Narnia . . . the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy . . . the place where the adventure begins.

Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor’s mysterious old house.  At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia.  But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves.  In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever.

You know, I can’t help but question whether a book like this would be published today.  There’s a lot of telling, not so much showing, a lot of action is skimmed over and it’s very obviously a religious allegory (not that that would make it ineligible for publication).  I couldn’t help but think that as I read it but at the same time I couldn’t help but think just how magical the story actually is.

Compare the circumstances to other works now and you don’t have all that much that is original but then, back in 1950, this was the epitome of original.  There was nothing else like this story except for facetious fairy tales that carried very little depth.  This was the basis for portals and other worlds and magical creatures that authors today either consciously or subconsciously pull from for their own stories.  So no, it’s not original today but it is the very reason it’s not original today, because it was so original and magical then that it was bound to spurn derivatives.

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