Tumnus’s Bookshelf: The NarniaFans Book Reviews: “Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia” by CS Lewis and Major Warren Hamilton Lewis

Hey, everybody! Welcome back to Tumnus’s Bookshelf, where we review any and all books by, about, and inspired by CS Lewis and the land of Narnia. For today’s review we will be looking at Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia by CS Lewis and Major Warren Hamilton Lewis.                                                        

 

Title: Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia

Authors: CS Lewis and Major Warren Hamilton Lewis

Editor: Walter Hooper

Publisher: HarperChildrens (October 21, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0061698334

ISBN-13: 978-0061698330

 

Summary:

Durring their childhood, CS Lewis and his brother Warren shared a special fantasy land called Boxen. Now in this  collection of stories, skits, drawings and other assorted writings, CS Lewis takes new readers to another exciting land of adventure. 

 

Review:

For over 60 years CS Lewis has taken readers everywhere: from the extra-terrestrial worlds of Malacandra and Peralandra, on a bus ride to the place between Heaven and Hell, down to the lower offices of the Underworld’s bureaucracy, to the ancient city of Glome, and most notably through wardrobe into the land of Narnia. However, what many readers may not know is long before Lewis and his creations of Ransom, Narrator, Screwtape, Oreul and Lucy took us to their worlds, Lewis shared such a place with one of the dearest persons to him. The place was the lands of Animal land and Boxen, The person was his bother Warren “Warnie” Lewis. These were stories that were not only written for their own entertainment purposes, but as a way of keeping in touch with each other while Warnie was away at school.

Growing up in Northern Ireland there was very little for them to do on cold rainy days for fun, besides read ( mainly books that some would say were “too old” for them), listen to their father’s political conversations, and write stories.  It was the books and conversations that gave way too much of the content in Boxen. Some of the events that occur in the story include the characters debating over war, and land, to the treatment of a hated social minority, the chessmen (anthropomorphized chess pieces). The young Jack even deals with the “inner ring” or a clique long before he wrote the Weight of Glory.

The stories mainly focus on a group of animals. Lord John Big a frog, Mr. Puddiphat an Owl, General Quickestppe, one of the chess men, and a noble young mouse named Sir Peter ( a predecessor to Reepicheep) are just a few of the colorful and eclectic denizens of this new world. Their adventures are engaging like any children’s adventure story. The end result is a series of adventures that are in many ways reminiscent of Kenneth Grahme’s beloved classic The Wind in the Willows, a book that was a favorite of CS Lewis.

The history of this world is related to readers through not only stories but skits, and well thought out time lines and even encyclopedia articles. Readers get a glimpse at just how fertile the imagination of CS Lewis truly was and see the ground work for much of his fiction .The only thing long time readers may be dismayed about is that here is no “Christian” content in the story.

There are some spelling errors in the book, but they are left intact to help show that this book was written by a child. In that instance either he didn’t know how to spell the word in question at the time, or he was trying to make it sound archaic. However, while with most books spelling errors would be annoying, in a book like this, they have a certain child-like charm to them that only helps to illustrate  Lewis’ growth and development as a writer.

Because of the more “political” nature of this book, it may not have much appeal to younger readers. They may also crave more of the high adventure and escapism of Narnia, which is not in this book. In many ways the world of Boxen is more like late 19^th and early 20^th century Ireland then the Medieval-esque fantasy world of Narnia. Despite how well told these stories are, this is one that children may have to wait till they are older to read and appreciate.

However, for older readers and long-time fans this book is a welcome treat. Those fans who crave more Lewis books will love this not just for the depth of his imagination and his careful attention to detail, but because they get to see signs on every page of the writer Jack Lewis would become one day. They will also enjoy seeing the kinds of stories their favorite author wrote as a child. It is for these fans that this book has been published, and it is these fans that are sure to find a comfy spot for Boxen on their book shelf.

 

4 ½ out of 5 sheilds

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