Book Review: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

[osprey_archer]

I first read C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in fourth grade, then read it again in high school when I was reading all the Narnia books, and to the best of my recollection didn’t reread it the way that I read bits of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair over and over.

And yet upon rereading it with littlerhymes, I find that so many parts of the book are engraved on my memory.. Lucy’s journey through the wardrobe; her meeting with Mr. Tumnus. (The incredible tea that he gives her!) Edmund meeting the White Witch and eating the Turkish Delight, and then (horrible child!) pretending that he didn’t go into Narnia at all, but only pretended with Lucy. Mrs. Beaver’s sewing machine, and dinner with the Beavers (really desperately want to try that marmalade roll), and Father Christmas’s appearance, and the courtyard full of statues (more shades of Piranesi!), and the mice gnawing on the ropes that bound Aslan…

Although clearly the 2005 movie has to some extent infected my book memory: I was surprised to realize that the battle in the book is so short, dispatched in just a few pages. Of course this makes perfect sense: the real climax of the book is Aslan’s resurrection and the rescue of the creatures that the White Witch turned to stone, and the battle is a mere mopping up operation after.

I would love to be able to report to you if my fourth-grade self clocked Aslan as a Jesus-figure. Probably not. I strongly suspect that I had already been informed of this fact by the time I read all of Narnia in high school, because I don’t remember any a-ha! moment, and I certainly knew by The Last Battle that the series was an allegory, because I chalked the failure of that book up to that fact.

But I think The Last Battle fails because it’s nothing but an allegory. The rest of the Narnia books (even The Magician’s Nephew, which at the time I also deprecated) are allegories but also good stories with riotous, lush, overflowing, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink worldbuilding. (I love it. I can also absolutely see why J. R. R. Tolkien hated it.) Aslan is a Christ figure but his resurrection also simply works as story. I’m not sure why it works because it ought to feel like a cheat, oughtn’t it? To have the hero come back to life because of a secret never-before-mentioned Even Deeper Magic? But it didn’t when I was a child, and it doesn’t now.

Also, I love how Lewis keeps firmly informing his readers that it’s very silly to close a wardrobe door behind you. Clearly he knew that after reading this book, children around the globe would be crawling into wardrobes and cupboards and closets and anywhere else that might lead to Narnia!

Comments

[lucymonster]

I’m a little ashamed to say that my fondness for the Disney movies, flawed as they are, has spoiled some of my enjoyment of LWW and (especially) Caspian. I keep wanting to project the exciting live action scenes in my head onto the perfectly charming little book passages that inspired them, and feeling let down when the conflict resolves so much more easily than it did on screen. I know the books are Objectively better value but I can’t help it.

That said, I also loved Lewis’ repeated warnings against climbing into wardrobes! He knew his audience well, that one.

I think as a kid a lot of the allegory went over my head, which is probably why The Last Battle made so little sense - as you say, without the Biblical parallels, there’s really nothing there. But the resurrection works much better, partly I think because Lewis put so much work into establishing Aslan as magnificent and untouchable and having access to deep Truths beyond all the other characters, so the Deeper Magic ended up feeling (to me at least) more like a long-due explanation of all that greatness than like a mere day-saving asspull.

[osprey_archer]

I must confess I was a tiny bit letdown by the itty bitty scrap of a battle that we get, having gone into it with vague memories of the film extravaganza. Ah well! We can't have everything!

Lewis is one of those writers who is simply phenomenal at remembering what it's like to be a child. Not every writer can do it! And I sometimes think that non-parents have an advantage at remembering it from the inside, as it were.

And it's true, Aslan really does feel like the kind of character who needs and deserves an extra super-cool magical explanation! It fits perfectly with everything that we've seen of him.