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Some fantasy worlds are reached by long journeys, magic spells, or prophecies. Narnia is reached through a piece of furniture. That small, brilliant idea is at the heart of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," the book that introduced readers to C. S. Lewis's Narnia and that has been handed from one generation of children to the next ever since. If you only know it from the films, or you read it once long ago, it is well worth opening again.
Who wrote it, and when
Clive Staples Lewis was born on 29 November 1898 in Belfast and died on 22 November 1963 in Oxford. He was an academic before he was a children's author. From 1925 to 1954 he was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1954 he took up a newly founded chair in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, and both belonged to the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary circle whose meetings centered on reading and discussing members' unfinished work. Lewis returned to Christianity in his early thirties, a change influenced in part by Tolkien and other friends.
According to Lewis, the book began with a single picture in his mind: a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels through a snowy wood. Real life added something too. In 1939, children evacuated from London stayed at his home, The Kilns, an experience said to have given him a new appreciation of children. He dedicated the finished book to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield.
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was published in the United Kingdom by Geoffrey Bles on 16 October 1950, with illustrations by Pauline Baynes, and an American edition from Macmillan followed the same year. It was the first of the seven Narnia books to appear; the series was written between 1949 and 1954. Its popularity has lasted: it placed ninth in the BBC's Big Read poll in 2003, and Time included it in its list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.
Where the story begins
It is 1940, and London is under attack from the air. To keep them safe from the Blitz, four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, are sent away to live in a large house in the English countryside belonging to Professor Digory Kirke.
A big old house is made for exploring, and the children set about it. Lucy, the youngest, finds a wardrobe standing in a spare room and steps inside. She keeps going, further and further back, until she finds herself somewhere else entirely: a snowy land that is not part of the Professor's house, or of England, at all.
There she meets a faun named Tumnus, who invites her to his home for tea and tells her about the country she has stumbled into. It is called Narnia, and it is ruled by the White Witch, who has kept the land locked in a winter that never ends.
What Lucy does next, and what happens when she tries to tell her brothers and sister about it, is for you to discover.
What makes it worth reading
The first pleasure is that doorway. Narnia does not require a quest to find; it is waiting at the back of an ordinary wardrobe in an ordinary house. That sense that another world might be hiding just behind something familiar is what has made the book so memorable for so many readers, and it is a feeling that does not wear off with age.
The second is the four children. They are not a matched set of heroes. Peter, the eldest, tries to settle the quarrels among the younger ones. Susan is the second-eldest. Edmund gets along badly with his siblings and likes to tease Lucy. Lucy, the youngest, is the one who finds Narnia first. They bicker, doubt each other, and take sides, like real brothers and sisters, and that makes it easy to recognize yourself or your own family among them. Many readers enjoy deciding which of the four they would have been.
The third is the setting in time. The story opens with a wartime evacuation from London, the same kind of upheaval that brought evacuee children to Lewis's own house. Knowing that helps you feel how strange and unsettling it would be for these children to be far from home, and why the discovery of another world matters so much.
Finally, there are Pauline Baynes's illustrations, which have accompanied the story since its first publication. They are worth seeking out in whichever edition you choose.
Who will enjoy it
This is a natural pick for anyone who knows Narnia from the films and wants to meet it on the page. Readers who love Tolkien will enjoy discovering what his friend was writing in the same years. It is short enough to read aloud to children over a week or two of bedtimes, and gentle enough for younger listeners while still holding the attention of adults. And if you read it as a child, returning to it now may show you how much was packed into such a slim book.
Step into the wardrobe with Lucy, feel the snow underfoot, and you will be in Narnia before you know it.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (published 16 October 1950 by Geoffrey Bles; illustrated by Pauline Baynes; first published of the seven Chronicles of Narnia; dedication to Lucy Barfield; Lewis's account of the faun image; wartime evacuees at The Kilns in 1939; opening setup and early character traits; BBC Big Read and Time lists; first US edition by Macmillan in 1950) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe
- Wikipedia, "C. S. Lewis" (full name, birth and death dates and places, Magdalen College Oxford and Magdalene College Cambridge, friendship with Tolkien, return to Christianity, the seven books written 1949-1954) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis
- Wikipedia, "Inklings" (readings and discussion of members' unfinished works as the main purpose of meetings) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inklings