James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
C.S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia have been my favourite books since my mother first read them to me when I was three. I spent a disproportionate amount of my childhood hiding in wardrobes, trying to converse with my cat, and hunting trees for dryads. Alas, it was all in vain: the story of Narnia ends definitively with The Last Battle, which was the only possible explanation I could think of for the back of my wardrobe remaining stubbornly made of wood, rather than opening into a fantasy land of ice and snow.
The Chronicles of Narnia tell, in seven volumes, the story of a magical world from its creation to its destruction; a world in which animals talk, dragons are abundant, and lampposts grow in forests. Best of all, children from our world could visit it, and even rule it - no wonder I spent so much of my childhood looking for Narnia.
The first to be written and most famous of the seven is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but my favourite has always been The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Unlike the others, it is set at sea rather than in Narnia itself, and tells the story of Lucy, Edmund and their obnoxious cousin Eustace, who jump through a picture (yes, I tried that too) into the sea to reunite with their friend Caspian, king of Narnia. They then sail through the uncharted territories beyond Narnia, demonstrating Lewis' boundless imagination as they visit a variety of increasingly bizarre islands, meeting an array of characters outlandish even by Narnian standards.
What drew me so strongly to the books was how vivid and immediate Lewis made his magical world: his description of the creation of Narnia is quite as believable as his portrayal of Victorian London in The Magician’s Nephew. The story of Narnia is staggeringly ambitious, as Lewis brings to life not just one fictional country, but a whole universe with its own geography, history and culture; an idyllic, magical world with which the reader cannot help but fall in love.
The characters which populate Narnia are as unforgettable as the country itself. The books revolve around Aslan, ‘The Great Lion,’ who creates the land visited by the ‘Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve’, and guides them to victory over their various enemies, most notably Jadis, the White Witch, who entraps the country in a hundred-year winter. Other citizens of Narnia are, if not as awe-inspiring as Aslan, equally loveable: among the most memorable are Reepicheep, a chivalrous, pugnacious, talking mouse; Mr Tumnus, a friendly faun; and Puddleglum, the pessimistic yet stoical marsh-wiggle.
The Chronicles of Narnia are the ultimate in fantasy epics and are the forerunners to other masterpieces of children’s literature such as Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. They are rich in beautiful imagery and lyrical language, and can be read as a religious allegory or simply as an exciting fable. Either way, once read, they are never to be forgotten and will continue to delight children and adults for years to come.
You must log in to submit a comment.
