Product Description

The Narnia Chronicles, first published in 1950, have been and remain some of the most enduringly popular ever published. The best known, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, has been translated into 29 languages! The illustrations in this book have been coloured by the original artist, Pauline Baynes. SILVER CHAIR "Quick!" said Eustace. "Hold hands! We mustn't get separated!" And before Jill quite knew what was happening, he had pulled her out of the door, out of the school grounds, out of England, out of our whole world into That Place. Eustace and Jill are whisked to the land of Narnia where Aslan, the great Lion, needs their help to find the missing Prince Rilian. Teaming up with Puddleglum, the Marsh Wiggle, the search takes them through some of the most dangerous underland of Narnia. Even if they attain their goal, it can only be the start of further trouble.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56399 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Eustace and Jill are called back to Narnia where they meet Aslan the lion who sets them the task of finding King Caspian's long lost son, Rilian. With Narnian marshwiggle Puddlegum in tow the pair stumble across Harfang, the castle of giants, and are invited to stay for the Autumn Feast--and then they realise that they are the main ingredients.

The Silver Chair, the sixth book in the Chronicles of Narnia, is filled with all the fast-paced adventure of the other Chronicles and introduces Narnia fans to a host of new, remarkable characters, each of them brilliantly depicted by Pauline Baynes in her original, hand- coloured illustrations.This elegant, larger edition of the classic book, published to coincide with the centenary of CS Lewis, is a stylish addition to the highly collectible range and will bring sheer joy for anyone who has enjoyed previous visits to magical land of Narnia. --Susan Harrison

About the Author
Clive Staples Lewis, born in 1898, wrote many books for adults but the Narnia stories were his only works for children. The final title, The Last Battle, published in 1956, won the Carnegie Award, the highest mark of excellence in children's literature.

Customer Reviews

Dark and tense
This is probably my favourite of the Narnia books, because nearly everything goes wrong. It starts with Jill crying in the shrubbery because she's being bullied; then Jill and Eustace go on the run from said bullies; even when they get to Narnia, the situation doesn't improve.

Unlike "Voyage of the Dawntreader", where Lucy, Edmund and Eustace were given a royal welcome and found themselves in a safe environment, "Silver Chair" harks back to "Prince Caspian". Just as the Pevensie children found themselves legends and unsupported in a land torn apart by civil war, Jill and Eustace are alone, with only Aslan's clues to guide them. Again, in contrast to "Voyage", there is barely any human interaction before they begin their quest - it is the animals and the creatures of Narnia who aid them. Puddleglum has got to be one of Lewis's best characters, because we all know someone like him - and the best bit is that he's considered 'cheerful' by the standards of his kind! The three of them have to journey out of Narnia, through giant country to find Rillian, meanwhile contending with the weather, the inhabitants and their own failings. I personally found the Green Lady far mroe unnerving than the White Witch ever was...

Achingly brilliant adventure
The Silver Chair is an achingly brilliant adventure in the imaginary world of Narnia, taking us from this world to the end of the world, to Narnia, and then across a bitter winter landscape to a giants' castle, and thence underground for a terrifying (but also satisfying) climax. Written entirely with flawed characters, The Silver Chair is shot through with memorable dialogue, much of it quarrels and arguments, as the three ill-equipped and unlikely heroes set out to save the lost prince whom nobody else could find. Danger, cold, fear and hunger stalk the characters every step of the way, and the book culminates in a series of three separate, echoing climaxes which perfectly complete what is, pretty much, a flawless book.

The first book in the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is about four extremely nice children, one of whom is tempted and misled by the witch. In the second book, Prince Caspian, the four, now all thoroughly nice, team up with the likeable and noble Caspian. It's not until the third book, The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader", that Lewis introduces the first truly unpleasant main character, Eustace Scrubb. Scrubb reforms quite substantially on his voyage, but Lewis brings him back, better, but still imperfect, with the equally imperfect (but in a different way) Jill Pole, and then teams them up with Puddleglum, a lanky greenish individual of the species Marsh Wiggle, whose endlessly depressive conversation would put a damper on any social occasion. Character-wise, this is to me where the series really takes off, preparing us for the other notable pairings, Aravis and Shasta in The Horse and His Boy, Diggory and Polly in The Magician's Nephew, and, of course, Jill and Eustace again in The Last Battle. The conflict and tension that Lewis is able to create with the characters is absolutely vivid, and utterly believable, in a way which few groups of characters in children's novels ever are.

This story is much more thoroughly plotted than the ones that went before it, and, right from Eustace falling from a cliff at the beginning, it keeps us guessing and on tenterhooks all the way through. I remember being really scared at some point in most of the chapters as a child, and, as an adult, I'm still left with the constant sense that the heroes are in real physical and moral danger, and that things are going horribly wrong for most of the time. This is all the more impressive, because I've now read this book more than forty times, and it still maintains the capacity to thrill.

The Silver Chair doesn't have the grand philosophical or theological scope of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, nor the constant play of delight that we find in the Voyage of the "Dawn Treader", or the battle and fighting which is the mark of Prince Caspian. Rather, it is a fight against overwhelming odds, by people seemingly completely ill-equipped for their task. This is one of the great strengths of the Narnia series: no two of the books are alike in plot, theme, or aspiration.

This is the fourth of the Narnia books -- don't be fooled into thinking they should be read in 'chronological' order, because the style of writing and, indeed, the age they are aimed at, develops as the series goes on, in order of publication. If you're interested, you can see this very easily by looking at the length of the books. Each book is longer than the previous one, but, in order to get them into a set similar in size, the publishers have always opted for smaller typefaces as the books go on -- an obvious sign that they are, progressively, aimed at older audiences.

This is the first book in which Lewis introduces an entirely new species as a major character. All of the non-human characters in the first three books are taken from classical or Norse mythology, or from folk and fairy tale. The Marshwiggles are entirely Lewis's own invention, and the book is all the better for them.

If I was forced to pick my favourite of all the Narnia books, it would probably be this one. But, then again...

Highly recommended.

The silver chair
This is the penultimate book in the chronicles of Narnia, where Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole (someone from Eustace's school) run away and find themselves in Narnia where they meet Aslan. They are appointed a task: to find the king Caspian's son who was kidnapped as a child. The king is old and his only heir has been taken away from him. A marshwiggle (Puddleglum) offers his help in the quest.
They go overground and underground in desparation to find the prince, eventually they find him, but in the most unlikely place...
A book full of danger and excitement which should only be read if you have read the books that come before it.