The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis #Narniathon21

Title: The Magician’s Nephew
Author: C.S. Lewis
Publication: Collier, paperback, originally published in 1955
Genre: Juvenile fantasy/series

Description: Digory is staying with his uncle and aunt in London so they can look after his mother, who is very ill. Luckily, there's a girl his age, Polly Plummer, next door, and the summer holidays are enlivened for both with indoor exploration when the weather is bad. From Polly’s attic hideaway, they can access all the row houses through a crawl space but when they inadvertently invade Uncle Andrew’s workshop, the wily magician sends Polly to another world using a mysterious yellow ring. The only way to save her is for Digory to follow with green rings that should get them home. They are reunited in a Wood between the Worlds, and their curiosity compels them to explore other worlds, where they accidentally unleash an evil queen. Trying unsuccessfully to escape from her, they become witnesses to the creation of a new world, Narnia, by Aslan, the great lion. Realizing they have inadvertently brought a witch to taint this fledgling nation, Digory is afraid to ask for a favor, although he knows instinctively Aslan could help his mother.

This is the May installment of #Narniathon21, hosted by Chris at Calmgrove, who provided several questions:

1. Here is how Narnia began, and yet this origin story wasn’t told until just before the final book was published. Do you find this puzzling, or do you think it is indeed better for us to learn how the land came into being now rather than at the start?

My mother gave me The Magician’s Nephew to begin the series with when I was nine. I think she had read that Lewis preferred that reading order but I realize that theory is disputed. So while I knew the origin story from the beginning, I don’t think it is surprising that Lewis came up with it later, after readers started asking him more about his concept of Narnia. In fact, it probably fits together better because by then he knew how it was going to be different from the Book of Genesis and what he wanted to include – the witch instead of a serpent, the talking animals, the way into Narnia, and Aslan, the creator. As a former editor, I can say it is fairly common for authors to be encouraged to write sequels and prequels, especially if sales are good.  I haven't looked at any Lewis biographies recently so I don't know who his editor(s) were.  Did the Inklings take his children's books seriously?

2. Yet again, we are presented with two new protagonists, Polly and Digory. And yet we also discover at the end that one of these characters is an old friend of ours, and that we have met another of the characters many books back. What was your reaction to these revelations the first time you came across them?

Digory the boy and old Professor Kirke never really seemed like the same person to me but I did like knowing where the White Witch came from (she’s even more frightening in this book than in TLTWTW). I like that this book showed Lewis’s indebtedness to E. Nesbit and, on this reread, the beginning, “In those days Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in Lewisham Road,” pleased me because I will be spending the month of June living near the Baker Street tube station! London bookstores, beware! The difference between the WWII setting of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and the “those days” early 20th century of The Magician’s Nephew may not be noticeably different to a 21st-century child reader. Incidentally, I don’t think I read The Bastables until after I had read all the Narnia books several times but I read The House of Arden and the Psammead Trilogy at about the same time.

3. An apple tree plays a significant role in The Magician’s Nephew. Did you find this a satisfying motif, and if so, why do you think that is so?

I’m not a fan of the misogynistic Garden of Eden story although Harvard scholar Stephen Greenblatt argues “the story has shaped the way we think about crime and punishment, moral responsibility, death, pain, work, leisure, companionship, marriage, gender, curiosity, sexuality, and our shared humanness.” The curiosity that dooms Adam and Eve also has its echoes when the children quarrel in Charn and Digory strikes the golden bell and “bides the danger” of awakening the ancient city.  

However, I do like the symbolism of the apple tree in this book, the quest Aslan sends the children on to find an apple that will protect Narnia, and the way the Witch tempts Digory to bring it home to his mother instead of back to Aslan:

“But what about this Mother of yours whom you pretend to love so?”

“What’s she got to do with it?” said Digory.

“Do you not see, Fool, that one bit of that apple would heal her? You have it in your pocket. We are here by ourselves and the Lion is far away. Use your Magic and go back to your own world. A minute later you can be at your mother’s bedside, giving her the fruit. Five minutes later you will see the color coming back to her face She will tell you the pain is gone. Soon she will tell you she feels stronger. Then she will fall asleep – think of that; hours of sweet natural sleep, without pain, without drugs. Next day everyone will be saying how wonderfully she has recovered. Soon she will be quite well again. All will be well again. Our home will be happy again. You will be like other boys.”

“Oh!” gasped Digory as if he had been hurt, and put his hand to his head. For he now knew that the most terrible choice lay before him.

To me, the most powerful part of the book is when Aslan tells Digory that a stolen apple would have healed his mother but there would have come a time "when both you and she would have looked back and said it would have been better to die in that illness."  Digory then gives up hope of saving her but Aslan offers salvation (I mean, health) by freely giving him an apple to bring home to her.  Aslan is gentler in this book than in The Horse and His Boy.

After he gets home, I especially like how Digory plants the core in the back yard of the London house and years later when the tree is blown down, part of its timber is made into a wardrobe for Digory’s country home.  My favorite parts of the book are not the religious bits but the crawling through the attic, the hideous moment when they realize they've gone into Uncle Andrew's forbidden study by accident, and the magical rings that (like Nesbit) they have to figure out how to use.

Source: My Puffin copy is missing from the box set and the paperback lying there in its place turns out to have been purloined by my brother from his secondary school library (and they say I don’t return my library books!!). I am really turned off by the fact that this copy says “with pictures adapted from illustrations by Pauline Baynes” – there is nothing wrong with her illustrations; in fact, I am a big fan of her work! Was this some kind of cheap way to avoid paying royalties?