Just Finished Rereading C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair

I just finished rereading another book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.  This one, titled The Silver Chair, is the next-to-last book in this series, at least as the narrative unravels chronologically...although I believe that Lewis wrote it before a couple of others.  It is one of only two novels that completely exclude any of the Pevensie children (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) who are the series' main characters (besides Aslan, that is).  However, there are other visitors from our world as Eustace (from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) returns from Earth to the fantasy world of Narnia, this time along with a girl named Jill as they go there to escape bullying from their "experimental" school (reminds me where I went to school).  Although Eustace and Jill believe that they made their choice to get to Narnia by their own free will, their encounters with the Narnian lion lord Aslan indicate that it was he who put the idea into their heads...and that he has an important mission for them.  They are to seek out and free from bondage Rilian, the imprisoned son of now-very-old King Caspian (of two previous books). The Prince just happens to be in the Underworld under a spell cast by a witch queen very reminiscent of the enemy in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  But first Aslan gives Jill specific instructions about what to do at specific times...instructions that both Jill and Eustace (when he hears of them) generally fail to implement.  But Aslan is faithful to his own plan for Rilian's deliverance and engineers events to aid the children in their quest in spite of their mistakes.  One crucial element is the addition of a peculiar man-like Narnian named Puddleglum, a "marshwiggle" with a comically morose and spindly appearance and demeanor...who entertains a completely erroneous notion of how others see him.  Puddleglum tends to take over the story with his antics and turns out to be a great hero in the effort to release Rilian.  I can see that Lewis had a lot of fun developing this character!

The "silver chair" in the story's title is an enchanted silver chair that the evil witch queen binds Rilian to whenever her enchantments on him, which cause him to forget who he is and place him under her domination, begin to wear off.  This chair to me symbolizes the spiritual bondage that Christians suffer at times in their walk through life.  That makes sense, because after all, the entire Chronicles of Narnia series is an allegory of Christianity, with the lion Aslan representing the Christ of mercy, justice, redemption, and divine power.

Ultimately, as in all of the other Narnia tales, Aslan must intervene in order to set the wrongs to right and mete out justice and mercy in his own measure.  Specifically how it all ends...I'll leave that to you, the reader, to find out for yourself.  The Silver Chair, although not one of my favorite Narnia books, is worth reading if for no other reason than for its depiction of that Puddleglum, a depiction that somehow reminds me of gloomy and hilarious Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. Who knows, maybe Lewis, a contemporary of Laurel, used him as a model...