Yesterday I finished the last book in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Good stuff! Lewis is from England, and so his use of language is a bit different, but also fun to say out loud in a British accent. Things like, “Hullo,” and distasteful things or behavior being “beastly” are a few examples.
Even though The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was written first, I decided to read the books in the order of chronological Narnian time. And so I began my first adventure in The Magician’s Nephew.
In this book, Digory (who is later Professor Kirk) and Polly go to the magical world of Narnia before it’s actually created. First, they meet Jadis the Witch in her own world which was dying, and they accidentally bring her to our world, which, of course, spells disaster. I love how witty Lewis describes adult things to children in ways they can understand. For example, Digory’s magician uncle meets the terrifying Witch, and retreats to his room. Once there, he has a few drinks, puts on his best clothes and puts a flower in his button-hole. Lewis writes:
“Children have one kind of silliness, as you know, and grown-ups have another kind. At this moment Uncle Andrew was beginning to be silly in a very grown-up way. Now that the Witch was no longer in the same room with him, he was quickly forgetting how she had frightened him and thinking more and more of her wonderful beauty. He kept on saying to himself, “A dem fine woman, sir, a dem fine woman. A superb creature.” He had also somehow managed to forget that is was the children who had got hold of this “superb creature”: he felt as if he himself by his Magic had called her out of unknown worlds.
“Andrew, my boy,” he said to himself as he looked in the glass, “you’re a devilish well-preserved fellow for your age. A distinguished-looking man, sir.”
You see, the foolish old man was actually beginning to imagine the Witch would fall in love with him. The two drinks probably had something to do with it, and so had his best clothes. But he was, in any case, as vain as a peacock; that was why he had become a Magician.”
The children accidentally bring the Witch to the future Narnia, where they witness Aslan the Lion create it. Such descriptive language in this story as well as the others! I was delighted with this first taste of the adventures in Narnia.