I routinely check closets for Narnia

On to Narnia! Personally, my favorite fantasy series of all time. Harry Potter pales in comparison. We know how I feel about Lord of the Rings. So awesome that I based my farm in Harvest Moon off of Cair Paravel. That translates to: oh my God, Angela, could you go get a life? You're embarrassing the human race again. Anyway--I'll be doing the books in order they're meant to be read, not by how they were published or written. So! First! The Magician's Nephew!


Even though, so far as I know, this has never been made into a movie, it is the first--or intended to be the first--in the series, not The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It chronicles Narnia's birth through the eyes of accidental world travelers, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, along with Digory's nefarious Uncle Andrew and the White Witch. Uncle Andrew sends Polly and Digory into magic lands because he is too cowardly to try his gained magic out himself (this is a little too bothersome to explain) and then they fall into a dark world, where they wake up the White Witch, then just Empress Jadis. Jadis follows them into London, and they try to take her back to Charn (her world) but ends up in the newly-forming world of Narnia.
The world is being formed by a singing lion--Aslan, of course. The one who's supposed to be representational of Jesus? Oh, he totally is. Zero questions about that.
My first actual note comes in almost at the home stretch of the book.... "'All get what they want; they do not always like it.'" / "There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it"--Oscar Wilde Oscar and Aslan are on the same page!
Woah, did you like that extreme dearth of notes and comments? It really is good, though. Read it and stop trying to tell me this isn't the first in the storyline, it's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.


That book is the second book! I'm going to assume you've seen the movie, but if not, four children are sent to live away from their homes in London during the Blitzkrieg. (I had to write a paper on the blitz in Contemporary lit and mentioned children being sent to the countryside--my teacher wrote next to that line 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. Duh, Marky Mark! [rolls eyes]) They are sent to live with a certain Professor... a Professor Kirke... and while playing one day, Lucy hides in a large wardrobe and finds herself in a winter's forest where she meets a faun. After a while, she returns to the house, and of course, no one believes her but Digory. Edmund discovers the country and meets the White Witch, who appeals to him and his heart becomes twisted. Eventually, all four children make their way into Narnia--and must set about restoring Narnia to what it should be by breaking the White Witch's curse upon the land--she's made it always winter, and never Christmas.
First, CS Lewis wrote a rather touching dedication, which I feel I must include: it's so sweet. "To Lucy Barfield. My dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, CS Lewis." In the final book, Susan doesn't not appear as a friend of Narnia because she no longer believed--and I think it had something to do with the real Lucy's age and how she may have reacted to Narnia as she got older. Well, it's possible, right?
The Professor is unmarried and old in this book, and ever since I first read the books, I always thought it was sad he didn't marry Polly. Of course, Polly didn't exist then, but still.
Um... the notes for this book are sparse as well. Well, I do love the series greatly (save A Horse and His Boy) so it's safe to assume my affection towards this addition to the series as well. Actually, we were cleaning out my garage a week ago, and found a wardrobe. My mom went upstairs to answer the phone--I looked around very cautiously, tip-toed up to the wardrobe, opened it... No. No Narnia. But I'm going to try again on a rainy day. (Hello, my name is Angela, I came through War Drobe from Base Ment. How do you do, Rob Merci--I mean, Mr Tumnus?)


A Horse and His Boy is a pointless addition to the series. I hate it. It's terrible. Even after Marky Mark explained it to me I got to the second-to-last chapter and was like, "This is--What the hell is this?" I can't even properly summarize it for you. It's just blehhhhhhegh. (Like that sound effect?) I was giving it the benefit of the doubt (I usually skip this book--I think of the eight times or more I've read the series I've read this maybe twice--thrice counting this time) but no. No more. I will be skipping it every time after. I HATE IT.
Oh, an interesting note is that CS Lewis always seems to equate apes with villainy, or at least they conveniently show up on the wrong side whenever villainy is afoot. In the second book, apes aid the White Witch in fighting Aslan's side, in this book, a cruel fellow is described as having a face that resembles "an ape" and in the final book, an old ugly ape named Shift basically brings about the end of Narnia.


Prince Caspian is next, which tells of Edmund, Lucy, Susan and Peter's return to Narnia. Narnian time passes at a different rate than Earth time, so several hundred years have passed. In the Narnian future, 'Old Narnia' has been suppressed (that is, dwarfs and unicorns and dryads and Talking Beasts and fauns and such) and men have taken over. Caspian is rightful heir to the throne--but when his aunt has a baby, his uncle plans to have him murdered so his new son can inherit the throne.
The scene where the four siblings come up to Cair Paravel (a castle) after a few hundred years is one of my favorites. Anyone who hasn't read the book will probably be curious when they read it for the first time, but of course I knew. So, it seemed silly while all the children were looking around saying "Oh, this item in the castle is just like Cair Paravel!" or "Oh, we had this is Cair Paravel too!" You dunderheads, it is Cair Paravel! Excuse me whilst I chuckle.
I love Trufflehunter the badger! Not--not just for his name! He's a cool badger too!
Two Talking Beasts' names that would do Dickens proud: Clodsey Shovel (Mole), and Hogglestock the Hedgehog.


The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is next in the series--in this book, Peter and Susan don't return to Narnia--but Edmund and Lucy do. Along with Edmund and Lucy come a particularly horrid cousin, Eustace Scrubb. CS Lewis, when first introducing Eustace, says he "almost deserved it". He "liked books if they were books of information and had grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools." No comment. But he's greedy and selfish and rude and often teases Lucy and Edmund about Narnia, which he believes is just a silly babyish made-up game. Until, of course, a painting of a boat on the ocean in his room suddenly floods the room and becomes quite clear. (Even then, it takes a while for him to understand he's not in England.) The boat is the Dawn Treader, and Caspian is sailing to see what has become of several lords who were friends of his father who were exiled and to see the end of the world, for their world is flat.
I LOVE REEPICHEEP. I tend to think of the non-human characters as 'background characters', or sort of sidekicks, but still, Reepicheep is my second favorite of this breed. My first is Puddleglum, who will be showing up next book. Reepicheep is a valiant warrior--and a Talking Mouse. I suppose you may know that from Prince Caspian, but too late I just re-told you.
At one point, Lucy finds a magic book and reads a story that is three pages long--Lucy thought it was the most beautiful story she had ever read but as soon as she finished it, she realized she was slowly forgetting it. She tried to turn back, but the book was enchanted and the passed pages stuck together and could not be read. "'Shall I ever be able to read that story again; the one I couldn't remember? Will you tell it to me, Aslan? Oh do, do, do.' 'Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years.'" It is her life--I believe. Her life story and beyond, to when she goes into Aslan's land.




The Silver Chair is, like I've said, the first appearance of Puddleglum. Besides that, it is based off Eustace's next adventure into Narnia along with his friend Jill Pole. The two call for Aslan and appear in Narnia, to discover that--among other things--some eighty years have passed in Narnia times. Caspian is a doddering old man (Eustace is heartbroken to see his dear friend in such a state) and he has no heir. Many years ago his queen was killed by a great serpent--Caspian's son, Prince Rilian, set out secretly to kill the beast and disappeared in the process. Eustace and Jill are asked to search for (and hopefully save) Prince Rilian, accompanied by a Marsh-Wiggle named Puddleglum.
The two children are from the same school, Experiment House--one of the first co-ed schools of its time. This book is FULL of comments on reforming and new-age sort of ideas as this, none of them positive. (He does this a little when speaking about Eustace's parents in The Dawn Treader, when he says the Scrubbs are 'new-age' so Eustace calls them by their first names and they're vegetarians and whatnot. You don't get very positive vibes off any of this.) They're little sideways things, but they make me giggle a little. For example, he doesn't like the fact that the real schools like Experiment House are secular--at one point Eustace and Jill are completely confused by being called a son of Adam and daughter of Eve and he adds, in parenthesis, of course, because religion wasn't taught, or something similar to that. He comments on the fact that the headmaster is female, the school is co-ed, children aren't caned or properly punished (this one I can get behind) and... well, there's more and more. I just love how CS Lewis just slips those grumblegrumblegrumbles in. Aw, you just hate everyone today, don't you, Lewis? Love you, bro! (Big hugs for CS Lewis!)
Puddleglum is like Mr Downer, but there's still something oddly charming about him. For example, if one were to say, oh, today looks like it'll be nice, he'd be likely to answer "I shouldn't be surprised if clouds roll in or it rains later on, though". Or, if he's complimented on the food he makes he says "it would probably disagree with them [Eustace and Jill] horribly." He really is a downer... but I love him! Fun fact: he was supposed to have been based off CS Lewis's gardener, who supposedly had quite this personality. (The example of his attitude was quite similar to the first example I gave of Puddleglum's attitude, for the record.)
The villain in this book is also a witch (who can turn into a giant snake) and brainwashed Caspian's son and treats all of the underlanders as slaves. Though it's often agreed on that the White Witch is the worst villain of the whole series, the witch in this book seems much more threatening to me. Using an enchanted flame (that gives off an enchanted smoke) and by playing a magical instrument and using simple persuasion she can erase memories and create new ones plus she can turn into a snake. The white witch was all "Always winter and never Christmas!" I'm less scared of that. I'll just celebrate Hanukkah or something.
I think this book is my second favorite in the series mainly because of Puddleglum. The bottom of the world weirds me out a little too much to say it's number one, though. It's creepy in the final book as well, which is...



The Last Battle. I hope it's obvious that this is the final book of Narnia; Narnia's end. Shift, a villainous ape has tricked Narnians into thinking Aslan has returned to his land. Pretending he is Aslan's right-hand man, he starts ordering the creatures to kill trees and be sold as slaves and so on, saying it's what Aslan has ordered. Even worse, he strikes up deals with the Calormenes, men generally considered to be wicked and villainous. They, privy to Shift's scam, don't believe a word of Aslan and so summon their own false god by accident, Tash. At this point, basically everything goes to hell (even after the real Aslan has shown up) and the Last Judgment pretty much happens, only with the Talking Beasts. So... that's cool, I guess.
One thing I love about this book that instead of just a few children coming to Narnia, all the children but Susan come back--and Digory and Polly are young again. Not children, but I wouldn't say any older than 30. (Susan doesn't come back because she no longer believes--all she cares for are boys, and being an adult, and so on. When her siblings try to speak to her about Narnia, she waves it off as silly children's games.) But I get all excited. AND THEN DIGORY AND POLLY GOT MARRIED BECAUSE THERE WAS NO REASON WHY THEY WEREN'T BEFORE AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
"'If she was a boy she'd have to be knighted, wouldn't she, Sire?' 'If she was a boy,' said Tirian, 'she'd be whipped for disobeying orders.'" Wow, you're kind of a jerk. The day was just kind of saved, Tirian.
"'I thought it was the beginning of a railway accident. So I was jolly glad to find ourselves here instead.'" Foreshadowing... Can you say foreshadowing... (SPOILER!!! It was a train accident. It turns out it is an accident and somehow all the children are dead and they go into Aslan's Country, uh duh heaven. More on this later, look for the asterisk!)
"'It seems then,' said Tirian, smiling to himself, 'that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from the outside are two different places.' 'Yes,' said the Lord Digory. 'Its inside is bigger than its outside.'" Aslan=the Doctor? Stable=the TARDIS? It's starting to look that way...
Here's a big paragraph of spoilers so get ready: 1. The Last Judgment happens in Narnia with Aslan opening a gateway to his world--Talking Beasts look upon him and if they look at him with hate, they become regular beasts and die with Narnia. If they look upon him with still love in their eyes and hearts, they go into what is basically heaven. Dragons and such destroy what's left of Narnia and then die themselves--and Narnia is but a 'shadow-land' to Aslan's Country, just like London and anywhere else that's not Aslan's Country is. As for the children being dead, * it turns out they were really dead and are also drawn into Aslan's country: "All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is greater than the one before." Wow, someone's a little colon happy, CS Lewis! But yeah, they end up going to heaven, which is a rather satisfying ending, I'd say. It made me sad when I was a kid that Narnia was over, but now I'm quite happy with the ending. I can dig it.


Like I said, I LOVE this series. I can't even attempt to be objective. READ THIS SERIES TO YOUR CHILDREN. Just do it! (Will I get sued for saying that?) And if you haven't read it yet... Well. You know what you must do!

I found a wardrobe in my garage recently. No signs of Narnia yet, but heck if that will stop me from trying. You have no idea how excited I got when I found it... Well... I bet you can nary a guess...

Oh, and fun fact! CS Lewis apparently got quite uncomfortable around children. And, this entry took me six days to write--but I noticed during the course of those days there happened to be two Narnia comics on differing webcomics. Do I dare declare... destiny? Randall Munroe had a more modern take on Lucy's reaction to finding Narnia, and Duke AKA Ben Kahan who just had his eternally high take on Larxene think she was in Narnia. Good enough for me!