'm sure many of you know) in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. There once was a young boy named Digory who lived with his crazy uncle Andrew, his Aunt Letty, and his sick mother. Next door to Digory lived a young girl named Polly. One day these two happen to meet, and became fast friends. They both loved adventure and decided to explore the attics - for Polly had discovered a secret door. One day they decided to walk the length of all the homes via the attic walk-way. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for Uncle Andrew, they miscalculated the distance and instead of ending up in the abandon house they end up in Uncle Andrew's room.
Upon seeing the children in his room he quickly locks them in and tells them about his magical rings. He tells Polly to put one on (which she does) and Polly instantly disappears. Digory demands that Uncle Andrew bring her back, but alas he can't. For she only has a yellow ring and needs a green ring to return to this world. Digory seeing what Uncle Andrew had planned all along agrees to save Polly, but tells his uncle how much of a coward he is. When Digory slips on the ring he is transported to a world that is very quiet and filled with many ponds. There he comes across a girl. She looks like him, and he vaguely remembers knowing someone who looked like her. After a while they regain their memory of who they are and Digory gives her the green ring. First though, they want to do some exploring. After marking the pond that takes them home, they decide to jump into a pond that takes them to another world. What they find there isn't very comforting.
After watching the movie The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe I knew of Narnia, plus my mother who used to read it constantly when she was younger had often mentioned it to me - so I was familiar with the plot: a lion named Aslan who represents God, and an evil witch that represents well evil and the battle it out for the land called Narnia and somehow 3 kids are mixed in to the plot. Well I didn't know how it started (the forming of Narnia) or how it all tied together (the wardrobe) and now I do! Towards the end of the book the lightbulb went on and I had that "OH! NOW I GET IT" moment. What a delightful book.
Books in this series:
1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. (c) 1983 by C.S. Lewis (Pte) Limited
3 comments:
I remember reading this book a long time ago, too. I think I only read the first two books in the series before I lost interest. But I did enjoy those first two... :)
Hmm. I was looking at the titles for the later books and I definitely think they're the lesser known. I hope I can keep with this series - I've been meaning to read it for years but never did.
I always loved this book - and it bugs me that the publishers now make this #1 in the series because it's a prequel - but I think you get so much more out of it by reading it later - kind of that AHA moment you experienced. I loved that!
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