Title:
The Magician’s Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
Author:
C.S Lewis
Publisher:
Harper Collins
Published:
October 1st, 2009
Page:
220p
ISBN13:
9780007323135
(Bought in a box set at Big Bad Wolf 280k IDR)
Writing review for classic book is kind
of hard for me, especially children book loved by almost everyone since the
first publication. The Magician’s Nephew first published in 1955 and has become
one of beloved books for children. So why would I write a review after 61 years
later? Then I realize I want to share my feeling and thought which hopefully
will testify the relevancy of the story these days when a game named Pokémon Go
just became famous.
Digory is the nephew mentioned by the
title and Uncle Andrew is the magician. Digory met Polly, the girl next door,
when he came to live with his Aunt Letty and Uncle Andrew while his mother was
in a very sick condition. One day, among the game he and Polly was doing, they
fell into a room turned out belongs to Uncle Andrew, a forbidden room for
everyone. Uncle Andrew tricked them with some magic ring to go to another
world. There are two rings, golden ring will send them to the other world, but
green ring will bring them home. The journey soon begun, brought them to a
world named Charn where Empress Jadis rule as an evil queen. When they left
Charn, Jadis followed them and soon she arrived in London which brought great
suffer for several people including Uncle Andrew. Digory and Polly knew, they
must send the wicked witch back to her world, so they put the golden ring on,
but instead of arriving in Charn, they entered into a world with no light. Only
darkness surrounds the world, they barely saw each other face. Then a beautiful
song started, and then light appeared, like it was summoned by the melody. As the
sun rose, they could see that the world was empty, only rocks and water, and
the singer himself were pacing to and fro. It was a Lion. It was like
everything in the book of Genesis. I think Lewis was portrayed the story of
creation.
Lewis describes Narnia in details,
help me to put a clear image of the animals, trees, valley, mountain, the green
grass, the lamp-post, and so many things on my mind, so I could even create my
own Narnia that might be different from the movie version. If Disneyland is
everyone favorite land, Narnia is mine. I wish I could visit the land of youth
someday, but as you know it is only a fairy land. Starting from movie few years
ago, now I plan to read the series. According to publication order, this one is
the second book from the bottom of the list, but I took Harper Collins
suggestion to read this one first and I guess I made good choice about that. If
you are new to the series, then I suggest you start with this one to get the
idea of how Narnia was created and how everything was in the first place before
the evil Queen begins the terror.
Reader, I was not mesmerized only by
the magical words that brought beautiful image on my mind, but also warmed by the
meaning of Lewis’s words, messages over the years that still relevant till now.
Here are some quotes I love the most,
For what you see and hear depends a good deal on
where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are – p.116
“But please, please – won’t you – can’t you give me
something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the
Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up
at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life.
For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great
shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears
compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really
be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself – p.131
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