One of my aims for 2010 was to read all of C. S. Lewis Narnia books, so it seems appropriate that my final book for 2010 was The Last Battle (I apologise for being so behind with reviews; Christmas and New Year are not terribly convenient times for spending time on the computer).  Although I was already vaguely aware of what happened in the books and have dim recollections of the old BBC series, I’ve really enjoyed discovering the books properly and I’m sad to see it end.

In The Last Battle, all is not well in Narnia.  King Rilian, whom we met in The Silver Chair, is greeted with the disturbing news that the dryads’ trees are being cut down, talking Animals are being used as beasts of burden by the brutal Calormenes and all this appears to be happening at Aslan’s orders.  Meanwhile, Jill and Eustace, travelling back to school on the train, suddenly find themselves jolted back into Narnia where they join with King Rilian and the loyal folk of Narnia in fighting for survival against the Calormenes.

Unfortunately, I think that this book was the point at which C. S. Lewis’ interests and my own completely diverged.  Never before have I wished so much that I had read these books when I was young enough not to notice that I was being beaten around the head with the baseball bat of allegory.  What started out as subtle nuances and echoes of Christianity which worked well within the framework of the story became the story.  As I read the Narnia books for their stories, I was disappointed by this turn towards outright preaching, particularly as the ending which illustrated C. S. Lewis’ idea of Christianity wasn’t what I would have envisaged as a satisfactory ending on a narrative level.  I understand that this was his motive for writing the books and that my disappointment is because of my different priorities, but I do wish that he’d been able to (or more likely chosen to, I have no doubts about his writing capabilities) blend the two aspects of the book, fantasy adventure story and religious message, as seamlessly as he did in the previous books.

However, although I found the message a bit heavy handed, there was still much about this book that I loved.  I thought that the descriptions of the battle itself were very well executed: they convey both the tension and nervous excitement of waiting for things to happen and then the frenzy of confused activity as an attack takes place.  Considering this action takes up about half of the book, I was impressed at how Lewis sustained this level of intensity and it makes the book an easy one to whizz through.  I also thought that the introduction of Tash, the cruel god of the Calormenes, was an interesting touch and the image of him passing through Narnia is a chilling one.

It seems that in every book there’s at least one wonderful new character — Mr Tumnus and the Beavers in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Bree in The Horse and his Boy, Trumpkin in Prince Caspian, Reepicheep in The Voyage of the Dawntreader and Puddleglum in The Silver Chair – and in The Last Battle for me it was Shift the Ape and Puzzle the Donkey about whom I most enjoyed reading.  The dynamic between the two, Puzzle innocent and eager to please, Shift controlling and cunning, is established from the very beginning and it manages to be amusing even though it is quite dark and swiftly becomes one of the obvious references to Revelation.  This double act provides a light introduction to a book which develops into something quite serious and I thought it created a good contrast to the book’s later seriousness.

All in all, I’m sad to leave Narnia but, as a non-Christian, I wish I hadn’t left it so late to read and so had been able to enjoy the books without the religious message intruding on the stories.  Most of the time this wasn’t a problem, but The Last Battle was just a bit too overt for me to really enjoy it.

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis.  Illustrated by Paula Baynes.  Published by Diamond, 1996, pp. 172.  Originally published 1956.

The Narnia series has a great many things to recommend it to readers, but their chief appeal for me at this particular moment in time is how small and compact they are, thus making them the perfect books to read on the tube.  I’ll soon be looking for some new light reading (both literally and figuratively) to take the place of C. S. Lewis’ books though, as The Silver Chair brings me to the penultimate installment in the Narnia series and it has the distinct feel of a series winding down to its conclusion.

In this book, another new human is introduced to Narnia in the form of Jill Pole.  When trying to avoid the school bullies, Jill and Eustace implore Aslan to help them and soon find themselves in his country.  There he tasks them with finding King Caspian’s missing son and restoring him and so, assisted by Puddleglum the marshwiggle, they set out to find Prince Rilian .

Although, like The Voyage of the Dawntreader, this is essentially a quest book it felt much more continuous and natural, where I found the previous book too episodic and patchy.  It has a much more realistic scope and so events feel like a logical progression dependent on things that have happened before rather than a series of unconnected occurrences happening one after another.  As a result of this, I found The Silver Chair much more enjoyable to read than the previous book.  Many of the parts of the story were familiar rather than original, such as the children’s adventures in the city of giants and the silver chair itself, but Lewis tells them in such a charming way that I didn’t mind. Other parts, however, are wonderfully new: I thought that Underland and Bism were excellent creations.

What made this book so enjoyable to read was the presence of Puddleglum the marshwiggle.  His irrepressible gloom and pessimism provides an unexpected comic touch which had me smiling throughout.  The Silver Chair shows a marked movement towards the end of days state which will emerge fully in The Last Battle with the book taking a turn towards being darker and more serious (I think this book is the first time when a good character dies and is not brought back to life) this light relief is a welcome change of tone.  I’ll be sad when I finish my exploration of Narnia, but I look forward to seeing how exactly Lewis manages to do it.

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis.  Illustrated by Paula Baynes.  Published by Diamond, 1996, pp. 1991.  Originally published 1953.

Back in June of 2010 it came to my attention that, although they may be firmly embedded in my consciousness, I had never actually read all of the Narnia books.  This struck me as something of an oversight and I resolved to rectify the situation as soon as possible and read them all before the end of the year (which I did, I’m just a little late in posting reviews).  After the first four books, I had had quite enough of earnest children solving problems for the time being and was suffering from Narnia fatigue and so set them aside.  I had forgotten about completing the series until I saw all the promotional material for the new film of The Voyage of the Dawntreader and being thoroughly irked by it.  (Why the strange pronunciation?  You don’t say lawn mower or horse rider, you say lawn mower and horse rider with the stress on the first thing, so why on earth would it be Dawntreader?)  My irritation gave me the motivation I needed to return to the series.

The Voyage of the Dawntreader is, chronologically, the fifth book in the Narnia series.  In it, Lucy and Edmund are drawn into Narnia through a painting, bringing with them their reluctant and sulky cousin, Eustace.  Together, the three of them join King Caspian, older now than the last time we saw him in Prince Caspian, as he journeys to the eastern edge of the known world to discover what happened to the men loyal to his father whom his evil uncle sent away on a sea voyage from which none of them have ever returned.

Sadly, The Voyage of the Dawntreader was not my favourite of the Narnia books; that honour, rather unconventionally it seems, belongs to The Magician’s Nephew.  The length of the Narnia books does not really lend itself to an epic journey storyline and so  I felt that this book was very unevenly paced, with excessive amounts of time devoted to some events while others were skimmed over in a few sentences.  Consequently, some of the episodes, such as Eustace and the dragon and Lucy and invisible voices, were excellent and well developed, whereas others felt rushed and perfunctory.  I thought that the rapid dismissal of the island of dreams, one of the most interesting ideas in the book, was particularly disappointing.  However, although plenty of people write better quest novels than Lewis, it is still an enjoyable read.

I was surprised at how much I liked the development of Eustace’s character, as Lewis manages to show how irritating he is without making him annoying to read about.  His indignant diary, his outrage at not being able to contact the British embassy and his stubborn refusal to believe things despite all evidence to the contrary add wonderful touches of comedy to the book.  This light relief is particularly welcome as I feel that The Voyage of the Dawntreader represents the point at which the series begins to become more serious: although allegory is an ever-present feature of the Narnia books I felt that it became a lot more overt in this book and there are several dark references to the future of the children and of Narnia itself.  Although I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others so far, I think that it played a necessary role in the trajectory of the series as a whole, and I look forward to seeing what comes next and how Lewis builds on this foundation.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis.  Illustrated by Pauline Baynes.  Published by Diamond, 1996,pp. 189.  Originally published in 1955.

Troubled times have come to the magical land of Narnia. Gone are the days of peace and freedom when the animals, dwarfs, trees and flowers could live in absolute peace and harmony. Civil war is dividing the kingdom and final destruction is close at hand. Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne, resolves to bring back Narnia’s glorious past, so he blows his magic horn to call up Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund to help in his difficult task.  (Goodreads Summary)

While it’s becoming apparent that none of the Narnia books are going to rival ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ for the honour of being my favourite so far, I definitely enjoyed this next installment in the series. I thought the book did an excellent job of developing the characters of the four Pevensie children; they were markedly different, but it seemed a logical character progression after the events of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ rather than an arbitrary change. I also enjoyed the new characters introduced in this volume, particularly Reepicheep the mouse, and I hope that some of them will appear again in the remaining installments.

Curiously, some events which seem as though they should be very important and hold great significance for the characters are not given a great deal of time or attention, whereas other less vital situations are dwelt on more thoroughly. Although I think this is a shame, it is a very minor complaint. Most of the story was well-paced and exciting and on the whole I found ‘Prince Caspian’ to be an excellent book.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis.  Published by Diamond, 1996, pp. 190.  Originally Published in 1950.

N.B. This is an old review written in 2010 and posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing before I started keeping track of all the books I read here at Old English Rose Reads.  I’ve decided to keep copies here so that this remains a complete record of my reading since I started reviewing books for my own pleasure.

I’ve recently begun reading through the Narnia series for the first time, but this is the first book in which I had absolutely no idea what happens before I read it, which was a pleasant change. Much as I enjoyed it though, I felt that it was lacking some of the brilliance of ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ and ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ as it was set entirely in C. S. Lewis’ imaginary worlds, with no intrusion from the real world. Consequently it was lacking the lovely juxtaposing of the magic of Narnia with the practicality of England, although Lewis makes up for it with some delightfully out of place, old fashioned English phrases (my favourite being Shasta, a boy from an Arabian type culture, referring to another character as a ‘brick’; so very Famous Five). However, I get the impression that the awareness of the wider geography of the lands surrounding Narnia may serve some purpose later in the series and so this novel being set purely in and around Narnia may have a narrative purpose. Either way the story was still entertaining, I just didn’t love it as much as the first two books

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis.  Published by Diamond, 1996, pp. 175.  Originally published in 1954.

N.B. This is an old review written in 2010 and posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing before I started keeping track of all the books I read here at Old English Rose Reads.  I’ve decided to keep copies here so that this remains a complete record of my reading since I started reviewing books for my own pleasure.

‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ is one of those stories that we’re so familiar with through adaptations that it can be easy to forget how brilliant the original book is. For that reason I was almost tempted to skip this volume because I know exactly how the plot unfolds, but I’m very glad I was strict with myself and read it as, even knowing the story as well as I did, there was still so much magic in the way that C. S. Lewis tells that story.

I think the aspect of the Narnia books which appeals to me the most is the strange blend of magical adventure and thoroughly British homeliness. It’s impossible not to smile at the number of times an important situation is interrupted for supper or tea, which is described in great detail. Any novel where dinner is just as important and receives just as much attention as a battle is bound to be enjoyable, and this one certainly proved to be so. I loved this book just as much now at twenty three as I did at eight when I first read it.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.  Published by Diamond, 1996, pp. 171.  Originally published in 1950.

N.B. This is an old review written in 2010 and posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing before I started keeping track of all the books I read here at Old English Rose Reads.  I’ve decided to keep copies here so that this remains a complete record of my reading since I started reviewing books for my own pleasure.

Due to some apparent oversight in my childhood reading I have somehow managed to reach the grand old age of 23 without ever having read any of the Narnia books apart from ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. I have now determined to rectify this situation, and if this first book is anything to go by I’m very glad I did.

I found the story charming and engaging even though I’m well over the age of the primar target audience; it was told with an elegant simplicity which easily demonstrates how these books have become enduring classics. The illustrations in this particular edition were a great accompaniment to the text. The narrative style with its self-conscious, gleefully conspiratorial asides was a delight to read and I whizzed through the book all too quickly. I look forward to reading the remainder of the series.

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis.  Published by Diamond, 1996, pp. 171.  Originally published in 1955.

N.B. This is an old review written in 2010 and posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing before I started keeping track of all the books I read here at Old English Rose Reads.  I’ve decided to keep copies here so that this remains a complete record of my reading since I started reviewing books for my own pleasure.