The Chronicles of Narnia- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

by C.S. Lewis

Review

This fascinating book was written by the British author C.S. Lewis, and it was first
published in 1950, as the second part of a series called “The Chronicles of Narnia”. The
book tells the story of four children who discover a magical world by entering a
wardrobe. This work is based partially on the war and post-war reality experienced by
the British children in the 1940s.

The story begins when Lucy, the youngest of the children, discovers the fantastic world
of Narnia while playing hide-and-seek and hiding in an old wardrobe. The plot focuses
on the amazing adventures of the four children – “the two sons of Adam and the two
daughters of Eve” – in Narnia, a land covered in a hundred-year-old winter.

The story is actually a modern fairy-tale, with religious, mostly biblical, and mythological
symbols and characters, both human and non-human. The children become the saviours
of this world, which was thrown under the spell of “a long winter without Christmas” by
the evil White Witch, who tried to steal the world from its creator, the lion Aslan, and
transform it into a dark realm. The story reaches a dramatic climax when, in the fight
between the good and the bad forces, Aslan sacrifices himself in order to save Edmund,
one of the boys.

The book is guaranteed to keep the reader absorbed from beginning to end, as it
manages to mix real and magical elements together, using a series of original characters.
This book can be read equally by children and adults as, according to C.S. Lewis himself
“I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old
for fairy tales […] But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again”.

This novel is certainly worth reading, because it has a gripping story and its world and
characters are both original and complex. “The Chronicles of Narnia” together with “The
Lord of the Rings” and “Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” are considered the origins of
fantasy writing in modern literature. I definitely recommend this book to readers young
and old.