Krishna
Well, this one is a classic, and dare I call it ‘Average’? If this is to be an honest review of books, then I must.
This is a story about four brothers, Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy. They are moved to their uncle’s castle in the countryside during the War, to escape bombings in London. The uncle is strange and lives in a stranger castle. While playing hide and seek, Lucy, the youngest, gets into an old antique looking Wardrobe and stumbles into an amazing place called Narnia, which is full of snow and magical creatures. There is Tumnus, the Faun (a creature with the head and body of a man but legs of a goat, including hooves, as well as a horn on his head and tail). There is the Queen who is really the Witch, who is not human at all but pretends to be one, and many other animals who can all speak. The kids have a series of adventures in the place, with the help of Aslan, the Lion, who is the Lord and Master of the place and the countervailing force of Good against the Evil of the Queen.
Edmond goes over to the dark side, tempted by the irresistible Turkish Delights fed by the Queen and is captured by the Queen. He realizes too late that he has done a terrible mistake and it extracts a terrible price before he could be rescued…
The story is nice and this one is in fact the second in the series of books about Narnia. (Now that the movie has come out a few years ago, the story and the book must be familiar to a whole lot of new audience)
It reads like a children’s book – which it is – and the plot is also very simple, compared to, say, the modern day’s J.K Rowling (See the reviews of Harry Potter books elsewhere in this group) or even the older books of JRR Tolkien (See the reviews of his books elsewhere in this group). It makes a good children’s book, one step above the old favourite of kids, Enid Blyton’s books.
It is fascinating how English the characters are. They need tea whenever it is tea time, no matter where they are! (Reminds one of the 1920s fictional boy William in the William series.) They may be having the adventure of a lifetime and be amazed at the wonders of the magical world, but they need their tea at the proper time!
It is a nice read, and many of you may have read it in school itself as a part of your curriculum, but there is nothing really special about this book.
The religious allegories with the Lion’s self sacrifice reminding people of the Sacrifice of Christ Himself has made it the darling of the Religious Right in the US. But it does read as a regular children’s story in itself, without resorting to finding any other allegories, religious or otherwise.
I would go with a neutral 5/10
— Krishna