Your Favorite Chronicle

Today our youngest and I read almost all of The Last Battle, the last of the Narnia Chronicles. It is my favorite of the set, perhaps because it so well mixes melancholy and hope, or better, transcends melancholy with hope. I find the last chapter almost unbearably moving.

So today's question is: which of the set is your favorite, and for that matter which is your least favorite, and why, if you care to say. (For some of you "least favorite" may mean in some cases "one you most dislike.") My least favorite is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, because it is the most didactic of the series and the analogies too straightforward and obvious.

Please stick to the subject and don't bring up other works you like, or other works you like better, or other works you like less, though what you really like or dislike about the Narnia Chronicles would be interesting. If you have any similar question you'd like to ask Mere Comments readers, don't ask it in a response but write me at < editor little "at" sign touchstonemag.com >.

Comments

[John]

My favourites are "The Last Battle" and "Prince Caspian", the first because of the reasons Mr. Mills outlines, the second because of the Cavalier overtones. Long live the true King!

As for least-favourite, I think "The Silver Chair" takes it, because I miss Peter and Lucy.

[Margaret]

A wonderful thing about the Chronicles is that each has its palette--Lewis is good at evoking the sense of narrow and particular time and place whose absence he lamented in The Three Musketeers.

The dreaminess of the Voyage of the Dawn Catcher, especially as time is spun out and attenuated to the point of vanishing, I like very much. The Last Battle is heroic, passionate, and distressingly close to home--you're swept up in grief and alarm over Narnia and Spare Oom both, yet never far from joy. His evocation of dread and evil is on a par with Beatrix Potter's in Little Pig Robinson. My favorite tends to be the one I'm currently reading, but LWWW is a little too gallimaufrey even so.

[Margaret]

Whoops, Dawn Treader.

[Sally]

I love The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, from the first sentence -- "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." My children volunteer that Reepicheep is their favorite character. Of the early books in the series, it seems the least straightforwardly allegorical but the most richly evocative of literary tradition (the quest story; the Odyssey).

I have to confess that I both love and hate The Last Battle. It's the one I have the hardest time bringing myself to read, and the one I have not so far read aloud to my children. We usually read the earlier books (by which I really mean everything but The Silver Chair and The Last Battle), but I let my older two read those last two on their own when they were old enough to want to do so. Part of this is that I am a weepy reader, and I sob my way through all kinds of things that aren't even sad, just because I find them so moving, and it really gets tiresome for my children to keep bringing me glasses of water all during story time, and asking me solicitously how I am. Tiresome for them, I mean: all they want is to hear the story, not worry about my emotional state. And I really do find the first part of The Last Battle, the tarnished, fallen, un-magicked Narnia, so unbearably sad that I can hardly get through it. And the end is so beautiful that of course I wouldn't be able to read it out loud, so I just don't.

My older children also volunteer that The Horse and His Boy is their least favorite, though I just finished reading it to the younger set and found it richer than I had remembered its being.

[Katheryn Walker]

As I child, I always liked The Horse and His Boy, as I was (and still am) a sucker for hidden/secret identities.

[Michael]

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Horse and His Boy are my favorites, but I say that with the caveat that being my favorites does not mean I consider them the best books of the series. Meanwhile, though I am quite fond of Puddlegum's persistent melancholy (along with his speech on dying as a Narnian), I never quite liked The Silver Chair. I also second Mr. Mills opinion on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, though I do still enjoy the book.

If you asked yourself "what, then, is the best book of the series?" after reading my first sentence, I say The Magician's Nephew. Granted, 'tis not quite the mytho-allegorical morality tale that the others are, but the wonder in the creation of Narnia, the foolishness of man in Uncle Andrew--it is perhaps the truest tale of them all.

[David Gray]

Probably like the Silver Chair best both for the picture of faith it shows and because, since I got married a few years back, my wife calls me Puddleglum every so often...

[James A. Altena]

I will be perhaps the lone voice to come to the defense of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Perhaps my affection for it is due to the fact that it was the one to which I was introduced in third grade, whereas I came across the remainder of the series only as a mature adult. I have never felt the weight of the supposed didactic element to which David Mills objects; and to such degree as it is present (I actually enjoy all the clear parallels to the Passion and Resurrection), for me it gives the story a focus and unitary structure that makes the others seem more diffuse. (And is there anything more overtly and heavy-handedly didactic than "The Queen of Underland" chapter in "The Silver Chair"?) Its imagery for me has also been the most vivid of the set, and the characters the most natural, lively, and well developed. As much as I enjoy the entire series, I've always had the sense that Lewis felt constrained to develop the ramaining books around LWW in a way that made them more self-conscious.

I suppose my least favorite in the set is "Prince Caspian," based on the fact that it has the least distinctive profile. It is the only one in the set that does not have at least one scene or character that sticks firmly in my imagination.

[Judy Warner]

I must be a sucker for the "overtly and heavy handedly didactic," because The Silver Chair is my favorite. I like quests, and hidden identities, and the well-drawn picture of how hard it is to obey (with the other side of it, that you can redeem your disobedience but it's not free), and of course the wonderful Puddleglum scene. Not his speech so much, though I like that very much, but his stepping in the fire to put out the spell. It reminds me a bit of the Raiders of the Lost Ark scene where the guy with the fancy swordwork gets shot, as a demonstration that you don't have to meet your enemies on their own terms, when you have the superior position; but on a more meaningful level. Maybe because I feel as if reality was hidden to me for so long, until the fog cleared, the breaking of the evil spell and then the emergence of the children and prince into the clear night of Narnia has always held great significance for me.

[Bob]

My favorite stands as Lion, etc. I suppose the reason is part sentimental, it was the first volume of the series that I read as a child in summer school, and part due to the wonderful tone and message of the allegory. I know that the later is exactly what Tolkien amoung others disliked, but I find it both enchangting and edifying. No matter how many ways we hear the message of the Gospel we always hear something new.

[DGP]

I can understand those who dislike didacticism. I agree that Lewis' hand is heavy especially compared with Williams' or Tolkien's. (Sorry, Mr. Mills, I bring these up only to illustrate the point about Lewis.) However, this strikes me as a poor way of evaluating the *Chronicles.* They're all heavily didactic; it's simply the author's style.

As a child, I was most fascinated by *The Magician's Nephew,* but in hindsight I think a lot of my childish fascination was with the Queen, with her hints of dark knowledge and poor. It probably wasn't a healthy interest.

Again ironically, my least favorite as a child was *Prince Caspian,* the plot of which started oh-so-slowly. Yet now I appreciate it precisely because it's the most true to life. The other books treat singular experiences in Christian life, and even the analogical conversion in *A Horse and His Boy* is rare. Most of the time, we Christians mope in the doldrums of a spirituality far withdrawn from the glorious palaces and adventurous frontiers of our faith, and the great challenge is to live up to birthright.

[Stuart Koehl]

I have to admit to liking Last Battle the best, but I have a weak spot for apocalyptics.

[Beth]

I was introduced to the _Chronicles_ in college; my roommate discovered them in the college bookstore and we read -- inhaled, actually -- them during finals week. Probably the best study week I ever had.

_The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_ will always be my favorite simply because it was the first one and I fell absolutely in love with Lucy and with the professor. I wanted to be Lucy. I still want to be Lucy. (Though I find myself the professor fairly often, reading student essays: "What *do* they teach them in school these days?!")

_The Horse and His Boy_ might come in second, perhaps because its lessons on trust and responsibility are ones I needed and need. The images of the magician telling Shasta that the reward for doing one duty well is to be set another and a harder, and of Shasta on the mountainside with the invisible Lion alongside him protecting him as he snivels in fear . . . These are images I draw on continually to get through another day.

The scene of Reepicheep in his coracle at the end of _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_, and the stern admonition to Caspian that he can't go until his duties are fulfilled are also among my favorite, along with the last chapter of _The Last Battle_ and Puddleglum stamping out the fire in _The Silver Chair_. But I like these books in their entirety a tad less well than the others I've mentioned. Only a tad.

I'm simply completely in love with all of them. We read them aloud to our children over and over, and they read them to theirs now. One of them confiscated my set along the way, so I'm going to have to get another soon (probably to lose it to the last one at home when he leaves!). In fact, that would make good spring break reading . . . Yeah, that amazon gift certificate sitting in the drawer will come in quite handy in January.

[Scott Davis]

There's a special place in my heart for Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe - it was through my father reading this to me as a boy that my eyes were opened to the faith. For this six year old, the tale was just allegorical enough for me to understand the nature of sin and Christ's sacrifice.

That said, The Dawn Treader and Last Battle are fantastic tales, and my favorite to read. My wife had never read the Last Battle... I read it aloud to her our second year of marriage and wept my way through the last chapters. It evokes such a hope for heaven in me.

[Bill Daugherty]

I first read the books at age 59. Can't say why it took so long and perhaps it was to my disadvantage. I liked LWW but resented the frequent intrusions of the narrator - "just tell me the story; I'll decide about Polly's personality for myself" - an old man's gripe. Billy would probably not have objected.

My favorite was The Last Battle. It is a wonderful vision of the end of the age.

[Seth R.]

I like Voyage of the Dawn Treader best, simply because it was my favorite as a boy. I mostly read the Chronicles of Narnia now for the pure enjoyment of being transported back to a younger more imaginative time in my life. As an adult, I find C.S. Lewis a bit lacking as a fiction writer (yet still better than a LOT of fiction writers infesting the shelves at the local bookstore).

I also liked The Horse and His Boy because of the (admittedly rather tame) romance in it.

My least favorite was probably Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe because I found all the stuff with Aslan rather ponderous as a boy. I also didn't care much for the Last Battle, mostly because I didn't "get it."

I look forward to reading them to my children though. My oldest daughter is now five and will be old enough to read these to, probably in the next year (she's a bright kid).

[Susannah]

My very favorite: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because of the "adventurous journey" theme. I love the ending, when Aslan appears as a lamb.

My least favorite is Prince Caspian, but I still enjoyed reading it. I have always looked at the series as a whole, and could never leave a story out. I always read them straight through in the order they came in my set (LWW first) and never skipped around. I can't count how many times I have read them.

I love the ending of The Last Battle, but it's always been difficult and painful for me to read.

[Kristina W.]

I think my favorites are The Horse and His Boy and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, partly because I like the journey imagery that both of them use, but also for other reasons. I like The Horse and His Boy because of its emphasis on perserverance, endurance, and doing what is right instead of excusing yourself by saying that someone else will take care of it, all of which I need to work on. At one point it was actually my least favorite in the series, but its been slowly growing on me ever since I first read the series when I was six. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, though, has always been one of my favorites, because of the magical lands that they visit and especially because of the end where Aslan tells them that they have to learn to know him in their own world. I think that was what caused me to start reading the Bible on my own when I was around nine years old - I realized all of a sudden that Aslan was intended to help me know God better.

Right now, I don't have a least favorite.

[David Mills]

I wasn't thinking of this at all when I posted this item, since I finished working on the essay some time ago, but as it happens the December issue includes Narnia's Secrets: The seven heavens of the Chronicles revealed by Michael Ward. In a few days I'll post an item here asking for readers' responses to it.

[Kristina W.]

I think my favorites are The Horse and His Boy and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, partly because I like the journey imagery that both of them use, but also for other reasons. I like The Horse and His Boy because of its emphasis on perserverance, endurance, and doing what is right instead of excusing yourself by saying that someone else will take care of it, all of which I need to work on. At one point it was actually my least favorite in the series, but its been slowly growing on me ever since I first read the series when I was six. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, though, has always been one of my favorites, because of the magical lands that they visit and especially because of the end where Aslan tells them that they have to learn to know him in their own world. I think that was what caused me to start reading the Bible on my own when I was around nine years old - I realized all of a sudden that Aslan was intended to help me know God better.

Right now, I don't have a least favorite; for a while The Last Battle was my least favorite simply because I couldn't stand to read about the ape and all of his deceit, or about the ruin of Narnia, but it is one of the best in the series even though it is emotionally difficult for me to read.

[Kristina W.]

Sorry about the double post. The website gave me an error message, so I tried again, but apparently it had worked the first time after all.

[o.h.]

I discovered, while reading Prince Caspian to my first child, that it was about a once-true but now corrupted kingdom that was reformed by the eponymous hero; it featured a scene in which Peter the High King leads the other children into error, after which Lucy the proto-Christian is rebuked by Aslan for following Peter into error instead of obeying His direct word. My, what could the book be an allegory for?

I asked my (non-Catholic) husband what he thought Prince Caspian's underlying allegory was, and he immediately said "the Reformation," and then was surprised I'd never caught that before. On perhaps purely partisan grounds, it wins the prize for Least Favorite. The author of Mere Christianity need not have gone there in his children's series.

[Firinnteine]

Based on how many times I reread them, my boyhood favorites were Prince Caspian and The Horse and His Boy -- probably because they had interesting fighting and adventures in them. :-)

The Magician's Nephew and The Silver Chair were next, in that order.

My least favorites (not that I didn't like them too) were The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle.

As I grew older I learned to appreciate these volumes more; it's been some time since I could choose a "favorite," although if forced to pick I expect The Horse and His Boy would have a good shot. I don't know whether it's the "best," but I do love it. :-)

[Margaret]

The Horse and His Boy is a jewel, with many crisp moments that stay with you. Now that I have a horse, the thought of vainglorious Bree determined to conquer his profound pleasure in rolling springs often to mind. Horses love to roll, and you can't watch a horse roll without smiling. Small wonder Bree was so depressed.

The scratch Shasta gets for his meanness to a stray cat and Aravis's stripes for the whipping of her slave also linger.

And here "I tell no one any story but his own" is said.

[Mrs. B]

My favorite is The Voyage of the Dawn Treador. My least favorite is The Silver Chair. I'm now going to have to go back and re-read the whole series again to remember exactly why!

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>My least favorite is The Silver Chair.<<<

I'm sorry, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for Tom Baker as Puddleglum the Marshwiggle.

[DGP]

>>I asked my (non-Catholic) husband what he thought Prince Caspian's underlying allegory was, and he immediately said "the Reformation,"

I was the one above who said *Prince Caspian* is now my favorite precisely because it's an invitation to reformation. But only the most obtuse Protestant thinks "the Reformation" was the only reformation of the Church. There have been many. As an RC, I'd argue many were arguably more faithful as reforms than as innovations.

[DGP]

...Not that this thread needs a big fight about the Reformation. My main point is that we RCs don't need to concede to the Protestants a copyright on reformation, and to that extent *Prince Caspian* is also a welcome book in the "Mere Christian Canon."

[Isamashii Yuubi (Courageous Grace)]

I think my favorite would be "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" probably because that was the first book I ever read. My mom had started reading the series with me at bedtime when I was 4 and halfway through the book I had grasped enough to read it on my own although I still sat with her as she read it or I read it to her. I also always felt very close to Lucy as she reminded me so much of myself as a child, curious and imaginative.

I'd say my least favorite would be "Prince Caspian", but I don't know why. It just never really got me the way the other books did. I think my second favorite would be "The Last Battle"...no matter how many times I read it, I can't get through it without bawling my eyes out.

I look forward to reading the series to my son in a few years.

[elisabeth]

I must be obtuse, but I never thought of Prince Caspian as an allegory of the Reformation. I thought of the lessons in personal terms: follow the Lord not man; do what He says even if you have to stand alone; He is always right even when human wisdom would lead another way. Invaluable lessons, continually applicable.

I've always liked Prince Caspian's story. I think it's the boy who doesn't belong that appeals to me. The one who knows that things Aren't Right. Who is hungry for news of another Kingdom. Who longs for Restoration. Who is willing to fight the Usurper. Our story.

I've always had a soft spot for The Horse and His Boy, too; the Arabian Nights flavor makes it awfully fun to read aloud! My least favorite is The Magician's Nephew, I'm not sure why; I hardly ever re-read it.

[Sally]

I love the Creation in The Magician's Nephew, and the animals' puzzlement over what to do with Uncle Andrew.

And I also love The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I just do. I read it to my oldest daughter when she was 3 or 4, and for ages afterwards she tried to get "through" her father's wardrobe to go and "see Mr. Tumnus." I can remember roaming around my own backyard as a child and just WISHING that some door would open up and I could be someplace else . . .

[Firinnteine]

So this evening I decided to pick up and reread Prince Caspian... I'm about two thirds of the way through. (I blame you people. Many thanks!)

"O Aslan," said King Peter, dropping to one knee and raising the Lion's heavy paw to his face, "I'm so glad. And I'm so sorry. I've been leading them wrong ever since we started and especially yesterday morning."
"My dear son," said Aslan.

And those three words are all Aslan says in response. This sounds to me an awful lot like our Lord and the apostle Peter; not to mention the forgiveness and restoration each of us has found. It certainly does not undermine King Peter's authority. The authority of the king(s) is affirmed moments before, when Peter and Edmund step forward toward Aslan, and Lucy (who saw when none of the others could) makes way for them.

Lucy is certainly the voice of a call to reformation, to "return to the Lord." She is also the foolish things of the world bringing to nothing the wisdom of the worldly-wise. This evening, though, I was particularly struck by the way Lucy's courage and obedience mirror that of the virgin Mary.

"Now you are a lioness," said Aslan. "And now all Narnia will be renewed."

Although I myself am not Roman Catholic, and neither was Lewis, I don't see how Prince Caspian could be read as anti-RC; and I'm reasonably certain Lewis didn't intend any such reading.

[/my two cents]

[James A. Altena]

As someone trained in history, I agree with Elizabeth and Firinnteine. And C. S. Lewis never indulged in, and indeed detested, such denominational partisanship. O. H.'s husband needs to check his misconceived opinion at the door.

[DGP]

>>And C. S. Lewis never indulged in, and indeed detested, such denominational partisanship.

Unless we're using a very loose definition of "denomination," it's probably not appropriate to speak of RCs or EOs as such. The term best suits administrative affiliations of congregations, to which extent it does not apply to the administrative residuals of the Imperial Churches.

This distinction is relevant, because it means that not all "partisanship" should be described as "denominational." A Protestant may legitimately oppose Catholicism without thereby subscribing to denominationalism.

As far as Lewis is concerned -- well, he may have detested partisanship, but like most of us he dabbled in things he detested, and detested them because he knew them in his own heart.

[Michael Ward]

Lewis wrote in a letter to Kathleen Raine (7th November 1963) that 'Prince Caspian' sold less well than the other six books by quite a large margin. I wonder if that is still the case? It is certainly my least favourite and, I think, easily the least well written. The one I like best is usually whichever one of the other six I happen to be reading at the time, though I have an especially soft spot for The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader''. The last few chapters of that story take you into regions of beauty and longing that few other works have ever even attempted to enter, let alone entered so assuredly and movingly.

[bonobo]

The Horse and His Boy: its simple, almost threadbare evocation of the exotic allowed my imagination freest rein. 2nd, The Silver Chair for the compelling portrayal of sin as delusion and recovery from it.

[Kevin]

Funny, I just started re-reading them after quite some years the other day, and I realized that the first three are a bit more "work" than the others because I've read those three more than the others. I also thought that the first (The Lion, etc.) is the one least filled with adventure because it has to get so much "theology" done and the central piece is the slaying/resurrection of Aslan.

I like to think Lewis would agree with my desire for adventure (romance, really) in the books, so I hope he'd also find the Silver Chair to be his favorite because of that. I love the whole trek, the journey underground (prepared me for Dante, I suppose), and the marvelous glimpse of Bism!

It's probably been about ten years since I've read the Chronicles (since I've been married, actually), and although I've wanted to re-read them all this time, I think I'd just about read them out in my childhood and early teens (it might have been even longer since I've read them, but definitely since I was married). I kept hoping there would come a time when I could read them again, and it's nice to finally be there. Having read so much other Lewis and followed the threads of his own reading, I can already see how much wider and deeper Narnia will be this time around, rather how Aslan grows larger the older (wiser, I suppose) the children get.

[Bill M]

Dawn Treador for me remains the favorite, mainly for the de-dragoning of Eustace. That scene resonates with me so deeply (though I understand that some might find it too heavy-handed).

When I was younger, The Horse and His Boy was always the hardest to get through. I think it was the lack of familiar characters and settings that was the biggest hurdle. Also, apart from the talking horses, it is the least "fantastical". I appreciate it much more now.

I think Silver Chair is probably the one that comes to mind last, when I think about the series. Not because it is "least", but only because it has made the least impression on me.

[cnb]

I admit to being astonished at the number of people who have named The Last Battle their favourite. I have always disliked the story: the grotesque artifice at the heart of the story, the cruelty of the Ape toward the Donkey, the fact that the Ape and Donkey come out of nowhere -- it all strikes false notes, both tonal and narrative, to me. To hear others praising it is most interesting, and perhaps it deserves a reassessment.

My own favourite is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I love scene after scene: the old house, the wardrobe, the snowy wood, the lamppost, Mr. Tumnus, the witch's sleigh, the river with waves frozen in, the Turkish Delight, the stone animals, the wild ride atop Aslan and the great leap! I can understand that some find it too didactic, but I have never felt so myself.

My other favourites are Dawn Treader and The Magician's Nephew. In the former it is the adventuring, journey-into-the-unknown aspect that captures my imagination, as well as the many splendid scenes they encounter en route. In the latter it is the set-up: the old attics through which one can move from house to house, the magic rings, and the Wood Between the Worlds; the actual narrative action is quite slight, but the other elements are enough to elevate the book in my estimation.

[Maureen]

I must've read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian at least five or six times before I got to a library that had any other Narnia books. I'd already read Lord of the Rings by then.

I didn't realize who Aslan was supposed to be until I'd read Dawn Treader for the first time and was rereading Lion for the umpteenth time. Nothing obvious about it, says my third grade self at the school library. And all those editions with forewords and big screaming spoiler blurbs are Very Annoying.

[W.E.D. Godbold]

I'm eager to read next month's Touchstone article 'cause it seems to me (presently) that Narnia was a sort of clearinghouse for CSL's imagination. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian are my least favorite books for reasons that others have already addressed. Voyage and The Last Battle are very good, but the first book my father ever read to me (other than the Bible) was The Silver Chair and so it remains my favorite in the series. I think Puddleglum is a classic character of children's fiction and I appreciate the redemption of Eustace even more than the redemption of Edmund (it just seems to "work" better as an element of the story).

I second Scott Davis. I think the value of the series (and especially The Last Battle is that it *does* evoke a hope of heaven in us. Our imaginations *need* to be baptized as much as any other part of us and few writers seem to have appreciated that as much as Lewis. Hope can't live as a purely intellectual phenomenon.

[Judy Warner]

Ah yes, Bill M, the de-dragoning of Eustace. One of the best scenes in all the books. It was very influential in my becoming a Christian. Coming from Judaism I kept asking, "Okay, I believe the story, but what does a Christian do? Judaism is all about doing. One answer, given in the Eustace story, is "stand with your soul naked before God." That was frightening and thrilling at the same time, and a worthy thing. Later I understood better that Christianity is not all about doing the way Judaism is.

[Miss Luthien]

My favorite is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, it just is. It's the first one my father read to me when I was about 4, and I fell in love; like Sally's daughter I even tried shutting myself in the closet to get to Narnia and truly believed it would work if I could just find the right one... The didacticism in Lewis' fiction has never bothered me (the love exception is not in the Chronicles), and the allegory is part of why I love it.

The Last Battleis my least favorite, I love the ending but the rest of it is so sad I can hardly bear to read it.

[James Kabala]

I dislike the last chapter of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe because of the way the children seem to be unaffected by the fact that the children grow to adulthood and then revert to childhood again with no noticeable effects. (Their lengthy reign also forms the backdrop of The Horse and His Boy, of course.) The children in Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader do not (as far as I can remember; it's been a long time since I last read the books) seem like ex-adults; they conduct themselves like children who have always been children.

The problem becomes most evident with Susan's apostacy in The Last Battle and the famous assertions that she is only interested in "nylons and lipstick and invitations," "wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now," and even regards Narnia as "funny games we used to play when we were children." No seems to notice or care that Susan has already been "the age she is now" with no ill effects. The Narnian world presumably lacks nylons and lipstick and invitations, but Susan was old enough to be the recipient of an undesired marriage proposal, and therefore presumably post-pubescent and subject to whatever makeup-and-clothing-related temptations that Narnia had to offer. Even worse, no one seems to notice or care that by denying the reality of Narnia Susan is not merely dismissing a few days or a few weeks of her life as a hallucination or dream, which I suppose is barely within the limits of possibility, but entire years (or is it even decades? I can't remember), something which, while not wanting to deny the power of sin to lead people to do absurd things, I consider to be impossible in real life in a non-mentally-ill person. Maybe I'm overthinking this (after all, I don't recall being concerned about this issue at age ten), but I do regard it as an annoying flaw in the series.

[James Kabala]

I'm sorry that the previous comment lacks italics for the book titles; I'm never been able to figure out how to make those work. I hope it is comprehensible nonetheless.

[David Mills]

It's interesting (to me, anyway) how formative the Chronicles were to so many of you. I think I was given TLTW&TW as a irregularly-churched teenager but couldn't make my way through it. If I remember rightly, it struck me as a kid's book — not a child's book, which I liked even then, but a kid's book.

I only read the series through years later when I started reading it to our eldest, then three, and discovered how good the books were. I think TLTW&TW the kind of book best encountered as a small child or as an adult who has grown up enough to be able to read as a small child.

That said, I think Mr. Godbold is right that the books are "a sort of clearinghouse for CSL's imagination." I don't mean that he had a bunch of ideas he wanted to illustrate as that he had a lot of insights that presented themselves in the writing and which he naturally expressed through his stories.

This explains some of the inconsistencies and problems with the narrative, like Susan's fall, which is true to life but not true to the story: Lewis had an insight into being "grown-up" and expressed it through Susan's apostasy, without seeing that she was unlikely to fall, or at least to fall in that way.

Our youngest's favorite of the series is The Prince and His Boy, which I discovered him rereading today. He can't explain why.

[David Mills]

I meant The Horse and His Boy. Sorry. This is fixed in my head for some reason, much to the annoyance of our youngest.

[James A. Altena]

James Kabala,

While agreeing wiht you and David Mills about the inconsistency of Susan's fall with respect to the theological principle of election, I don't see it as inconsistent in the sense of exposure to the tempations you describe. For me it is clear that Narnia and our world are so different, in terms of state and stage of inner spiritual transformation, as well as externals, that Susan would not be prey to such things in Narnia as she is in our world -- at least, not in the same way. And I always assumed that upon returning from Narnia, they retained a memory of what the children had been through, but not the transformation itself, which as a memory became instead upon their return a goal and objective to be followed and pursued, a foretaste of things to come, until the time came in Aslan's giving that it should be granted permanently. And yet the foretaste is enough to work radical change (cf. Peter) if we but retain it firmly in mind.

I do think that the truth C. S. Lewis is pointing to with Susan is that adolescence marks a decisive stage in which we develop a sense of autonomy from parents lacking in childhood, which brings a desire for independence and the trappings of adulthood, including the desire to appear to be already "grown-up" and "sophisticated," and a corresponding loss of innocence (particularly with the emergence of sexual desires). [And I've often wondered if Susan's behavior in "The Horse and His Boy" was a foreshadowing of the falling away in "THe Last Battle."] This has a modern spiritual counterpart in the desire to be autonomous and independent from God, to appear sophisticated and no longer dependent upon Him or belief in Him. Ironically, people such as Susan go from being children and childlike to being childish instead; whereas the Christian, as he grows to spiriutal maturity, yet retains a paradoxically firm grasp on his remaining a child of God.

[hibernicus]

If you're talking about PRINCE CASPIAN and the Reformation, the book might be read as having another allegory which is more sympathetic to Catholicism. Caspian discovers that he is descended from pirates who dispossessed the ancient inhabitants of Narnia and drove them into hiding; this could be read as a coming to terms with his own descent from the seventeenth-century Ulster Pkanters and the atrocities they committed against the Catholic Irish. (I know perfectly well that the atrocities were not all on one side, and so does Lewis. I have met IRA supporters whose mindset exactly mirrors that of Nikabrik the Dwarf, and this is not a pleasant experience.)

[Jonathan M.]

My favorite Narnia Chronicle is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I really like the sea adventures, and how Edmund, Lucy and Eustace get into the picture. One of my other favorite parts is when Lucy has to go up to read the book on how to make things visible. (I am eight years old.)

[David Mills]

Thank you all for an interesting discussion, graced at the end by the contribution of an admirably articulate eight-year-old, Jonathan M.

One last point: I think the learned Mr. Altena has misunderstood the point Mr. Kabala and I were making about Susan. Her apostasy illustrates a psychological and spiritual truth, but it still doesn't make any sense in terms of the story, for the reasons Mr. Kabala gives. Her having forgotten all the years in Narnia (as her siblings did not) is just not believable. As good as the stories are, they do suffer from inconsistencies and implausibilities like this, presumably the result of the mode of composition and Lewis's naturally illustrating mind.