The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (Book 6 in the Chronicles of Narnia) [Mass Market Paperback]

C. S. Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1970

Mass market Collier edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: The MacMillan Company (1970)
• ASIN: B0013GQ1BC
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,449,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW by C. S. Lewis, February 15, 2011

By 

thepaxdomini "The Book Review" (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (Book 6 in the Chronicles of Narnia) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Magician's Nephew (1955) is a children's fantasy novel, the sixth in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Decades before the events of the other books in the series, two children (one of whom is Professor Digory Kirke from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) travel to magical worlds, inadvertently free the witch Jadis, and witness the creation of Narnia.

The Magician's Nephew often has a lighter feel than the other books in the series. Lewis, who draws to a great extent upon his own childhood, is involved in the narrative in a more playful way than we've seen since The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And while Jadis is an imposing and terrible figure, her attempts to conquer London are more comical than anything; Lewis does a good job striking a balance with her and not making the character ever seem silly, in spite of what's happening.

Lewis's imagination has free rein in a number of places in the story, most notably the Wood between the Worlds, the dead city of Charn, and the birth of Narnia. And with references to fairies, Atlantis, Arthurian legend, and the like, this book has something of the feel of a traditional fairy tale. The total effect is that for the most part, The Magician's Nephew is refreshingly different from the other books in the series.

In addition to Lewis's nostalgia for the Edwardian days and bygone social mores (the good and the bad), there are other moral themes at work here. The one that Digory is faced with time and again throughout the novel is integrity. And as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe contained strong parallels to Christ's Passion, The Magician's Nephew parallels the biblical account of Creation and the Garden of Eden.

It has been the fashion recently to read The Magician's Nephew as the first in the series (since it is, after all, chronologically first). This is fine, I guess, but to my mind it works better after the reader has finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the "Caspian trilogy." Here, Lewis assumes that the reader already has a familiarity with Narnia, and while that isn't mandatory to enjoy the book, there are a lot of little moments that the reader will not fully appreciate if he or she hasn't read the other books first.

The Magician's Nephew is a fun, imaginative story. But don't read it first.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing tale with biblical references, January 18, 2010

By 

Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (Book 6 in the Chronicles of Narnia) (Mass Market Paperback)

C. S. Lewis' seven volume story has been an enjoyable best seller since the 1950s. Although Lewis did not write The Magician's Nephew first, he wanted people to read it as the beginning of the series.
The story begins in England several generations ago "when your grandfather was a child." Two children, Digory and Polly, live near each other, meet and like each other. Digory has a sick mother and wishes that he could find a cure for her. Digory also has a cowardly selfish uncle who has been experimenting with magic. The uncle found what he thinks is a way of transporting a person to another world by touching a yellow ring. The person can return, he thinks, by touching a green ring.
The uncle is too afraid to try the trip himself, so he tricks Polly into making the trip and persuades Digory to follow her.
The two children find themselves in a totally ruined world, a world destroyed by the magic of a wicked witch. The witch grabs the children when they try to escape her and, after some adventures, the three end up in a strange land, together with the cowardly uncle, a cab driver and the driver's horse.
They arrive in Narnia, a magical land created a lion. The lion populates the land and gives a pair of each animal the power of speech.
Besides being an engrossing tale, the story is filled with biblical associations that could prompt an attentive reader to compare what Lewis is saying with the Bible and deduce messages from the tale.
The lion can be seen as God. Two animals of each species are placed in Noah's ark, so also two of every species is given the power to talk. There is an episode with an apple tree where eating an apple gives wisdom. The lion makes the cabbie and his wife, who it brings to Narnia, ruler over the animals, just as Adam and Eve. The witch, as the evil impulse in superstitions associated with but not explicit in the Bible, is present. Significantly, it is not the lion (God) who brings evil (the witch) to paradise (Narnia), but humans (the two children). The lion predicts that the witch (evil) will harm the human race that will come from the cabbie and his wife.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chronologically First in the Series, November 17, 2010

By 

Mrs. Chips (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (Book 6 in the Chronicles of Narnia) (Mass Market Paperback)

How would you like to be related to a professor everyone thinks is a little mad? Digory is not so sure when he finds out that his uncle is using him and Polly the neighbor girl as guinea pigs for an experiment. Go with Digory and experience the creation of a perfect world. But beware a serpent has entered the world under a different guise. Will Digory and Polly ever make it home again to London? This fantasy is a good value, you get three worlds not just one:)Be sure to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the next book chronologically in the series.