RSSThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
January 8th, 2006 | View Comments
Author: C. S. Lewis
Publisher: Harper Collins
Rating: 
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I always try to read the book a movie is based on before seeing it, or if it’s been a long time, to re-read it. Thus I sat down with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and several of its companion books over my winter holiday.
I had not read the book in probably over a decade and while I still knew the gist of the plot, many of the specifics had been lost to me. I knew that the entire Chronicles of Narnia series and this book in particular are said to be Christian allegory; after all, C. S. Lewis was a renowned Christian apologist. But I did not remember anything particularly Christian about the book, so I went ahead with an open mind.
It’s a commentary on how little I knew about Christianity as a child or how little of the book I really remembered because well…the parallels and the imagery are not subtle. Some have suggested that Lewis wrote these books in order to make Christianity more palatable to children. In my case, I didn’t find the parallels to be terribly distracting or proselytizing in any way. I was more distracted by my own failure to see the connections the first time around than their mere presence.
More than anything, I feel that The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is a great adventure tale. It touches on many themes that resonate with younger readers—sibling rivalry, escapism, wanting to feel grown-up, brave, and kingly. Many of the characters are a little flat, but that doesn’t detract from the story any.
I’m not fond of the book’s ending because I feel it leaves emotional and plot threads hanging. You are left wondering about what’s been happening in Narnia and what will happen to Narnia in the near future. On the other hand, those emotional threads are picked up and woven together in subsequent books, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. 
Buy The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on Amazon.com
Yvonne posted this on January 8th, 2006 @ 9:15pm in Book Reviews | Permalink to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"
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