The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Book review by Deane Barker • • tags: fiction, fantasy, young-adult, faith, television •
An image of the cover of the book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"

I read this as the second novel in the series. It’s better than the first one (“The Magician’s Nephew”), but still pretty thin. There are no layers to the story of the plot – it’s very linear, very superficial. There are no twists.

It seems like a heavy allegory of the Christ story, but apparently Lewis maintains that was an accident.

I did like the denouement. I won’t ruin it, but after the climax, the story has a nice run-off.

Reread

Added on

Went through this again in an attempt to read the entire series. I enjoyed it a little more this time. It’s a nice little fantasy, and having paid more attention to The Magician’s Nephew, I was able to understand it a little better – specifically, the motives of the White Witch.

Book Data

Author
C.S. Lewis
Year
Pages
206
Acquired
Not recorded
Open Library
OL71037W
Wikipedia
The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe
↑↓ Reciprocal links to and from – The Magician’s Nephew August 31, 2020

This was a later book in the series, but was written as a prequel. I read it first, before any of the other books. It’s…okay, I guess? Clearly, it’s exposition. Lewis is trying to clean up a bunch of details and set the stage for what comes next. I sort of knew that going in, so I read it in that…

↓ Inbound link from – The Horse and His Boy December 1, 2025

This is the third book in Narnia series (by intention, not by publication date – the ordering of this series has always been disputed). This is set in the world of Narnia, but doesn’t directly continue the prior book. It’s an entirely different story, starting with different characters, but then…