During the depths of the German air offensive on Britain during the Second World War, many urban parents sent their children to the countryside for relative safety. These kids were often taken in by people with large houses. In this book, the first-written of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series, the four children of the Pevensie family, Peter, Susan, Lucy... and Edmund, find themselves deposited in the creaky old manor home of creaky old Professor Kirke. Therein, during a game of hide and seek the youngest of the group, Lucy discovers a wardrobe cabinet... with a difference. Stepping into the back of this wardrobe, you see, one finds oneself... somewhere else...

That's the big childhood fantasy, isn't it? That there is some Other Place, a place where beavers talk, where centaurs walk, a place where some important task awaits, some critical task awaits. Something more important and interesting than dividing fractions or "i before e, except after c." That, on the surface is what the story of LWW is about.

The Pevensie children find themselves in the Land of Narnia which is in the grip of a hundred year "winter without a Christmas" (and no coal power plants or SUVs in sight...). Narnia is one of those fantasy world anachronisms, a place that has no evident technology more sophisticated than a sword forge or maybe a square-rigged sailing ship that does have homely technological products like printed books. It is inhabited by pagan creatures like centaurs and fauns as well as talking beavers and wolves. The one creature one does not encounter in Narnia is what they call Sons of Adam/Daughters of Eve. Humans like the Pevensies.

Narnia is in the grip of a bad case of permanant winter. This was caused by the wicked White Witch Jadis. She styles herself Queen of the land but that isn't strictly true, and here is a hint of spring in the air... Aslan, the great lion is massing his forces at the border awaiting the arrivial of the catalyst to begin the end of Jadis's reign -- sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

C.S. Lewis wrote LWW in 1950 apparently (if the dedication page is to be believed for a youngster named Lucy Barfield.  LWW is very much a children's book. It's written in rather the same "old-uncle-ish" tone which Lewis's friend J.R.R. Tolkien took in "The Hobbit". Thus readers will encounter sentences in something like this form: "Of course Aslan wasn't just a normal lion -- Aslan was special." To many, especially adults, this sort of prose may seem like being talked-down to especially to adults.

Another thing that may annoy some is Lewis's use of the literary device of allegory. I have nattered on about this at some length elsewhere so I'll not go on and on here. But briefly: this is the device that involves the author implanting symbolic elements in the plot and scene which make some moral point. The point in LWW (and more or less the whole of Narnia) is the message of Christ. Tolkien detested allegory and, for the most part, so do I but Lewis executes it with a deft light touch so no great damage is done.

When George Lucas started thinking about making  "Star Wars" he decided he wanted his "universe" to look "lived in", he wanted the backdrop the characters lived in to seem real. Tolkien embraced the same ethic (perhaps not explicitly) in his (sub-)creation of Middle Earth. Narnia, for all of it's fine set-dressing doesn't really possess this quality. The "world" presented often feels like a back-drop for the action of the story. Narnia doesn't really have much history, culture or traditions. Everybody speaks the same language: beavers, bears, and bees. Readers often say they wouldn't mind moving to somewhere in Middle Earth, I rather doubt many feel the same way about Narnia, at least from reading LWW only. This is, I think, the biggest hit against both LWW and the Narnia series collectively.

One last thing. If you decide to experience the Narnia series by buying the Harper Collins combo edition (has a big picture of a lion on the cover) you should know that for some unfathomable reason, the editorial twinks at H-C decided to organize the book's seven books in the order of their chronology inside Narnia rather than in the order of their publication. Don't read them this way. The later books (two of them) may be set in Narnia's past but they are not a good introduction to the story arc. LWW is the story to read to determine if you'll want to read the others. If you need the proper order read this review.

LWW, along with "The Screwtape Letters", is the best of Lewis's work I've seen so far. The rest of the Narnia stuff, although often good, is lesser meat. I think sometimes Lewis's Christian, allegorical point-making gets in the way of making a good story. This is a bit of a shame but it is what it is.

(Incidentally, if I had the option I'd give LWW a 4 1/2 star rating but... today we'll have to just settle for a strong 4.)

Recommended: Yes