The Magician's Nephew
1955
- fantasy
- juvenile fiction
- cartoons and comics
- fiction
- fairy tales
- narnia (imaginary place)
- reading list
- magic
- romance norte americano
- fantasy fiction
The story
Digory let out a scream. “What's happened to Polly?” “Congratulate me, my dear boy,” said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. “My experiment has succeeded. The little girl's gone – vanished – right out of this world.” When Digory and Polly discover Uncle Andrew's secret workshop, they are tricked into touching some magic rings that take them right out of this world. But even Uncle Andrew doesn't realise the wonders that lie ahead as they discover the gateway to the magical land of Narnia, where many thrilling adventures await them.
What it’s like
Cool, clear late-summer light and a lot of open air: the book moves between a cramped, dusty London townhouse with its locked attic workshop and the strange, saturated quiet of a dying world and a newborn Narnia. Its prose is brisk, wry and companionable, with a narrator who addresses the reader directly and sets up small domestic comedy before the wonder arrives, then lets the sensory world open up, from bright green hills and starlit silence to a sudden hush of creation. The vibe is gentle wonder with a dry undercurrent, the sort of book that suits a rainy Sunday, a bedtime read aloud, or a quiet evening when you want something bright and unhurried. Pacing is easy and episodic, with short chapters that feel like stepping through doors one by one. The emotional register is warm and tender, centred on two children who begin prickly and self-interested and slowly grow braver, kinder and more honest with each other. Intensity is low: there is some peril, a menacing figure and an unsettling moment of cruelty, but no gore and little real violence, and the darkness passes quickly. It is for readers who want an old-fashioned, cosy magic with moral heart, and for anyone revisiting a childhood favourite.
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