That book really does stand the test of time. I re-read it a few years ago and actually cried when Reepacheep sailed away. Also, Lewis could pack a LOT into a small book. If you look at how much ground he seems to cover effortlessly on a single page, it's kind of amazing. However, there's no denying that British (*cough* I mean, Narnian) smugness makes it more shallow than it needed to be, even for the length. You definitely get the sense that one Narnian is worth a hundred unwashed foreigners
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It's funny to re-read the books I loved as a kid, especially to read them to Alice. Seeing their weaknesses (and the weaknesses of their authors coming through) doesn't ruin them for me...usually. It certainly doesn't ruin Narnia, but it does give the stories another layer for me to wrestle with.
I've been rereading the Narnia books with the movies and I haven't gotten to the Dawn Treader yet but I guess I just haven't picked up that kind of thing. I miss things like that in books most of the time though. For me they seem a little less magical but still thrill me the way they did when you read them to us on Sabbath afternoons. I think it was his ability to take to another place and make you believe so fully that you could find it like Lucy first did, through a wardrobe.
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