During a cold, quiet afternoon in Brooklyn nine days ago, I picked up The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I read the entire series a long time ago, and this thin volume didn’t seem like it could contain all that I remember of this start to the fabulous tales of Narnia. I dashed through it all the same.
The book is written for young adults, and as such, I almost wish I hadn’t read it again. It remains a wonderful tale, and I certainly plan to see the current movie, but the color and depth of my childhood reading (and memory) left me surprised at how simple the language is, and how short the book. It’s abrupt and quick and hardly seems to paint the whole world which still echoed in my head from long ago. Maybe I shouldn’t see the movie, either… but I probably will.
Nothing is as simple as a boyhood hero.
2 responses so far ↓
1 clock — watching time, the only true currency » Book: Over to You // Mar 17, 2006 at 7:22 am
[...] Dahl wrote various wonderful stories, but the one which I got to first, long ago, was Danny, the Champion of the World. I expect a re-read would spoil it somewhat, as it was written for a younger audience, but probably not as jarring as the Narnia re-read. Filed under: Books Comments: [...]
2 Books: The Chronicles of Prydain | clock — watching time, the only true currency // May 10, 2007 at 8:39 pm
[...] The Chronicles of Prydain were one of my favorite series of books growing up. I just re-read all five because the boy dove in a couple of weeks ago. He’s now read them all and is re-reading them. The books sit in a stack on the floor, and he returns to Taran and Eilonwy and all the rest again and again. This weekend, we’ll take them back to the library, and pick up the last few of the Narnia series. I didn’t jump in to re-read those, after my The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe experience ~18 months ago. But Taran and the rest of this Lord of the Rings “lite” saga haven’t worn out their welcome yet. [...]