Narnia… the land beyond the wardrobe door, a secret place frozen in eternal winter, a magical country waiting to be set free.
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor’s mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don’t believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they’ve been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch’s sinister spell.
“Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.”
“Are they?” said the Professor; and Peter did not quite know what to say.”
Have you ever craved Turkish delight so much that you’d betray your entire family to an evil witch for it? No? Just Edmund then.
All jokes aside, Edmund is one of my favourite characters in this book (and the series), and I enjoyed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe so, so much.
There’s heavy debate in The Chronicles of Narnia fandom as to whether this book is considered the first in the series, or if it’s The Magician’s Newphew, but for me it definitely is — I’m a big supporter of the publication order being the correct order, and not the chronological. Although I’ve read all the other novels in the series now, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is definitely my favourite and that’s because of the wonderful characters.
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy remain the best part of the series. I find their sibling relationships so touching and realistic — even Edmund betraying his family because he’s upset at them. Lucy is a sweetheart and I’d happily read more of her adventures in Narnia, while Peter is definitely upheld as the hero and Susan as the mother-figure.
And of course, I can’t forget Aslan. I found Aslan so intriguing in this book (not so much in the others because then he, LITERALLY, becomes God), and you can really see how the children would be in awe of him.
I have already read the other books in this series, and the others aren’t quite on the same level as this one, but my order of favourites would be:
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- Prince Caspian
- The Silver Chair
- The Magician’s Newphew
- The Horse and His Boy
- The Last Battle — absolute trash, this one
If you’re interested in reading The Chronicles of Narnia, I say definitely read the trilogy that the movies are based on: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader but don’t bother with the remaining books. They’re … not good.
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