This may be the first time I have ever reviewed a book before I finished it. (Update: Finished 7/29/13 after finishing The Last Battle.) I didn’t set it aside because I disliked it: in fact, I liked it very much. But there is a chapter on each book in the Chronicles of Narnia series in The Way into Narnia: A Reader’s Guide by Peter Schakel, and I didn’t want to read the chapters covering the books I hadn’t reread yet. I’ll save the rest for Carrie‘s next Narnia challenge next year. But I didn’t want to wait a whole year to talk about this book!

The book first came to my attention when I looked up the Chronicles online at the local library and this book kept popping up in every search. I bristled at the title a little bit at first: it kind of rubbed me the wrong way that someone seemed to claim to have “the” right interpretation of the books (though that is not what he is claiming). But I decided to give it a try, and I am so glad I did.

Dr. Schakel had previously written or edited five books about C. S. Lewis with this being his third book on the Chronicles of Narnia, so he brings a familiarity and expertise with the subject matter to his writing. He begins with a very brief biography of Lewis recounting the influences that contributed to his writing the Chronicles, and then he gives a chapter to discussing  reading order and different texts. I knew there was a controversy about whether the books should be read in publication order or story order, but I hadn’t realized there Lewis had revised some of the text and yet current publishers publish the original rather than the revised (and improved, many believe) versions. Schakel then discusses storytelling in fairy tales, fantasy, and myth and then devotes one chapter to each of the Narnian books, discussing the plot, symbolism, etc.

This may sound a bit too much like English class for some…but I always liked English, myself. 🙂 Seriously, this is a very readable book, and Schakel brought out many insights that I had not considered or noticed.

For instance, I knew the first book took place during WWII, but it didn’t register how that time setting would have influenced reader’s feelings toward a tyrant like the white witch or a traitor like Edmund. And the tea with Mr. Tumnus, dinner with the Beavers, and various feasts must have sounded wonderful to people living with food rationing.

I also didn’t know that Lewis’s friend and colleague, J. R. R. Tolkien, didn’t like the eclecticism of Lewis’s including elements from all different kinds of mythological backgrounds (from Father Christmas to Greek and Norse myths) not because of the differing religiosity but just because he felt they didn’t “go” together.

I had read elsewhere that Lewis “came to regard pagan religions not as false but as incomplete, precursors to Christianity rather than contrary to it” (p. 9) and that explains his inclusion of some elements puzzling to some Christians. But I don’t understand how he came to that conclusion when many pagan religions worship someone or something other than the God of Judaism and Christianity. I would disagree with Lewis on that point but understanding his thinking does help in reading the books.

One of my favorite sections of the book was the discussion of fairy tales as literature. I included these quotes in another post, but wanted to share them here as well:

Fairy stories appeal to some adults and some children because the escape gained through fairy stories enables them to recover, or regain, a clear view of life, and to recover realities not recognized by those who limit reality to material objects…Tolkien says that spending time in an Other-world enables us as we return to see the everyday world renewed, noticing new mystery and complexity in creatures and objects we were taking for granted. (p. 29).

A fairy story is not “untrue”: “the peculiar quality of the joy in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth” on which the fairy story is constructed. It shows us “a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium” in an imaginary world and helps us recover that gleam in the everyday world we inhabit (p. 30). (Quoting a Tolkien lecture “On Fairy Stories” that Lewis edited for print.)

That just perfectly encapsulated for me the appeal of fairy tales.

Schakel also makes a compelling argument for reading the books in publication order rather than story order, going through first impressions and mentions of things in the first book of each order (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the first in publication order and The Magician’s Nephew is the first in the chronology of the story) and comparing them. Reading LWW first seems to me to enhance the imagination and mystery and gradual discovery of the series.

I enjoyed reading the sections on each book as well. The chapter on Prince Caspian in particular brought out insights I had missed in the book. I had noted the place where Lucy was called to follow Aslan whether anyone else saw him or followed, but I had overlooked multiple references to believing vs. seeing — King Miraz suppressing the truth of Old Narnia to the point where the dwarves and other thought them mere myths, Caspian’s nanny and tutor believing and sharing, the discovery of relics that helped prove Old Narnia and the High Kings and Queens existed (and some, like Trumpkin, needing even further evidence before believing.) Schakel writes, “In Lewis’s thinking, the old adage must be reversed: Believing is seeing. Those who believe are able to see; those who do not believe cannot see” (p. 55). And, “In a story whose theme has been belief and trust, the decisive incidents, ironically, proceed through a series of violations of trust: the insubordination and rebellion of Nikabrik, the treachery of Glozelle and Sopespian in goading Miraz to fight and in attacking the Narnians before the combat has ended, and the infidelity of Glozelle in stabbing the fallen Miraz in the back” (p. 57). “The theme of this story, the quality that gives the book its distinctive flavor, is not that of heroism, the reliance on human efforts, but that of trust, of handing everything over and relying on Another” (p. 59). Caspian had been my least favorite of the first three books, but this discussion of it gave me a new appreciation for it.

Although the Chronicles of Narnia are highly enjoyable in themselves, this book enhanced by enjoyment and understanding of them even more. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series and this book next year. Yes, I know I could go ahead and read them all now, but having devoted most of one month to Narnia, I need to move on to other things, and I’ll wait to devote another month to the rest of the series. And like Lucy and Edmund at the beginning of Voyage of the Dawn-Treader, I’ll occasionally cast my eyes on things that remind me of Narnia and long for the day when I can return.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Carrie’s Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge ends today, so I thought I’d summarize what I read for it and a few thoughts on the experience.

At first I only committed to reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe because I had so many other books stacked up to read. But I had forgotten that the books aren’t that long and read fairly quickly, and, after all, once you visit Narnia, you can’t wait to go back!

I ended up not getting started til about the tenth of the month due to finishing up a couple of other books. If I had started right at the beginning I may have completed the whole series. But as it was, here is what I finished (links are to my reviews/thoughts) along with one other challenge-related post:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Prince Caspian.

Voyage of the Dawn-Treader.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Graphic Novel.

Narnian Magic (not a book, but a hammering out of my thoughts on the use of magic in the series.)

As you can tell, I am reading them through in publication order rather than story order. That seems to be a big debate these days, but I can’t imagine rediscovering them with anything other than LWW first. And I like reading them in more or less the order Lewis created them (though they may not have been published in the order written) and the public first discovered them.

I’m also part-way through The Way Into Narnia: A Reader’s Guide by Peter Schakel. I am going to save the rest of it for next time because it does have a chapter on each of the books and I don’t want to read those until I have read those books. But the first chapters have been delightful: one is a short biography of C. S. Lewis and the influences in his life that contributed to and may have led to his writing the Chronicles and the other has to do with expressing truth through fairy tales. Two of my favorite quotes are:

Fairy stories appeal to some adults and some children because the escape gained through fairy stories enables them to recover, or regain, a clear view of life, and to recover realities not recognized by those who limit reality to material objects…Tolkien says that spending time in an Other-world enables us as we return to see the everyday world renewed, noticing new mystery and complexity in creatures and objects we were taking for granted. (p. 29).

A fairy story is not “untrue”: “the peculiar quality of the joy in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth” on which the fairy story is constructed. It shows us “a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium” in an imaginary world and helps us recover that gleam in the everyday world we inhabit (p. 30). (Quoting a Tolkien lecture “On Fairy Stories” that Lewis edited for print.)

(Update: My discussion of The Way Into Narnia is here.)

My only disappointment connected with the challenge is that I ordered a set of the series — I wanted to read my own rather than the library’s — but the box that was supposed to house the set arrived broken. So I am going to send it back and look locally for the series, and meanwhile I did use library books again this time, but that was no problem.

I so enjoyed revisiting this series. I like that the challenge immerses me in the series all at once, just as Carrie‘s Lucy Maud Montgomery challenge did earlier this year. I’m thinking I need to do this one month with Laura Ingalls Wilder and another month with Louisa May Alcott as well some time. As much as I love reading new books, and have so many stacked up to get to, I love revisiting these old friends and remembering why I loved them in the first place.

I discovered this book on my shelves while looking for another Narnia-related book. I don’t remember where and when I bought it or whether I ever read it to the children (I’ll have to ask them if they remember it). I didn’t remember it at all until after I read it through again.

Even though the Amazon listing calls this book a graphic novel, the book itself doesn’t have that designation anywhere on it. Perhaps they added that onto it later to make it current and trendy? I don’t know.

It is bound like a book but the illustrations, though not what I would call comic-bookish themselves, are laid out in something of a comic book or graphic novel style. I tried to get a few examples: Please forgive my fingertips in the pictures trying to hold the book open.

The book is abridged and illustrated by Robin Lawrie and was published in 1993. It appears to be out of print though I did find used copies on the Amazon and B&N sites.

I thought the illustrations themselves were lovely and far above what we think of as a comic book style. And I appreciated that many passages were straight from the books though of course many parts were summarized and several scenes left out at the book is only 64 pages.

To many of us the thought that our beloved classic fairy tale has been reduced to a graphic novel  invokes an initial reaction of horror. But we wouldn’t have the same reaction if it were called an abridged illustrated children’s version, which it could be called in one sense. Graphic novels seem to have a connotation of luridness about them though I don’t know if they truly are: my boys read a few when they were younger but were never obsessed by them, and the ones we read were fine though one shop that sold them was creepy. Too, I have no objection to good books being translated into this style for those who do read them. If there are people who only read graphic novels, why not give them a good choice of material?

Though I’d rather read to my children or have them read the full book version for all its richness, if I had one who didn’t particularly enjoy reading or was into graphic novels, I wouldn’t hesitate to let them read this version.

I do wrestle with whether I would use something like this to introduce the books. (My boys are older now so it is a moot question until grandkids come along except for philosophizing). I think I’d still rather have them read the books first and then show them something like this afterward, but I can picture letting a small child look through this while the rest of the family read the books out loud. Knowing the story, I enjoyed looking through this summary and the illustrations.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)