Book Review: The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis

 

The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia #6). C. S. Lewis. Macmillan Publishing Company (1970) (First Published 1955). 186 pages. Genre: Classic.

First Line: "This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child."

Summary:  When Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into putting on a magic ring, she is transported to another world.  When Digory realizes what has happened, he follows her to the Wood Between the Worlds.  Digory plans to find Polly and bring her back to our world.  As is often the case, things don't go as planned.  

My thoughts:  C.S. Lewis creates such wonderful characters.  I can just see Uncle Andrew in my mind's eye.  He practically makes my skin crawl with his greed and selfishness and complete lack of thought about how a situation will affect someone else.  He only cares about his own welfare.  

I appreciate Digory's sense of duty.  He knows what the right thing to do is even if  he is sometimes tempted to take the easy route.  It only takes a very gentle nudge to get him to admit what he has done.  I also appreciate his ability to loathe Uncle Andrew, but also show him respect because that is what a boy must do to his elders. 

Polly is such a sweet girl, but don't let that fool you.  She does not stand for being treated poorly, no matter the excuse and she is not afraid to let you know when you have wronged her.  

The Cabby is also a likeable character.  He is a bit rough around the edges, but he treats his animals well.  He also appreciates the simple things in life and is the first one to notice something beautiful.

I enjoyed the banter between Polly and Digory, between Uncle Andrew and Queen Jadis.  It was really fun to see the people of our world interacting with Queen Jadis.  She is definitely not from our world, but thinks she can still boss everyone around.  Interestingly, she has the power to convince others that she is beautiful and amazing and that they should obey her.  The adventure in this story involves traveling between worlds and trying to stop evil from spreading.  This is one of my favorites in the series. 

Quotes:

"'But there's one thing I jolly well mean to say first.  I didn't believe in Magic till today.  I see now it's real. Well if it is, I suppose all the old fairy tales are more or less true.  And you're simply a wicked, cruel magician like the ones in the stories.  Well, I've never read a story in which people of that sort weren't paid out in the end, and I bet you will be.  And serve you right.'"

"Digory had never seen such a sun.  The sun above the ruins of Charn had looked older than ours: this looked younger.  You could imagine that it laughed for joy as it came up."

"When things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better."