The Magician's Nephew

by C. S. Lewis

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Lewis remarks that The Magician's Nephew "is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began." He had no trouble with the idea that life might exist on other planets, and before writing The Magician's Nephew, he had written three science fiction novels about what life on other planets might be like: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In The Magician's Nephew, Lewis imagines the creation of a new universe, and part of his purpose is to speculate on what might happen in a new creation. He borrows from the accounts of the Creation in the Bible, but he shows significant differences, especially in Digory Kirk's averting the Fall that Adam and Eve did not. Digory resists temptation and does not eat of the fruit. This does not mean The Magician's Nephew is a religious tract; it is a fun, exciting adventure among three worlds and is more humorous than serious.

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