Enjoyed it with ups and downs.

This is the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia heptalogy (before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Last Battle).

This volume tells a story which takes place in London in the second half of the nineteenth century. It starts with a boy and a girl, Digory and Polly, who stumble into Digory's Uncle Andrew's attic while they were exploring the "secret passage" in the space between the walls and the roofs, in their row of houses.

Uncle Andrew is a magician of sorts, and when he tells Polly to touch one of the yellow rings he made, she suddenly vanishes. In his turn, but taking care to put two pairs of both yellow and green rings into his jacket's pockets, Digory touches the yellow ring and follows Polly. They both emerge in a mysteriously quiet forest, scattered with little ponds inamongst the trees. It won't take them long to understand the mechanism of this Wood Between the Worlds.

Indeed, using the correct ring and jumping into one of the ponds, they are transported to Charn, where Digory incidentally awakes the stunningly beautiful witch Jadis, a 7-foot-tall queen whose unquenchable thirst for power made her murder her own people. Now, like a cat who, having toyed too long with the mouse it caught, has finally killed it and discards it, she hankers for new worlds to conquer. She forces Digory and Polly to take her to London to meet Uncle Andrew, who she believes is a powerful magician who will help her in her conquest.

Of course when she realizes he's not, she wreaks havoc in the city, and finally has an accident when the hansom she's riding hits a lamppost. In the confusion of the ensuing fight, and before she unleashes her terrible wrath, Digory manages to snatch her heel. With Polly holding on to him, he puts the yellow ring on to bring Jadis back to Charn. But as it turns out, several others were connected, including a cabby and his horse and Uncle Andrew, and they all end up in the Wood Between the Worlds. Jumping into another pond, which turns out to be the wrong one, everyone is transported to an utterly dark place instead, where they soon hear the first notes of a beautiful song and watch the sky become lighter little by little.

This enchanting voice belongs in fact to the lion Aslan, and what our heroes are witnessing is the creation of the world of Narnia from the lion's song, the birth of the animals and the growing of the plants.

I enjoyed this books with ups and downs. Whereas I really loved the atmosphere of the Wood Between the Worlds and the dazzling chapter of the creation of Narnia, I wasn't much captivated by the events around the evil queen Jadis or Uncle Andrew. I think we can conclude with certainty, but this was to be expected, that I prefer the fantasy or fairy-tale parts to those that connect to the real world. I'm trying very hard to avoid spotting anything allegorical, which tends to break the charm for me. I'm also usually rather annoyed when the author addresses the reader, but it only happened from time to time, so that didn't bother me too much. But I must say was surprised to discover that even though the story continues in the following books, that of Digory and Polly was over in this one. I wonder what lies in store...

7/10