The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis

My nephew recommended we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis for our monthly book read. He enjoys fantasy whilst it’s not my favoured genre. An astute and adventurous reader’s been quick to guide and challenge my move into the fantasy genre – I coped with The Hobbit, but he thought Lord of the Flies would be too much for me – that at 16 years of age! I trust his suggestions… and was not to be disappointed.

While there were elements of The Wizard of Oz and other similar stories, it was Lewis’ style of writing that really captured me. He wrote as though he was telling the story in person; so much of his style would be edited out today – too many uses of ‘then’ especially in close proximity, exact repetition of phrases – telling the reader why something didn’t happen or what we knew.

A good story doesn’t need to be crafted – it needs to be told, sometimes as simply as possible to be most effective.
It reminded me of Hugh Lofting’s Dr Doolittle – a story ahead of its time.

I was left wondering what I would have thought about both books had I read them as a young person – would I have re-read them in later years? recommdended them to my nephew rather than he recommend them to me? And would I have enjoyed them as much then as I did now? seeing the subtleties of message and language?