Diving Into A Sea of Books–The Silver Chair

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As an avid reader, I get excited about the great number of books out there to read, either for entertainment, education, inspiration or with some books, all three. The quantity available in print, audio, and e-books reminds me of the vast amount of life in the oceans, so I call these book reviews “Diving Into A Sea of Books”. As with diving into an ocean looking for interesting objects, diving into books means you come across mixed results: over here, a book you don’t bother to finish, over there, a “treasure”–one that you like so much you can’t wait to reread it, and over there, a book you read and think, “Meh”.

The Silver Chair is Book Six of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia is the fantasy series Mr. Lewis wrote for children.

The Silver Chair begins in an ordinary enough setting–a schoolyard–and an all-too-commonplace situation: one of the main characters, Jill, is hiding from a group of bullies. Eustace, a classmate, comes along, and as they seek to get away from the oncoming bullies, they cry out for help. The two end up in Narnia, where Aslan, the ruler of Narnia, sends them on a harrowing mission, warning Jill to remember signs he gave her.

Jill and Eustace run into strange creatures and many obstacles on their mission. Their travels might have been a bit easier had they not lost their tempers with each other, and had Jill remembered the signs. They run into trouble around every corner, and late in the book the journey’s end was still in doubt.

Aside from the plot, for me The Silver Chair reads as a lesson in the marks of evil, showing evil, as represented by a beautiful lady Jill and Eustace meet, to be dangerously deceptive. Evil confuses not only Jill and Eustace, but also another character, as to what is true and what is false.

Author’s comment: Since I’d never read The Silver Chair before, I didn’t realize bullying is the catalyst for the story. To me it was ironic, because of the repeated stories in the news about bullying.  If I didn’t know better I’d think that C. S. Lewis wrote the story just yesterday, but the paperback edition I have was copyrighted 1953, and Mr. Lewis died in 1963.

I enjoyed reading The Silver Chair, both for the story and for the lessons it illustrates.

©P. Booher