Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to Narnia and CS Lewis! For this weeks review, we will be looking at Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia
Book Title: Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia
Author (Editor): Herbie Brennan
Publisher: Teen Libris (Produced by BenBella Books, Inc., for Borders, Inc.)
ISBN-10#: 0979233135
ISBN-13#: 9780979233135
Summary of the book:
For over fifty years, CS Lewis’ beloved Chronicles of Narnia have inspired, thrilled and enchanted millions. For some they have even lead others to following the same path as CS Lewis and enter into the world of writing. Edited by Herbie Brennan, Through the Wardrobe is a collection of essays by sixteen different authors celebrating the magical world of CS Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.
Review of the book:
In CS Lewis’s The Last Battle there is a rather haunting scene. As the creatures are called to the door in the stable, they are divided right and left. Then one of two things happen. For those who look at Aslan with fear and hatred are swallowed up in his shadow never to be scene again. For those who look on him with love they are allowed to enter into his kingdom. In my humble opinion, this book is collection of essays written by those who would look on Aslan with love.
Through the Wardrobe is one of those few books that does not look at Narnia from a devotional standpoint but instead look at some of the other themes present in Narnia. And there are a great deal of them. From Lewis’s love of nature, to growing up, to simply the magic of stories, there are many wonderful themes in the stories to be gleaned. All these themes and more are dealt with in this new book.
Teenagers are the primary audience for this book, but that does not mean it is poorly written. To often when writers try to write a series of essays written for teens, they tend to try and pander to the lowest common denominator. Not so here. Great love and care goes into every single essay. This book ends up being well written, well crafted, and insightful; and at the same time witty enough to engage the reader. I would even be so bold to venture that they would make excellent secondary sources for term papers in high school and college on CS Lewis and the Narnian Chronicles.
Don’t let any of the essay titles fool you! Diana Peterfreund’s essay “ King Edmund the Cute” may seem like it’s about one of those raving fan girl crushes on a literary character of Edmund Pevensie, but instead it ends up being in the end a thoughtful, insightful analysis of the character. Herbie Brennan’s “The War of Light and Darkness” is an eerie examination of how the White Witch parallels Hitler, and not just Satan. “Waking up the Trees” by Susan Juby looks at Lewis’ love of nature and how humans play a big role in our world. “Minding the Gap” by Zu Vincent and Kiara Koenig is a great examination of Susan and Lucy and how they compare to each other and what they tell us about them as characters and allow us to wonder about ourselves which one we’d rather be more like, Susan: the one who only sees things at face value, or Lucy the one who goes beyond appearances.
The essayists are not afraid to address some of the controversies of the Narnian Chronicles such as the charge of sexism. This is not only dealt with but refuted. The essay, “ Serious Action Figures” looks at how Lucy, Jill, Polly and Aravis are good role models for girls and how they play an unconventional role in Lewis’ fiction in contrast to the role of women in other books written around that time and gives a great analysis of each of the female characters.
The only essay which readers might not enjoy much is “The Kingdom of Colormen” which addresses the charge of racism with the Colormen characters. Readers may find a bit of frustration with it as it may seem that as soon as the writer of that particular essay constructs the argument against the charge, the argument is later deconstructed and you’re left wondering “so is it or isn’t it?” However the goal of the essay, much like with the book, isn’t to make readers think one way or another about the books but rather foster discussion about these topics.
A few readers may find it off putting that the book is not written from a strict Christian perspective. That’s fine! There are plenty of books that look at that. This book shows that Narnia belongs to every one and that it is in fact a well loved series not just by Christians. Narnia is not a “Christian” book in the same sense as Left Behind. Specific patterns of salvation are never given and every single aspect of Christian doctrine and the Bible is not dealt with or symbolized. Narnia is, first and foremost, a magical fantasy word, and an epic myth that speaks to every one if they let it.
For Narnia fans young and old this is a welcome edition to their library. The book is exclusive only to Borders Bookstore and should be available on their website, and it is well worth the purchase. If ever you’re in a Borders bookstore this is definitely one worth picking up. You’ll enjoy it. I know I did.
Five out of Five Shields.