Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 112
Printing Date: November 01, 2003
Publishing house: HarperCollins
Age index: Ages 9-12
Release Date: November 04, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 1601202
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Polly's hand went out to touch one of the rings. Immediately, without a flash or a noise, she vanished. When horrible Uncle Andrew starts experimenting with magic, Digory and Polly find themselves in another world, and at the beginning of an incredible adventure, as the doorway to the magical land of Narnia opens This is the very first adventure in the exciting Chronicles of Narnia.
Amazon.com Review:
This large, deluxe hardcover edition of the very first title in the classic Chronicles of Narnia series, The Magician's Nephew, is a gorgeous introduction to the magical land of Narnia. The many readers who discovered C.S. Lewis's Chronicles through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be delighted to find that the subsequent volume in the series is actually the very first in the sequence--and a step back in time. In this unforgettable story, British schoolchildren Polly and Digory inadvertently tumble into the Wood Between the Worlds, where they meet the evil Queen Jadis and, ultimately, the great, mysterious King Aslan. We witness the birth of Narnia and discover the legendary source of all the adventures that are to follow in the seven books that comprise the series.
Rich, heavy pages, a gold-embossed cover, and Pauline Baynes's original illustrations (hand-colored by the illustrator herself 40 years later) make this special edition of a classic a bona fide treasure. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter
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Rated by buyers 
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This book seems to have been written to give the classic " The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" from the '40's a history, but later? C.S. Lewis continued to write about this alternate fantasy reality with the Christian overtones for seven books. I don't rate this as one of the better ones,
but they are all interesting mixes of magic, alternate worlds and
Christian divine right of kings mythology. We have ordinary boys and girls on their summer/ vacation "adventures" become princes
and princesses in Narnia where the horse and other animals talk.
This story starts the sequence as the boy and the Lion Aslan create a new young world where Narnia is a kingdom. Time and space and laws on nature are different in these parallel worlds: Charn from where the witch comes is very old, Earth is between in age and Narnia's world is new.
I have to say that even the worst of these books is very well written and thought out by a master story teller.
Rated by buyers -
C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew (Harper Collins, 1955)
Back when I was a kid, I read what were then considered the very first two and a half books of the Chronicles of Narnia; I never did make it through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Now, with the travesty that was the movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe hanging in my memory, I felt the need to go back and revisit these, very first to see if I could finally finish Dawn Treader, and second to see if the books were as good as I remembered. Now I find they've also altered the order of them, for chronological order of the story rather than the release dates. And thus I started with The Magician's Nephew, which back in the day was the fifth book in the series.
This one tells the story of the creation of Narnia. There's an adventure bit thrown in for good measure, but it's really a creation myth. And I have to say I wasn't terribly fond of it, and I can't imagine I'd have liked it at all if it had been presented to me as the beginning of the series when I was growing up. There's just so much more going on in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (as I recall it, anyway). Still, it's a quick read, if one where Lewis was obviously writing to message rather than simply telling a story. But I certainly wouldn't recommend reading them in the "present" order; go back to the original, so you can be enchanted by the very first books before getting to this. ***
Rated by buyers 
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It has been a long while since I read the Magician's Nephew for the very first time. Nonetheless it came back to me to make the second time a even better experience. It is very well written and we enjoyed the creation of a new world and a beautiful world it was. This is a great book for all ages especially for those who enjoy magic.
Anna del C.
Author of "The Elf and the Princess"
The Elf and The Princess: The Silent Warrior Trilogy - Book One (The Silent Warrior Trilogy)
Rated by buyers -
I used to watch "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" cartoon constantly when I was a little kid. Strangely enough, despite the fact that I was an avid reader as a child, as I still am today, I never read these books. I did enjoy other fantasy novels as a kid, but for some reason these never came my way, nor did I ever really ask for them. So since the movies are now being made I decided that I would pick up the books and see if I could delve even deeper into the tale of Narnia, since it appears this one may not be made into film. It might, you never know.
Even though this is a children's book it draws a lot of influence from the Bible, in fact many of the situations in this book parallel that text greatly. It may not be obvious to young children, but for those that are well read in a great many texts, it will be blatantly obvious. I am quite irreligious, but I have still read the Bible as well as a great many books and I am certainly not such a prude in my beliefs to deny how influential the Bible has been in literature. I will discuss the parallels later, for now I will go over the tale and what I thought of it.
Even though this book was written after "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", "The Magician's Nephew" is actually the prequel to the whole saga! The story centers around two children, Digory and Polly, and how they got brought into an adventure that would be the starting point for so many others. Digory is living with his Uncle Andrew, who spends a good deal of time trying to find out the secrets of magical workings in our world. He stumbles upon sucess in the form of rings that transport the wearer into another dimension essentially. However, Andrew is a coward and he refuses to find out where they could transport him on his own, thus he enlists Digory to go for him, and unfortunately Polly gets sucked into the whole mess. Needless to say inter-dimensional travel doesn't ever seem to go very smoothly (whether I'm reading sci-fi or fantasy) and the two children are brought into both terrifying situations and mystifying worlds. Here we see the recounting of Narnia's creation, the very first meeting with Aslan, and how Digory (the future professor) came into the possession of the now infamous wardrobe. The book is also filled with talking animals and very humorous situations as a result, something most any child should enjoy.
For a children's book I thought this was a really fascinating adventure. I thought the proposition that there's a lion, somewhere in some alternate reality, running around making all kinds worlds all strung together by a gateway nexus called "The Wood Between the Worlds" was simply a great premise. It certainly doesn't take very long to read and, as an adult, the language use is very simple, naturally the target audience is for the young. However, the tale and writing transcend it's youthful audience by having parallel's and influences from a very adult world, thus I think adult's can appreciate this book series quite a bit. It's no secret that C.S. Lewis was a devout Christian. Aslan, the lion, is obviously represented as Christ, Jadis (the Ice Queen) is the serpent/Satan as parallel's the biblical tales. There is even the temptation at the forbidden tree, but instead of an unnamed fruit we see the Christian mythology play into the book and it is specifically named an apple. I found myself wondering if C.S. Lewis did this intentionally or if he knew that the Bible never explicitly states Eve ate an apple, rather she just ate "fruit" from a tree. Also the recounting of Aslan's creation of Narnia parallel's that of the Genesis tale. The use of song is an interesting concept. It is well known in the Bible that God likes his praise to be sung, but using that as the specific coder of creation was an interesting take on it. The other part that greatly interested me was the treatment of evil. Like the Bible, Aslan is aware that a great evil is in his new world, yet he does nothing about this. He never states why he can't do anything, or why he won't, simply that calamity will strike Narnia in the future, but that he will take the brunt force of this pain (paralleling the crucifixion of Christ and using prophecy). It's a curious move not to explain anything, and maybe this is my philosophical mind over thinking something that isn't there, I don't know.
As you can see Biblical parallels are rife throughout this book, but it is in no way preachy to the readers and even those like myself who harbor anti-religious tendencies, you can still enjoy the fantasy world as it is. After all, in my opinion, it makes a much better fantasy story than truth. If you've seen the newer edition of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" I would highly recommend you read "The Magician's Nephew" because it gives you some excellent background on where that world came from and how our worlds can link together.
Rated by buyers -
As a child, I was enchanted by the worlds in The Magician's Nephew - the descriptions of Charn, the creation of Narnia, and the Woods Between the Worlds - but I found myself cringing at the decidedly unsubtle allegory when I reread the book recently.
There is no avoiding the fact that this book is about Good versus Evil, nor that it is attempting to retell one of the creation stories from Genesis with the creation of Narnia. Everyone seems rather wooden and pushed into the rolls Lewis wants them to take and there is no real suspense or wonder. The good end happily and the bad do not, except for Jadis who must play the roll of Eden's serpent.
Furthermore, I was rather appalled at the treatment of Polly, the female Ketterleys, and Nellie/Queen Helen. I wish that I could better explain what I find so unsettling about them, but I can only point vaguely at their uselessness. I really didn't get a positive, empathetic feeling towards any of the women in the story, except for Mrs Kirke - and I suspect she only slides by because she's Digory's mother and she's ill.
So, that's that. It's an interesting little book, but steeped in 1950s children's book conventions, and it could use a good deal of updating to match it with modern sensibilities and a more dynamic writer.
Oh, and: I'm told in the opening pages that Lewis intended it to be read very first among the Chronicles of Narnia, but I must disagree with this. To have such a blatantly allegorical story very first in the set is to lose much of the wonder of discovering Narnia through the wardrobe with the Pevensie children. Besides which, much of the suspense and wonder in the second book are dashed away with all the background information that The Magician's Nephew provides.
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