The Chronicles of Narnia: by C. S. Lewis
I will present the seven books in chronological order, instead of the order they were printed in. However, I gave each title the number, so you know where each books stands in printed order.
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The Magician's Nephew (#6)
The book starts in around 1900 with two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer. Digory's mom is slowly dying. The two meet in the adjacent back gardens of a row of terraced houses. They decide then to explore the attic that connects all the houses together. While exploring, they stumble upon the secret study of Digory's Uncle Andrew, who is a rather bumbling but tricky magician. Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into putting on a magical yellow ring that instantly transports her off our world. He then blackmails Digory into doing the same so Digory can take two magical green rings and bring himself and her back.
Digory finds himself in the "Wood Between the Worlds", with its enigmatic pools of water. He realizes that the each pool is its own world, then instantly finds Polly. Expecting his uncle to grab the rings away when they go back, he convinces her to go exploring in another pool and its world.
The world they end up in has a crumbling palace amidst the ruins of a great city. They explore the palace and find a hall lined with statues of kings and queens, who progress from kind and fair to cruel and mean-looking. At the end of the hall is a bell with a taunt to ring it. Digory falls for it and rings the bell, waking up the last statue, who is none other than Jadis. Jadis tells them that they are in the world of Charn, and how she used the Deplorable Word to wipe out all life but her own, only to spite her sister.
The children escape Charn and return to London, but Jadis clings to them and is taken along. Once in London, Jadis starts an uproar and wrenches a bar of iron off a lamp-post. The children use their magic rings to whisk her back out of London, but end up taking Uncle Andrew, a cabbie named Frank, and the cabbie's horse called Strawberry along as well.
Once in the Wood, Digory heads for the nearest pool, which he mistakes for Charn. Instead, they end up in an empty blackness. Jadis recognizes it as a world yet to be made. They hear singing, which causes the stars, the sun, and everything else to appear. The singer is revealed to be the lion Aslan. Aslan then breaths life into the world. Jadis throws the iron bar at Aslan, but it fails to harm him and bounces off of him. It lands in a soft part of the ground and grows into a lamp-post. Later, Aslan selects some animals to become intelligent Talking Animals, which have authority over the Dumb Animals.
Aslan gives Digory a chance to make up for his bringing evil to Narnia in the form of Jadis by sending after a magic apple. Strawberry is transformed into the flying horse Fledge, who takes Digory and Polly to the walled garden where the apples may be found. Once there, Digory finds Jadis, who has eaten an apple and gained from it eternal youth. She prompts Digory to take an apple and eat it, but Digory refuses, believing his mother would never tell him to steal.
Digory returns to Aslan with the apple. Aslan commends him and instructs him to plant it. The planted apple becomes a tree, one that will protect Narnia from Jadis, the White Witch, and give Narnia a time of Eden-like peace. Aslan gives Digory an apple to take home to his mother, telling Digory that while a stolen fruit would have healed his mom, its long term effects would have been worse than her death. Frank the cabbie and his magically transported wife Helen is crowned the first king and queen of Narnia.
Digory, Polly, and Uncle Andrew return to London via the rings and the Wood. Digory gives the fruit to his mom, who is healed. Uncle Andrew gives up magic forever. Digory takes the core of the apple and buries it in the ground with the rings, to prevent misuse. The core grows into a tree.
Years later, the tree is blown over in a storm. Digory can't stand the idea of chopping it for firewood, so he has the wood made into a wardrobe. Thus Digory is the old "Professor" who owns the house where Lucy finds the Wardrobe.
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Next: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Edited by Jeth Calark, 26 March 2009 - 10:03 PM.