When I think about the Chronicles of Narnia, I think mostly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
, or possibly Prince Caspian. I don’t remember the later books as well as the earlier ones. And it’s just as well, because on reading this I recall how dreadfully boring The Silver Chair is.
The story is simple. Eustace Scrubb, he of the unfortunate name from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
, and Jill Pole are the picked on kids at The Experimental School in England. Rushing through the brush to escape their tormentors, they step through a door and into the world of Narnia. Unlike the previous stories where the transplantees must figure out what their purpose in Narnia is, in The Silver Chair they drop immediately into Aslan’s end of the world. There Aslan gives the two children a quest, then transports them on his breath to Narnia. Their quest is to rescue Prince Rilian, the heir to King Caspian’s throne. He disappeared a decade earlier while seeking to avenge the death of his mother by offing the serpent that killer her. Numerous knights sent in search of him have also disappeared.
The obviousness of everything in The Silver Chair is annoying. First, the quest is given at the beginning and is boring: search for the prince, have some adventures, bring him back. The moral is also pushed so much harder than in previous books. Aslan gives the children four Signs (or commands). The children repeatedly forget them and do not follow them when they should. Bad things happen as a result. Follow the directions of authority, particularly those of Jesus, or pay the consequences!
Title: The silver chair
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Cover artist: Roger Hane
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Series: The chronicles of Narnia ; 4
Imprint / publisher: Collier / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 217 p.
Publication date: 1970
ISBN-10: 0-02-044250-5
LC classification: PZ7.L58474 Si 2005
