The Magician's Nephew (Novel)

By C. S. Lewis

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5

Enjoyability: 4.5 of 5

The sixth book published in the series; the Magician's Nephew, is in some ways, more concrete and understandable than the others, and in other ways, seems to lose its focus for a brief period.  On the whole, however, I consider it one of the better books in the series.

The story takes place years before any of the others, in the childhood of the man who later became the aged Professor Digory Kirke.  If that doesn't remove all the tension from the story...  Well, actually it doesn't.  We know he'll turn out okay, but this story also involves a girl named Polly, as well as several other people we've never met before, and won't see again in the Narnia books.

For greater than half the book, there isn't much allegory.  Digory and Polly get into some trouble, wind up in another world, and get into more trouble, striking a bell when they're not supposed to.  This could easily be seen as an allegory for original sin, and seems to be something of the sort, but it doesn't really get brought up until later on.

It's at this point that we meet Jadis; the White Witch from the first book, who was the last empress of a world called Charn, and most likely the cruelist as well.  She grabs Digory and Polly, forcing her way into our world, where she loses all of her magic, but remains a very powerful psychopath nonetheless.  Digory and Polly brave her wrath one last time, trying to get her back out of our world and into another.  Unfortunately, that world is the newborn Narnia, and having unleashed her upon it, they soon find that they have an obligation to right the wrong to the best of their abilities.

I've heard some people say that this book is allegory for the Adam and Eve story, but it's situations and characters are almost reversed in many ways.  Polly tries to discourage Digory from sinning, instead of tempting him, and the quest for the fruit is the search for redemption; not the sin.  Digory is faced with the age-old temptation for the fruit in the garden, but when it comes time to make that decision, his choice isn't what you'd expect, if you thought this book was going to be a straight-up allegory, like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I suppose I could criticize this book for its confusing and sometimes backwards allegories, the way I did with the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and that is a problem to an extent, but it just didn't bother me all that much, because this book has, I would say, the scariest villain in the series, at quite possibly her most threatening.  For this reason alone, I enjoyed it enormously.  Lewis' writing style is hardly tense, nor are his descriptions terribly exciting, but if a seven-foot woman, riding a London carriage like a charriot and knocking down policemen left and right doesn't spook or excite you at least a little, then you don't remember what being a child was like.

Are the allegories in this story a little confusing for children?  Probably.  Still, it's an exciting story, and there's still nothing in here that should offend a strong Catholic, so long as they recognize who the bad guys are supposed to be from the start (a job that's made very easy by the way they talk about themselves as being "above rules.")  If you recognize the bad guys in real life, you'll recognize them in this book.

I really recommend this story, because, as I said, it's one of the best of a very good series.  It's both Christian and reasonably exciting; a rare and delightful combination.