A review of The Chronicles of Narnia - The Magician's Nephew by C.S Lewis

A review of The Chronicles of Narnia – The Magician’s Nephew by C.S Lewis.
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                Is it a childish fictional tale? Or should we call it a highly complex story written in a simple way? The classic novel “The Magician’s Nephew”, from the series The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S Lewis is, in my opinion, a unique and gripping blend of both.  Written in 1955 and with a simple language, the story is enriched by emotions of adventure, fear, life and even death.

                When Digory and Polly, two kids who desperately try to escape from boredom, unintentionally find a secret study owned by Digory’s Uncle - a scientist who dabbles with minor magic, Andrew Ketterley - is where the story starts. The scientist forces the kids to wear a magic ring in order to test his invention and when they do so, they find themselves teleported to another world in which they accidentally revive Jadis, the Witch. For their misfortune, however, Jadis is able to find her way back to Earth with the intention of ruling it. The kids feel it is their duty to take the Witch back to where she belongs in order to protect their world.

                Jadis is clearly the villain of the story with her ambitiously evil and selfish personality. The reader tends to become rather baffled and intimidated by her attitudes. Likewise, Andrew Ketterley, or quite simply, Uncle Andrew, could be described as an anti-hero with his rough manners, bad temper and obsessive personality. Furthermore, he is constantly trying to gain Jadis’s admiration. On the other hand, despite his many flaws, unlike Jadis, readers can still empathize with this character. In fact, this is the main reason why I think this novel is so brilliant, the characters are amazingly well-written and thoroughly developed. The writer ensures we never hate them because the motives for their actions are crystal clear.

                The main part of the book happens in London and in a time period when, according to C.S Lewis, Sherlock Holmes was still alive. Also, although I absolutely enjoy Lewis’s written style, I must say that there are times in the story in which the plot is fairly comical when it should have a darker tone. Jadis’s attempt to rule the Earth, for instance, was written quite lightly.

                Nevertheless, all in all, I can highly recommend The Magician’s Nephew. I challenge you to remain unmoved after reading this exceptional book and not to go further in the other books of the series.

CPE, Certificate of Proficiency in English, Sample text, Book review, Cambridge