The Magician's Book
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures
3.9
Laura Miller
Enchanted by Narnia's fantastic world as a child, prominent critic Laura Miller returns to the series as an adult to uncover the source of these small books' mysterious power by looking at their creator, Clive Staples Lewis. What she discovers is not the familiar, idealized image of the author, but a more interesting and ambiguous truth: Lewis's tragic and troubled childhood, his unconventional love life, and his intense but ultimately doomed friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien. Finally reclaiming Narnia "for the rest of us," Miller casts the Chronicles as a profoundly literary creation, and the portal to a lifelong adventure in books, art, and the imagination.
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Author
Laura Miller
Pages
320
Publisher
Little, Brown
Published Date
2008-12-03
ISBN
0316040266 9780316040266
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"The _Chronicles of Narnia_ are among the most popular children's books ever written, but many former fans are troubled or just plain disgusted with their Christian religious element, especially as evangelicals have claimed them for their own. How then can a skeptic, or a religious non-Christian, continue to draw meaning and pleasure from books written with such a decidedly Christian world view? This is the conundrum Miller addresses, with varying results. It's an interesting book, but it doesn't actually focus on the stated question. We get chapters on Narnia's mythopoetic antecedents, the connection between storytelling and language acquisition, and a history of C.S. Lewis' intellectual and religious development, (in particular his relationship with J.R.R.Tolkien). There is much discussion of literary forms and of British, Celtic and Norse folklore. Yet apart from a few quotations from anti-Narnian Phillip Pullman, the religious/skeptic tension is never adequately dealt with. Fans of Tolkien and Lewis will learn a lot from this book, but not what the author promised."
Lesley Williams