Author: C.S. Lewis
Full Title: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Date: Oct 1950
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
It means that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still that she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and darkness before Time began, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and death itself would work backwards.
To my great shame, I’ve never read this work of art until now. I’d written it off as “just a kids’ book,” and I have a bad habit of avoiding things that are culturally gigantic. I mean, I didn’t watch Star Wars until five or six of the movies were already out.
The number of times this book put a smile on my face and kept me turning pages late into the night is high. As if anyone needed to be told, this is an absolute must-read.