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.)

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

Since last time I have finished:

No Distance Too Far, Book 2 in the Home to Blessing series by Lauraine Snelling, about a young female doctor in the early 1900s trying to discern whether she is called to Africa, reviewed here.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, reviewed here.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis, reviewed here.

Voyage of the Dawn-Treader by C. S. Lewis, reviewed here.

A graphic novel of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe abridged and illustrated by Robin Lawrie. I just finished this last night and haven’t reviewed it. It’s beautifully illustrated and not hard to read in one sitting, so it may be a good introduction for young readers who are more visually oriented. I’m still wrestling with whether I’d want my children to see this first or the novels. I do appreciate that it uses much of the original text rather than changing the language.

Gospel Meditations For Women by Chris Anderson and Joe Tyrpak, about a 32-page booklet. Excellent.

I’m currently reading The Way into Narnia: A Reader’s Guide by Peter Schakel and Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job by Layton Talbert.

Next, depending on how long Way Into Narnia takes, I may try to read The Silver Chair by Lewis if I think I can do so before Carrie‘s Narnia Reading challenge ends this week. Next up after that is A Heart Most Worthy by Siri L. Mitchell, and I’d like to go through Gospel Meditations For Men with my son. After that I’m not sure — I have several books stacked up to choose from.

Happy Reading!

I love the way Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis begins: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrub, and he almost deserved it.” Eustace is an obnoxious cousin of the Pevensie children of the previous Chronicles of Narnia books. Lucy and Edmund are having to stay with Eustace’s family while their parents and Susan are in America and oldest brother Peter is preparing for an exam with the professor in whose house LWW took place.

It’s been a year since their last visit to Narnia, and they’re missing it and reminiscing about it in Lucy’s room when they notice a ship in a picture on the wall looks very Narnian. The ship begins to look like it is actually moving, they feel the spray of sea water, and suddenly they find themselves in the ocean near the ship…along with Eustace, who happened to come into the room. The ship turns out to be Caspian’s, and he pulls them out of the water. Three years have passed in Narnia, peace reigns throughout the land, and Caspian is making good on his vow that he would search for the seven lost lords of Narnia whom his evil uncle had sent away in Prince Caspian.

Lucy and Edmund join Caspian, Reepicheep, and the rest of the crew on the search: Eustace has no choice but to come along, complaining the whole time. Their adventures, discoveries, temptations, and lessons make up the bulk of the book. And I can’t say much more than that without telling you too much and spoiling the story for you if you’ve not read it.

I saw somewhere that this book was thought to be “darker” than LWW and Prince Caspian. I don’t know that I would say that, but it does seem each major character struggles more with personal temptations.

We did watch the film version of this book a few months ago, and I liked it well enough at the time, but now that I’ve reread the book, I am disappointed that they made several unnecessary changes. When will filmmakers learn that when they veer farther away from the plot of well-known, beloved books, their film suffers?

One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Aslan relieves Eustace of his (small spoiler here) dragon skin (and that scene was a big disappointment in the movie).

And one of my favorite lines is when Aslan tells the children that in their world he has another name and “You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” That to me encapsulates the Narnia series as a whole.

Though neither Caspian nor Dawn-Treader quite measures up to LWW  for me, they are only a small notch or so below it. I did like and enjoy them very much.

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

Prince Caspian is the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia series (in publication order; in story it is the fourth.) The book begins with the four Pevensie children at a train station waiting to go back to boarding school when they’re suddenly pulled back into Narnia. Before too long they discover that time in Narnia moves much differently than in their world, and multitudes of years have passed since their last visit.

It takes them a long time, actually to encounter anyone, and finally they meet a dwarf who tells them that men called Telmarines are in power, chiefly a King Miraz, uncle to the rightful heir, Prince Caspian. No one knows anything about talking animals and most everyone thinks the time of  Kings Peter and Edmund and Queens Susan and Lucy and even Aslan himself are just myth, or at least so far back in history as not to be significant anymore. Miraz has just had his own son and desires to seal his succession to the throne by killing the rightful heir, Caspian.

Caspian, meanwhile, in the course of his escape discovers there really are “Old Narnians” who, once they realize who he really is (it takes more convincing for some than others), side with him. He realizes there is more at stake than his own life: for the sake of Narnia he has to overthrow his uncle’s rule.

My only complaint with this book is that it takes a while for anything to happen: it’s about three-fourths of the way into the book before the Pevensies even meet up with Caspian. But everything leading up to it is necessary to lay the foundation and background.

Aslan returns as well, seeming larger (though not because he is older, he tells Lucy, but because she is), but I think he and the Pevensies are the only returning characters from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: new beloved characters emerge, such as Trumpkin the Dwarf, Trufflehunter the Badger, and noble mouse Reepicheep.

Two of my favorite quotes from this book:

Aslan asks Caspian, “Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?”

“I — I don’t think I do, Sir,” said Caspian. “I’m only a kid.”

“Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not.”

And when Caspian, upon learning something of the history of his people, wishes he came of a more honorable lineage, Aslan replies:

“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve, and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.”

Though perhaps not quite as exciting as LWW (to me), the book still has many beloved elements of the first: Lewis’s inimitable style, good versus evil, memorable characters, quests that take characters beyond themselves, and moral lessons such as Lucy’s need to follow Aslan even though others don’t see him or understand or agree.

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

As I have mentioned before, somehow I didn’t encounter Narnia until about twelve years ago, in my early forties. I read the whole Chronicles of Narnia through at that time and loved them. Somehow I must have read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe more than once, or maybe a couple of viewings of the movie helped cement the details in my mind, because this reading was like visiting old friends whereas I don’t even remember the characters of some of the other books in the series.

I chose to read the series in the order Lewis published the books rather than the story order. Maybe next time I’ll do it the other way — that probably would help keep elements of the story in order, But I can’t imagine beginning with anything other than LWW, and I like exploring the stories as they as the public first discovered them.

If you are not familiar with the series, Narnia is another land that you could call enchanted: time moves much more slowly, animals talk, fauns, centaurs, and dwarves abound, and, in this book, Narnia is in a perpetual winter without the benefit of Christmas. Lucy, the youngest Pevensie child, accidentally discovers Narnia while playing hide and seek with her brothers and sister during a stay in an old professor’s house. She hides in a wardrobe and tries to get as far back into it as possible when she discovers snow and trees, and on further exploration, meets a fawn who tells her, among other things, that Narnia is under the control of the White Witch who has deemed it always winter but never Christmas.

When Lucy comes back through the wardrobe, her siblings don’t believe her until they have their own encounters with Narnia. The Narnians call them Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve and tell them of a prophecy in which four humans will rule on the thrones of Cair Paravel. They also tell the children of Aslan, a talking lion, the King of Beasts, son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea. In one of my all-time favorite literary passages, Lucy asks Mr. Beaver whether Aslan is safe. He responds, “Safe?…’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

There follows all the best elements of a fairy tale: classic battles of good versus evil while they learn about themselves and Aslan along the way.

And although LWW is not meant to be an exact allegory with every minute element being symbolic, there are numerous parallels to Christianity. In the article “What’s Christian About Narnia?” Lauren Winter writes:

[Lewis] preferred to think of the Chronicles as “supposals”–“Let us suppose,” he wrote in his essay “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said,” “that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as He became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen.”

Lewis also uses elements from mythology, and some have seen pagan elements in these writings as well. I discussed this more in Narnian Magic and concluded that I see those as fairly tale elements and have read enough about Lewis’s Christianity to feel secure that its overarching truths are the underpinnings of the series though I would not agree with every little point.

Two words kept coming to mind during this reading: delicious and delightful. Lewis is a master storyteller. Imaginative names and elements mingle with the very real and human struggles and characters. I love the way Lewis describes things to the children reading using examples of what they might know. One example, when Lucy and Susan were riding on Aslan’s back:

That ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in Narnia. Have you ever had a gallop on a horse? Think of that; and then take away the heavy noise of the hoofs and the jingle of the harness and imagine instead the almost noiseless padding of the great paws. Then imagine instead of the black or grey or chestnut back of the horse the soft roughness of golden fur, and the mane flying back in the wind. And then imagine you are going about twice as fast as the fastest racehorse. But this is a mount that doesn’t need to be guided and never grows tired.

In fact, one of the marvels of this book to me is that a learned Oxford scholar who never claimed to be  theologian but was one of the greatest thinkers in recent times could write such marvelous tales that are easily accessible to children and yet delight grown-ups as well.

I had originally committed to only reading this book for Carrie’s Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge, but I had forgotten the books are not all that long. I’ve actually already finished Prince Caspian as well. My original desire was to read LWW, Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and then see the corresponding films of each again. I don’t know if there will be time to get to the films before the challenge is over, but I’ll easily be able to finish these three books.

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

I’m joining Carrie‘s Narnia Reading Challenge for the month of July. I somehow had not read or even heard of these books until maybe twelve years ago — I don’t now how I missed them. I did read the series through along with a biography of C. S. Lewis. I’ve been wanting to revisit Narnia and this is a perfect opportunity.

I always struggle between wanting to read new books or reread good old ones, and I have a lot of new ones sitting here, so I am only going to commit to reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. What I’d like to do is read that and Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the rewatch each of the corresponding Disney movies. But if I did that I’d likely not get anything else read. So for now I’ll just go with the one, and then we’ll see. I may get so caught up in Narnia I won’t want to stop with just the first one. 🙂

I was trying to decide whether to read them in the order in which Lewis wrote them or the story order (evidently that is a bit of a controversy out there), and this article gives good reasons for doing the former.

I’m looking forward to it!