The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Book Review
With the arrival of the movie version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe almost upon us, I thought I might be interesting to re-visit CS Lewis classic children’s fantasy novel and see how it stood up to my memories. Not to mention my memories of the BBC adaptation from some years back.
The results were… mixed is probably the best description. The first thing I noticed on re-reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is how basic the writing style is. Clearly this is a book that was aimed directly at children. Unlike say Harry Potter, there was no intent to appeal to adult readers too.
The result of that decision is a story which is sparse on description and in which all the events simply motor by. If this was a modern fantasy novel for adults, the events of this book would have taken at least 5 books, if not 10 to tell as we explored numerous sub-plots concerning all the characters mentioned.
Lewis sticks firmly to the core story though and we are introduced to the land of Narnia, the Witch and eventually to Aslan at a pace which can only be described as brisk. The plus to this style of writing is that it does leave the imagination free to supply lots of imagery. There are a number of scenes in the book that I remember as being much longer than in fact they turned out to be.
One aspect of the book I found outright irritating though was the narrational style. Throughout the story the narration has something of a paternal tone and at various points the book talks directly to the reader which I found distracting.
That said, there is no escaping the wonder of Narnia. Lewis conjures up a magic world using some of the most ordinary of elements. A lamp post, a wardrobe and turkish delight somehow come together to enchant the adult just as much as the child.
Much has been made of the Christian back story to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Certainly as an adult, the Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve elements are much more noticeable to me. As a child I think they went completely by me quite frankly. Even as an adult though I don’t find them intrusive to the story.
All in all this brief visit to my childhood made me all the more enthusiastic to see the movie and I suspect I may be reading the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia again in the near future.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Andrew Oakley
The most notable religious material in the book is that of religious hatred; it’s right there in the title. “The Witch” is the enemy. All heathens must be smited.
Dec 9th, 2005
Eoghann
Hmm.. I don’t see the Witch as a heathen really. I don’t think she fits as a non-believer as she clearly does believe in both Aslan and the “Emperor Beyond the Sea”. She doesn’t like them, but she does believe in them.
I see her more as fulfilling a fallen angel role in the story. She has been granted a position of some sort by the Emperor and of course she clearly tempts Edmund.
Of course there is something distinctly old-testament about Aslan’s solution to this problem.
Dec 9th, 2005
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