Review: Chronicles of Narnia (2001), C. S. Lewis

"This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own land and the land of Narnia began." The Magician's Nephew (Book 1)

Why is this one of the most read and re-read books ever? It is because of its childlike nature, its innocence, its hearkening back to an innocent age, a time when worry and wonder are at greatest odds, when children ask if they'll dream of dinosaurs when they die, a time when wisps of fairy dust transform the mundane to the spectacular. Yes, it really does.

And from this perspective, from the child's perspective, yes, from the child and even from the child now with an old heart confined to more mundane worries, one reads the wonder and is revived. She is taken to or taken back to a time of great mystery, wonder, simplicity, and more than anything, hope and endless possibility. For it is in the child's heart that all is possible, all is great, grand, and true, nothing is that evil, that bad, impossible to pull the dark from, for even it desires to be at play in this wonderful land called Narnia.

For C.S. Lewis, it was this reaching out to the mass wonder, the timeless, the expansive and innocent heart of the child that enabled him, inspired him on to heights and depths of imagination and story telling that rarely occurs. Very seldom does one read passages that build great wonder and awe in the heart, mind, soul, bowels of the reader. It is the inspiration of the forever expansive and wondering heart of the anything-is-possible child that enabled Lewis to pull forth creative powers that would have lied dormant otherwise; for nowhere else in his works do you find such simplicity of poetry, a simply brooding tune of wonder and awe, a Mozart concerto of haunting, single notes that snuggle to the soul to never let go. It is peace of the child come live to entertain, enlighten, inspire and bemuse the child well into adulthood . . . and maybe beyond. The power . . .   

The Magician's Nephew

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Horse and His Boy

Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Last Battle 

In each story after story the wonderment builds and maintains. There is no stopping. No letting go. You begin and the ride will not stop. It does not let you rest or pull to the side for a drink. You have found wonder lost. You have found passions dispensed. You cannot if you tried end this dream even after the last page has been consumed.

There are scenes described where buildings are revealed, beings seen but only to those of a proper heart. There are messages wrought that the adult heart smiles to the child revels in without understanding, for the story, the magic, the wonder can both be perceived and felt. There is much here, much here for all, all who can take its eternal message with them from year to year to year to the grave and beyond.

C.S. Lewis was given a gift to uplift and inspire to entertain and give peace and hope. There is nothing in this world like the out of this world Chronicles of Narnia. I highly advise a read every five years or so to keep your faith and heat alive.

Peace unto you and yours. Give and getting are never alike. Get at the giving of Lewis . . . for life.