Wasting Little Time With Exposition
Jack has a great grasp of the children of his time. Lucy's scared of the odd-looking professor and Edmund wants to laugh at him. Peter and Susan know better and act it. Additionally, Jack wastes no time telling us what kind of children they are and uses their reactions to the story's set-up (the old house, the rain keeping them indoors, etc.) to tell us what kind of children they are. Jack also helps those outside of English culture by describing the house well enough that most people get the feel of the old English manors that were expanded room upon room without central hallways and without much of a overall plan, i.e., "...three steps down and five steps up."

How Lucy finds the wardrobe in the first place also tells her personality. Young children can be painfully curious and interest in fur coats is (or was) very natural for children. The progression is natural for the supernatural discovery of an entire world within a wardrobe and she controls her curiosity enough to remember to keep an eye on her way back out to the world she came from.

Jack's description of Tumnus is incredibly helpful for those who don't have much experience with mythology. Most children don't, anyway and it makes the rest of the story approachable, even when full descriptions aren't always given. His closing of the first chapter offers such an interesting event that it soars easily over what is the biggest obstacle in a series, the end of the first chapter of the first book. Jack passes it like it's not even there.

Bigger On the Inside
One of the recurring elements in the Chronicles is with us from the first chapter. The assumption of a physical impossibility, of something being larger on the inside than it is on the outside, is one of the mysteries that leads to the first conflict (Lucy vs. the other children). No rational person would believe such an impossibility, yet it is the primary way Lewis establishes Narnia. The later difference in the passage of time contributes to the impossibility and yet it helps establish Lucy's credibility in Chapter V. Taking some things in life by faith, no matter how impossible they may be, is something Lewis isn't shy about introducing, even this early on in the book.

Reflections on Chapter I
I get a sort of giddy anticipation with this first chapter that I don't often see with other books. You want to finish the scene with Lucy and Tumnus and then you realize you've only read eight pages! Why not go a few more--please! It's also easy to find myself almost wishing that new worlds were just around the corner or in the closet behind the stairs. And I already feel like smacking Edmund across the face.

Feel free to chime in or at least read along with me.

• Send to a Friend!