The Magician's Nephew

Summary

The Magician's Nephew is the story of how Narnia began and how a wardrobe came to lead into it. In London around 1900, Digory Kirke has been sent to live with his Uncle Andrew and Aunt Letty because his father is in India and his mother is gravely ill. He makes friends with Polly Plummer, who lives next door, and while exploring the attic tunnel along their row of houses they blunder into Uncle Andrew's secret study. Andrew, a vain and cowardly dabbler in magic who has made rings from dust left by his godmother Mrs. Lefay, tricks Polly into touching a yellow ring, and she vanishes. Digory must follow with a green ring to bring her back. The rings carry the children to the Wood between the Worlds, a drowsy forest full of pools, each leading to a different world. Testing a pool, they reach Charn, a dead city under a dying red sun. In a hall of seated figures Digory, against Polly's protests, strikes a little golden bell and wakes Queen Jadis, who boasts that she killed every living thing in Charn by speaking the Deplorable Word rather than lose a war to her sister. Jadis clings to the children as they escape and reaches London, where she enslaves Uncle Andrew, robs a jeweller, crashes a hansom cab, and fights the police at a lamp-post. Digory and Polly pull her out again, but they accidentally bring Uncle Andrew, the cabby Frank, and his horse Strawberry with them into an empty, dark world. There they hear a voice singing, and a Lion, Aslan, sings Narnia into being: stars, sun, grass, trees and animals. Aslan chooses talking beasts, gives them the land, and makes Frank and his wife Helen the first king and queen. Because Digory brought evil into the new world, Aslan sends him, with Polly, on Strawberry, now the winged horse Fledge, to a walled garden in the western mountains to fetch a silver apple. There Jadis, who has climbed the wall and eaten an apple herself, tempts Digory to steal one to heal his mother. He refuses, brings the apple back, and plants it; the tree that grows will guard Narnia for many years. Aslan then gives Digory an apple for his mother, who recovers. The children bury the rings, plant the apple core in the Kirkes' garden, and years later Professor Digory Kirke has a wardrobe made from the fallen tree. The Bodley Head published the book on 2 May 1955 with illustrations by Pauline Baynes; it was the sixth Narnia book to appear.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-2: The Wrong Door; Digory and His Uncle

  Digory and Polly meet in the London back gardens, explore the attic, and enter Uncle Andrew's study, where he sends Polly away with a yellow ring and forces Digory to follow her.

• Chapters 3-5: The Wood between the Worlds to The Deplorable Word

  The children learn how the rings work in the quiet Wood, enter the ruined city of Charn, read the verse beside the bell, and wake Jadis, who tells how she destroyed her world with a single word.

• Chapters 6-8: Uncle Andrew's Troubles to The Fight at the Lamp-Post

  Jadis reaches London, makes Uncle Andrew her servant, and causes a riot; Digory seizes her heel and the children carry her, Andrew, Frank and Strawberry out of the world.

• Chapters 9-10: The Founding of Narnia; The First Joke and Other Matters

  In darkness Aslan's song makes a world; Jadis flees after striking him with an iron bar that grows into a lamp-post; Aslan gives speech to chosen beasts, and a Jackdaw makes the first joke.

• Chapters 11-12: Digory and His Uncle Are Both in Trouble; Strawberry's Adventure

  The animals plant the terrified Uncle Andrew like a tree; Digory confesses his part in bringing Jadis, Frank and Helen are crowned, and Strawberry becomes Fledge to carry the children west.

• Chapters 13-15: An Unexpected Meeting to The End of This Story

  Digory takes the apple without eating it and resists Jadis's temptation; the tree is planted, his mother is healed by an apple from Aslan, and the apple core grows into the tree from which the wardrobe will be made.

Characters

• Digory Kirke, protagonist

  Curious, impulsive boy whose mother is dying and who must undo the harm he causes by ringing the bell.

• Polly Plummer, Digory's friend

  Sensible, spirited girl from next door who shares the whole adventure.

• Uncle Andrew Ketterley, the magician

  Vain, selfish amateur magician who experiments on guinea pigs and children.

• Jadis, Queen of Charn

  Proud witch-queen who destroyed her own world and later becomes the White Witch.

• Aslan, the Lion

  Creator of Narnia, who sings the world into being and grieves with Digory.

• Frank, London cabby

  Plain, honest cab driver who becomes the first King of Narnia.

• Helen, Frank's wife

  Brought from London by Aslan to be the first Queen of Narnia.

• Strawberry / Fledge, cab horse

  Frank's tired horse, made a talking, winged horse who carries the children to the garden.

• Aunt Letty, Digory's aunt

  Andrew's no-nonsense sister who keeps house and nurses Digory's mother.

• Mrs. Kirke, Digory's mother

  Gravely ill mother whose recovery Digory longs for throughout the story.

Lessons

• Curiosity and responsibility

  Digory strikes the bell in Charn because he cannot bear not knowing, and the result is that Jadis is set loose. Aslan does not punish him but asks him to help undo the harm, which teaches that owning a wrong is the first step to repairing it.

  • Why does Digory ring the bell even though Polly begs him not to?
  • What does Digory do when Aslan asks him how the Witch came into Narnia?
  • Is curiosity good or bad in this story?

• Two kinds of magician

  Uncle Andrew thinks rules are for ordinary people and that wise men like him are above them. Jadis says the same thing in Charn. Lewis shows this pride leading to cruelty, cowardice, and finally to a world in ruins.

  • How are Uncle Andrew and Jadis alike?
  • Why can't Uncle Andrew understand the singing in the new world?

• The temptation in the garden

  Digory is told to take an apple for Narnia, not for himself. When Jadis urges him to steal one for his dying mother, the temptation is strong because it looks like love. He obeys Aslan, and later receives as a gift what he refused to steal.

  • Why is the Witch's temptation so hard for Digory to resist?
  • What mistake does the Witch make that helps Digory see through her?
  • Why is it better for Digory to receive the apple from Aslan than to take it?

• Wonder at creation

  Aslan's song makes stars, sun, grass and animals in order, and each character hears it differently: Frank and the children with joy, Jadis with hatred, Uncle Andrew only as roaring. The book invites readers to see the world as made and given.

  • What are the first things Aslan's song creates?
  • Why do different people hear the same song in different ways?

Context

Lewis set the story around 1900, in the London of his own childhood reading, where hansom cabs, gaslit lamp-posts and long rows of terraced houses with shared attics are part of everyday life. Uncle Andrew belongs to the age of drawing-room occultism and laboratory experiment, and Lewis uses him to question the idea that knowledge frees the knower from ordinary morals. The book draws on Genesis and on Milton's Paradise Lost for its creation, its forbidden fruit, and its tempter.

Composition

Lewis began a story about Digory and Polly in 1949, soon after finishing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, after his friend Roger Lancelyn Green asked how a lamp-post came to be in the middle of a wood; he set aside an early opening now called the Lefay Fragment. He took up the book again in 1950 and 1953 and finished it early in 1954. The Bodley Head published it on 2 May 1955 with Pauline Baynes's illustrations, and Macmillan issued it in New York the same year.

Reception

Reviewers welcomed it as a brisk and funny story for its young audience. Since the 1990s many editions have printed it first in the series, in story order, following a remark Lewis made in a letter to a young reader; others keep publication order. Its creation chapter is among the most often read-aloud passages in the Chronicles.

Comparisons

• the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

  The earlier book's lamp-post, White Witch, wardrobe and wise old Professor Kirke all receive their origins here.

• the-last-battle

  Narnia's creation in Aslan's song is matched by its ending in The Last Battle, where the stars fall and Digory and Polly return as old friends of Narnia.

• paradise-lost

  Lewis, who wrote A Preface to Paradise Lost, borrowed Milton's garden, forbidden fruit and eloquent tempter; but Digory, unlike Eve, refuses.

• the-bible

  Genesis 1-3 underlies the singing creation, the naming and blessing of the beasts, the garden on the hill, and the entry of evil into a newly made world.

• frankenstein

  Uncle Andrew, like Victor Frankenstein, pursues secret knowledge without regard for those he harms, and both books ask whether such knowledge excuses cruelty.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• How each person hears Aslan's song in Chapter 9: the children, Frank, Jadis and Uncle Andrew.
• The two verses in the book: the one beside the bell in Charn and the one on the garden gate, and what each tempts or warns the reader to do.
• Things that begin in this book and appear in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: the lamp-post, the White Witch, the wardrobe, and the old professor.
• Digory's thoughts of his mother, which return in almost every chapter.

Key terms and names

The Wood between the Worlds

A quiet, sleepy wood full of pools; jumping into a pool with a ring leads to another world.

Charn

The dead city of Jadis's world, where every living thing was killed by her magic.

The Deplorable Word

A secret word that Jadis spoke to destroy all life in Charn except herself.

Talking Beasts

The animals Aslan chooses and gives the gift of speech and thought in the new world.

Fledge

The new name of Strawberry the cab horse after Aslan gives him wings.

The silver apple

The fruit Digory must fetch from the garden in the west, which grows into the tree that protects Narnia.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Uncle Andrew trick Polly into touching the yellow ring?
2. Comprehension What happens when Digory strikes the little golden bell in Charn?
3. Comprehension What does Aslan make first when he begins to sing?
4. Interpretation Uncle Andrew can hear only roaring and growling when Aslan sings. Why do you think that is?
5. Interpretation Why does Digory refuse to take an apple for his mother, even though he loves her so much?
6. Interpretation Aslan has tears in his eyes when Digory speaks of his mother. What does that show about Aslan?
7. Big Question Is it ever right to break a promise or a rule to help someone you love?

Faith Connections

• Job 38:4-7 (Scripture)

  God asks Job where he was when the foundations of the earth were laid and the morning stars sang together. Lewis's stars join Aslan's song in Chapter 9, just as the stars sing in Job.

• Genesis 3:1-6 (Scripture)

  The serpent tempts Eve with fruit that seems good and wise. Jadis tempts Digory in the same way, but this time the child refuses.

• John 11:33-35 (Scripture)

  Jesus weeps at the grave of Lazarus before raising him. Aslan's tears for Digory's mother show the same sorrow of a Lord who is about to help.

• C. S. Lewis, letter to a young reader (1961) (Great Conversation)

  Lewis explained that the whole Narnian story is about Christ, and that The Magician's Nephew tells of the Creation and of how evil entered Narnia.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A world is good because it is made and given by a good Creator. Those who try to master the world for themselves, like Uncle Andrew with his rings and Jadis with her Deplorable Word, bring ruin; those who receive it with wonder and obey, like Frank and Digory, are able to guard and enjoy it. Therefore the right response to creation is gratitude and obedience, and Digory's refusal to steal the apple is what makes the gift of healing possible.

Rhetorical device: foreshadowing. The verse beside the bell in Chapter 4 warns that wondering what would happen may drive one mad, and the garden gate verse in Chapter 13 warns that stolen fruit brings despair; together they frame the two great temptations of the book.

Debate: Resolved: Digory was more to blame than Uncle Andrew for bringing Jadis into Narnia.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare the scene at the bell in Charn with the scene in the garden in the west, and explain how Digory has changed between them.

Comparison with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: In The Magician's Nephew Digory resists temptation; in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Edmund gives in to it. Compare the two boys and what Aslan does for each.

Medical Lens

The illness of Digory's mother is a steady undercurrent. She is bedridden and expected to die, cared for at home by Aunt Letty; the book never names her disease, in keeping with the sickroom reticence of its period. Digory's anticipatory grief drives the moral climax: his temptation in the garden is to save her by theft, and his request to Aslan for help meets the Lion's own tears. Her recovery after eating the apple is a miracle story rather than a medical one. Uncle Andrew supplies the book's satire on unethical experiment: he tested his rings on guinea pigs, some of which died, and then used two children because he was afraid to go himself. He also turns repeatedly to brandy to steady his nerves, and his drinking is played for comedy. Lewis, whose own mother died of cancer when he was nine, is often thought to have drawn on that loss here; that connection is widely made by biographers, but the book itself does not state it.

• Chapter 1: The Wrong Door

  Digory tells Polly that his father is in India and his mother is ill and going to die.

  Grief Death Dying
• Chapter 2: Digory and His Uncle

  Uncle Andrew explains that he tested the rings on guinea pigs and justifies sending a child into the unknown.

  Medical Ethics
• Chapter 11 onward

  The frightened Uncle Andrew, planted and watered by the animals, keeps asking for brandy.

  Alcohol
• Chapter 12: Strawberry's Adventure

  Digory asks Aslan for something to cure his mother and sees great tears in the Lion's eyes.

  Grief Nursing Caregiving
• Chapter 15

  Digory's mother eats the apple, sleeps naturally, and begins to recover.

  Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write a page from Polly's diary on the evening after the fight at the lamp-post, telling what she really thought of Digory that day.

• Classroom

  Draw the Wood between the Worlds with its pools, and label which pool leads to London, which to Charn, and which to Narnia.

• Poetry

  Write a new verse inscription for a magical object in another world, in four rhyming lines like the bell's.

Further Reading

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis

• A Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis

• Planet Narnia, Michael Ward

• C. S. Lewis: A Biography, Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper

• Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis

  Lewis's own account of his childhood, including his mother's death.