The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew

First edition dustjacket
Author	C.S. Lewis
Illustrator	Pauline Baynes
Cover artist	Pauline Baynes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Chronicles of Narnia
Subject	The creation of Narnia
Genre	Children's fantasy novel, Christian literature
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Publication date	2 May 1955
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	183 (first edition) 41,062 words (US)
ISBN	(Collins, 1998; full-colour)
OCLC	2497740
LC Class	PZ8.L48 Mag
Preceded by	The Horse and His Boy
Followed by	The Last Battle

The Magician's Nephew is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Bodley Head in 1955. It was the sixth published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956); it is volume one in recent editions, which are sequenced according to Narnia history. Like the others it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions. The Bodley Head was a new publisher for The Chronicles, a change from Geoffrey Bles.

The Magician's Nephew is a prequel to the books of the same series. The middle third of the novel features creation of the Narnia world by Aslan the lion, centered at a section of a lamp-post brought by accidental observers from London during year 1900. The visitors then participate in the beginning of Narnia history, 1000 years before The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which inaugurated the series in 1950). The frame story set in England features two children ensnared in experimental travel via "the wood between the worlds". Thus, the novel shows Narnia and our middle-age world to be only two of many in a multiverse that changes as some worlds begin and others end. It also explains the origin of foreign elements in Narnia, not only the lamp-post but the White Witch and a human king and queen.

Lewis began The Magician's Nephew soon after completing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, spurred by a friend's question about the lamp-post in the middle of nowhere, but he needed more than five years to complete it. The story includes several autobiographical elements and it explores a number of themes with general moral and Christian implications including atonement, original sin, temptation, and the order of nature.

Macmillan US published an American edition within the calendar year.

The story begins in London during the summer of 1900. Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row of terraced houses. They decide to explore the attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory's Uncle Andrew in his study. Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish. Then he explains to Digory that he has been dabbling in magic, and that the rings allow travel between one world and another. He blackmails Digory into taking another yellow ring to follow wherever Polly has gone, and two green rings so that they both can return.