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The Silver Chair is the forth book I’ve read in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. It is labeled as the sixth book, but as some people may be aware, there is a disagreement as to what order the books should be read. Some say that you should read them in the order Lewis published them; others say that they should be read according to time the story takes place. I’ve chosen to read them in the order they were published. One article pointed out, there are references in some of the books that make more sense if you read the books in the order Lewis wrote them.
Enough of
that, back to the book. The
Silver Chair continues the story of Eustace Scrubb, cousin to the Pevensies,
the siblings who once ruled Narnia. As the story begins, we find Jill Pole, a
schoolmate of Eustace’s, as she is trying to escape the bullies. Eustace finds her. This is not a coincidence. Visitors to Narnia are called in some kind of
magical way.
It is nice
to see Eustace is still himself, but with the goodness and bravery he learned
in Narnia. He still gets annoyed at
things the way he did in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but he
isn’t in disbelief and he strives to do the right thing. Jill is now the one who places blame, even
when she knows she’s in the wrong. It’s
another story where the children grow and learn about themselves and the world.
We also revisit
Caspian. Many years have passed. (This is all in the beginning of
the book.) It made Eustace sad to see a
once great warrior grown so old, but I saw it differently. I thought it was great that Caspian lived a
long life, ruling kindly over the land.
I like looking back at characters in a series or even over a long
novel. I know Narnia
is a bit different, as the stories don’t necessarily need to be read in order,
but it is still nice to know what happened to a character you had grown to care
for.
The
Silver Chair is a good story. It
made me wonder if the white witch and the green witch are somehow related. I’ve looked on the interweb and I’m not the
only one who wonders at the relationship between the green and white witches. I also want to know, who will threaten Narnia
next? There always seems to be something
to fight.
Count me among those who think these books should be read in publication order, not in Narnia's chronological order. Sometimes for the reasons you've already pointed out, sometimes because you just need to start with LionWitchWardrobe to get a child hooked in the series. If I'd had to begin with the Magician's Nephew, I might have continued on to read the other books, but I might have just left it at that.
ReplyDeleteI still have to read the next three books, but right now, I agree. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe definitely hooks you into the series.
ReplyDelete