Books to Read Poster No 28

 

Yup, it probably looks like a coffin, but it's a wardrobe, and if I mumble in a slightly irritated fashion that this was a case of One for the price of Seven, you will realise that what we're dealing with is The Chronicles of Narnia. I read these a a child, and mostly loved them and we have them in the house because I bought them for the boys when they were little. Can't remember if either of them ever read them though.

I rather dreaded revisiting them to be honest, and they do display all the faults that I anticipated. Heavy handed Christian allegory, all the implicit sexist and militaristic attitudes you'd expect from a man of Lewis' generation, and at times a cloying sentimentality. That said, these are largely attributable to the times they were written and you have to make allowances. 

On the plus side, they are still exciting and very tense in places and I don't think a child would pick up on the faults that I do. Interestingly though, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was my favourite as a child, I discover is still my favourite, and The Last Battle, which I was dreading re-reading because I hated it as a child, I still hate. Well, hate is (too) strong a word. But I don't see me reading it ever again. 

There were other interesting things too. The mutual influence of Tolkien and Lewis is very detectable to anyone who has read both. And a sad thing I picked up on was the way the alcoholism of Lewis' brother seeped in to the storytelling in the last two books. I doubt he was even aware of it, personal experience slips under a writer's radar more often than I used to think could be the case, but there are incidents and descriptions that leave no doubt that Lewis lived only too close to an alcoholic. 

Overall, an interesting trip down Memory Lane.