the magician's nephew

C. S. Lewis has to be one of my favorite authors.  He says things in such a way that just makes things so clear and so simple.  When I read his writings, sometimes I think, "How did I not think of it that way before?"

I've read both fiction and non-fiction by Lewis.  While I'm pretty sure someone read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to me as a child, I recently decided to read the entire Chronicles of  Narnia series from start to finish.  I just completed The Magician's Nephew, the first book of the series.    

Since I was able to download the book onto my kindle from the library, I was able to easily highlight all of my favorite quotes from the book.  I have compiled the list into this post.

I apologize in advance if this post bores you.  It's really just for me.  And hopefully, when my kiddos grow up, they'll read Lewis again as adults and will be able to look back and compare some of their favorite quotes with mine.

Lewis' matter-of-factness {which spell check is informing me is not a real word} is so fun to read.  You'll see a lot of it in the quotes that I've posted.  Enjoy...

She was quite as brave as he about some dangers (wasps, for instance) but she was not so interested in finding out things nobody had ever heard before; for Digory was the sort of person who wants to know everything, and when he grew up he became the famous Professor Kirke who comes into other books.

There was a long, dull story of a grown-up kind behind these words.

Aunt Letty was a very tough old lady: aunts often were in those days.

"I wonder what Polly's doing?" thought Digory.  He wondered about this a good deal as the first slow half-hour ticked on.  But you need not wonder, for I am going to tell you.

As a result she was told that she had been very naughty indeed and that she wouldn't be allowed to play with "that Kirke boy" any more if anything of the sort ever happened again.  Then she was given dinner with all the nice parts left out and sent to bed for two solid hours.

During his long watching and waiting one small thing happened which I shall have to mention because something important came of it later on.

"Hullo! What's that?" thought Digory.  "Fire-engine?  I wonder what house is on fire.  Great Scott, it's coming here.  Why it's Her."  I needn't tell you who he meant by Her.

"No, Aslan, we won't, we won't," said everyone.  But one perky jackdaw added in a loud voice, "No fear!" and everyone else had finished just before he said it so that his words came out quite clear in a dead silence; and perhaps you have found out how awful that can be--say, at a party.

We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew's point of view.  It had not made at all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children.  For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.

He awoke from his faint.  What a wakening it was!  But we must leave him to think over his wicked deed (if he was likely to do anything so sensible) and turn to more important things.

All the sharpness and cunning and quarrelsomeness which he had picked up as a London cabby seemed to have been washed away, and the courage and kindness which he had always had were easier to see.

"He thinks great folly, child," said Aslan.  "This world is bursting with life for these few days because the song with which I called it into life still hangs in the air and rumbles to the ground.  It will not be so for long.  But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice.  If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings."

"Child," he replied, "that is why all the rest are now a horror to her.  That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way.  The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after."

And Digory could say nothing, for tears choked him and he gave up all hopes of saving his Mother's life; but at the same time he knew that the Lion knew what would have happened, and that there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love by death.

So that Digory felt just as sure as you that they were all going to live happily ever after.  But perhaps you would like to know just one or two things more.

And though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, someone else did.  That was the beginning of all the comings and goings between Narnia and our world, which you can read of in other books.