Introduction

C. S. Lewis began writing The Magician's Nephew in 1949 shortly after completing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  The purpose of this story was to describe the creation of Narnia and explain how the Lamppost had come to exist in Lantern Waste. Lewis read two chapters of this new story to his friend and former student, Roger Lancelyn Green, on June 14 of that year.  These chapters are referred to as The Lefay Fragment because Digory's godmother is called Mrs Lefay in this early attempt at a sequel to LWW.  In The Lefay Fragment Digory lives with his Aunt Gertrude because his parents are dead.  Furthermore, Digory has the ability to communicate with animals and trees; he befriends a large Oak in his garden and a squirrel named Pattertwig who lives in the tree.

Lewis got mired down and was unable to go on with writing the story after the introduction of Digory's godmother, a woman who practices magic.  Lewis felt that the character of Mrs Lefay didn't come off well and his friend Green agreed with him.  Thus Lewis decided to set aside this manuscript, but he incorporated some of the ideas in The Lefay Fragment into other Narnia stories.

Between the summer of 1949 and March 1950 Lewis wrote five of the Narnia tales.  Afterward he returned to a consideration of the creation of Narnia.  Lewis retained the names Digory and Polly from The Lefay Fragment and set the story in the days when Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road--a nod of appreciation to one of his favorite children's authors, E. Nesbit.

Roger Lancelyn Green came to visit Lewis once again at Magdalen College, Oxford from May 31 to June 1, 1951.  During that visit he read about half of what would become The Magician's Nephew.  Green visited again from October 31 to November 2 of the same year and read another quarter of the story.  Green expressed displeasure over one section in which Digory visited Charn several times and stayed in a farm cottage with an old country gentleman called Piers and his wife.  Lewis was not convinced that he should cut out that part of the story but, nonetheless, he again set aside the writing of The Magician's Nephew, and instead turned his pen to writing the last of the Narnias--The Last Battle.

Lewis wrote to his publisher, Geoffrey Bles, on March 11, 1953 to say that the last of the Narnian stories was finished.  He then turned back to the task of revising The Magician's Nephew.  Green read the manuscript in February 1954 and noted in his diary: "It seems the best of the lot . . . and is certainly vastly improved by the omission of the long section about Piers the Plowman--which I take some credit for persuading Jack to cut out.  It's a single unity now, and irresistibly gripping and compelling." (Walter Hooper, Companion & Guide, p. 405.)

Discussion Questions

1. Do you notice anything significant about the time period in which this story is set?
2. How does Lewis teach morality through this book?
3. Does Lewis make the supernatural realm believable in this story? If so, how?
4. How is Digory like Lewis?
5. Digory says of the wood between the worlds, "Nothing ever happens here. Like at home. It's in the houses that people talk, and do things, and have meals. Nothing goes on in the in-between places . . ." Does this statement remind you of anything in any of Lewis's other books?
6. How would you describe Digory and Polly using one adjective for each?
7. After reading this book, what would you guess were Lewis's views on the use of magic?
8. What does this book teach us about Lewis's views on kingship?
9. What do Jadis and Uncle Andrew have in common?
10. What does the situation with Digory's mother remind you of from Lewis's life?
11. What do you think of Lewis's account of the creation of Narnia? How does it compare to the biblical account of creation?
12. How might we judge the content of each character in this story by their various reactions to Aslan?
13. What do you think Aslan means by the statement: "Evil will come of that evil, but it is still a long way off, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself."?
14. What do you think of Aslan's choice for the first King and Queen of Narnia?
15. What do you think of Aslan's response to Digory's request in chapter 12?
16. How do you respond to Lewis's descriptions of scenery throughout this story?
17. How does Digory's temptation in the garden compare to the temptation in the Garden of Eden?
18. Do you think there is any connection between Jadis and a witch in another one of Lewis's stories?
19. How did you feel about the end of this story?
20. How would you summarize what this story is about?