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The Silver Chair
The Silver Chair
The Silver Chair
Audiobook5 hours

The Silver Chair

Written by C. S. Lewis

Narrated by Jeremy Northam

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

The unabridged digital audio edition of The Silver Chair, book six in the classic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, narrated by acclaimed actor Jeremy Northam.

Narnia . . . where giants wreak havoc . . . where evil weaves a spell . . . where enchantment rules.

Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, a noble band of friends is sent to rescue a prince held captive. But their mission to Underland brings them face-to-face with an evil more beautiful and more deadly than they ever expected.

The Silver Chair is the sixth book in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, a series that has become part of the canon of classic literature, drawing readers of all ages into a magical land with unforgettable characters for over fifty years. This is a stand-alone novel, but if you want to discover what happens in the final days of Narnia, read The Last Battle, the seventh and concluding book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMay 24, 2005
ISBN9780060854409
Author

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures. Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.

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Reviews for The Silver Chair

Rating: 4.629473684210526 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

475 ratings54 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The recording is a little messed up in a few places. But the book is good.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Had the whole set as a kid , I wish they were all available as audio books. Excellent stories and great dramatization.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent addition to the Narnia series. Great read all around.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In The Silver Chair we return to Narnia with Eustace Scrubb (the tag-along cousin of the Pevensie's in Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Some time has passed since Dawn Treader and Eustace is at a boarding school. As the book begins, he's just run across a classmate Jill Pole who's crying after being bullied. They are commiserating together about how awful school is and how nice it would be to get away. Eustace starts romanticizing his times in Narnia and before long the two children want to go there. At the same time, the group of bullies is rapidly approaching to continuing their bullying efforts. They find themselves cornered by a door that is always locked. In desperation they try the handle, and it is surprisingly unlocked…and whisks them away to Narnia.Like the previous books, Eustace and Jill are a bit disoriented and unsure of their location upon arriving. In this instance, they aren't in the kingdom of Narnia but rather high high high up in the kingdom of Aslan Himself. This introduction to the world seemed more unique than some of the other entrances to this mystical land. Eustace and Jill find themselves perched on a cliff so high that they aren't entirely sure what they're looking at below them. They encounter Aslan and are given a quest before being blown off (quite literally) to the kingdom of Narnia.Aslan gives the children a quest to find and return the long lost prince. We learn that the prince is the son of Prince Caspian from the previous two adventures. Eustace is a little dismayed that he didn't get to talk to Caspian and he's also surprised to find that Caspian is now an old man on the verge of death. We learn that the prince went missing after seeking revenge for his mother's death. Many quests were undertaken to find him, but years later there has been no success.The children seek allies to help in their quest and are guided into the company of a Marsh Wiggle named Puddleglum. I loved the character of Puddleglum. First of all, the Marsh Wiggle creature characteristics are fun in themselves just physically. As a character Puddleglum is a lot of fun because of his personality and the way he interacts with everything. To some degree, he seems to be the eternal pessimist, always imagining the worst possible outcomes to any situation. At the same time, he often finds the most realistic perspective (once you shave away some of the more unlikely scenarios). He also has a bravery and insight that really helps the kids out along the way.As part of their instructions, Aslan provided certain signs that would help them on their way. They continually "muff up" finding or recognizing the signs until it's too late. Naturally this makes the adventure a lot more interesting, but it certainly frustrates matters for the group.As the kids encounter various people, creatures and clues along their way most of the time I found the encounters to be fairly predictable (even though the kids and Puddleglum didn't immediately jump to the obvious conclusion). Still, the encounters were pretty fun. There were a lot of different elements and adventures throughout the story. Each new area was unique and interesting. I found it interesting that we make our way almost to the very end of the book before we come upon the source of the title…The Silver Chair. While it played a key element in the story, I really would like to have had a little more development of the Chair. To learn more about it. To perhaps have found another object, weapon or item that used the same magic as the Chair. I really found it to be very interesting. I also loved the final confrontation with the witch. That whole scene was lightly suspenseful and creepy the way she wrapped them in her spell.After the successful conclusion of the adventure, I was a little surprised at the sort of postlogue encounter with Aslan and Caspian. As far as the plot of the story, it was completely unnecessary, but it did provide the author with a chance to expand his allegorical allusions. I felt like the God allegories for Aslan were more heavy handed than they'd been in previous books. Granted, there were some pretty overt situations in the earlier books as well, but this time it felt like Lewis was pulling the curtain back even a little farther in case you didn't happen to catch on earlier. He doesn't explicitly say anything overly religious, but the allegory felt even more straightforward to me in this book than it had in the earlier novels.I really enjoyed this story. As I said, I found a number of the elements to be predictable and I would liked to have seen some elements (especially the Chair) to have been developed a bit more. But overall, this was a lot of fun. I especially loved the characterizations in this book, particularly Puddleglum. They were super fun.This is a great addition to the Narnia adventures and makes me look forward to the conclusion in The Last Battle.****4 out of 5 stars
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Deep, dark and dirty, down to the caves to find a missing prince. The characters of this book, though they are not Pevensie children, are wonderful, flawed and curious.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Absolutely fantastic story but the skipping of recording is annoying.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    It skips in the 11th chapter poor audio, other then that excilent
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love the whole Narnia series. This book had occasional static in the recording.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Exciting story, super interesting with great content too! It doesn't get much better than this!highly recommend:)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I’ve always loved this book, and the narrator is excellent. However, the audio quality has some issues, and chapter 11 is difficult to hear (static). It’s an important story point, so I’m hats a bummer. But it’s still a wonderful listen! ?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very vivid descriptions. He paints pictures in the mind magnificently!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great recording. However there is some skipping on the audio at certain points in the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I grew up listening to and reading the chronicles of Narnia and enjoyed this recording thoroughly. The reader for this book was excellent. The only sad part was the recording was a little choppy at times but not for any significant length of the recording. Loved it!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This one is even better than the last! The endings have gotten less abrupt and the characters seem to be more fully rounded, although I do miss the original children. The story behind the silver chair was creative.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book contains one of my favorite Narnia Characters: Puddleglum. The story of Jill and Eustace as they try to save Caspian from the clutches of the Witch. The scene where they confront the witch is priceless.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A timeless book with a timeless message. Thrills and allegories galore, this easy to read book might surprise by its depth. It makes it even better when you know a little of the background of C.S. Lewis and who he wrote this book for. Trust me, it's pretty interesting in itself.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is another quest/travel tale. Two children, Eustace and Jill, are brought to Narnia and sent to find the missing Prince Rilian. They are accompianied by Puddleglum, a Marsh-wiggle. (Marsh-wiggles, if you don't know, are somewhat frog like humanoids who live in the marshes of Narnia.) The three venture to the lands inhabited by giants and face a number of dangers as they get to the bottom of things. Along the way, the characters struggle with the hardships of the quest and their own personal shortcomings. It was a delightful tale, albeit not as enjoyable as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Still, it was good enough to keep on my shelf.--J.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I wasn't very fond of this book, let alone the series. The characters spoke in such a formal tone, I almost abandoned it. Plus, a few parts were just a little lame, and the twists were a little boring. In my opinion, I'd stick with the movies.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love that Lewis introduces us to a new protagonist in nearly every book so that, in introducing Narnia to that character he is re-introducing it to us. Unlike most series of today, Lewis doesn't waste his time repeating lots of information from books past, which I love. Instead, he adds even more detail to Narnia -- introducing more characters and more layers to the strange world.

    Puddleglum may be my favorite character in any of the books I've read so far of the series and Eustace and Jill make for fantastic substitutions for the Pevensies.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An underground world, three heroes to rescue a chained prince, an evil Green witch, giants and my very favorite character, Puddleglum. Those are some of the adventures met with in this book. The children begin as very spoiled and soft. Do they have what it takes to live up to that which is expected of them? Puddleglum really doesn't think so, but he will stick with them to the end anyway.This is a favorite of mine in the Narnia series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another great book in the Narnia series, while not one of my most favorite it is none the less a great book and if you have't had the chance to read it then do so and don't forget the about the rest of the series either.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great series, I loved these as a kid. Read them over and over again.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If one reads The Chronicles of Narnia in publication order (as, really, one ought), then The Silver Chair occupies the middle position, and it is indeed a turning point of sorts. It is the first Chronicle in which the Pevensie children do not appear, although one or two other old friends do. It is also the only one that opens with an encounter with Aslan. And finally, it is the second of three books in a row that is set primarily outside the environs of the Narnian kingdom. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Caspian and his crew sailed for the utter east; in The Horse and His Boy, a rag-tag group of slaves and runaways will escape to Narnia from the southern country of Calormen; and in this volume, two children and a Marshwiggle are sent by Aslan to seek a lost prince in the remote north. These are the young Eustace, with whom we have a prior acquaintance, his schoolmate Jill, and the dour Puddleglum.I hesitated in writing this review, because one of the things Lewis does so beautifully in this particular book is surprise the reader. It was a joy to read it aloud to my little sister and watch her face as the puzzle pieces began to come together; even the disclosure of Eustace’s name during the opening pages delighted her. I shall try to avoid major spoilers throughout, but newcomers are advised that they will probably enjoy the book most without any introduction whatsoever.The Silver Chair is considered by many fans to be one of the darkest Chronicles, and from the cruelties of Experiment House (Eustace and Jill’s forward-thinking, undisciplined, and—Lewis mentions pointedly—co-educational school) to the bleakness of the lands north of Narnia, a sort of gloom seems to settle over the author’s usually cheerful world. However, it may also be the funniest of the seven books. Some of the satire dealing with Experiment House will go over youngsters’ heads—my favorite bit describes how the Head, when found unsuitable for any other position, is finally put in Parliament—but the conversation between Glimfeather the owl and the deaf dwarf Trumpkin is guaranteed to set anyone howling. Nevertheless, Puddleglum is the character who really makes the book. Always looking for the worst in situations, he is the cause of much unintentional comedy, but he has a good heart as well. Lewis was a master at creating three-dimensional people where other authors would resort to simple caricature.Similarly, Jill’s struggles, her insecurities peevishness, and her constant forgetfulness regarding the Signs make her a flawed and sympathetic protagonist. One could definitely look for spiritual significance here, especially during the exciting and moving standoff at the climax of the book. These things are not always meant to parallel our world, though. There seems to be a popular assumption that C. S. Lewis wrote these books as allegories, and that is simply untrue, as his own writings on the subject attest.One thing that did surprise me upon reading the book again was how long a denouement it has, about five chapters’ worth in all. But it doesn’t drag at all, and as a matter of fact, some of the book’s most memorable passages appear there. While reading, I actually found myself crying at the death of a fictional character, something I rarely do; this also provoked quite a bit of teasing from the aforementioned little sister.Dark, funny, instructive, and moving, The Silver Chair is yet another Chronicle I treasure, and a literary experience I love to share.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    See review for #2, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The book was about the journey that Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, and Puddleglum had, to rescue the lost prince of Narnia, Prince Rilian. They were sent by Aslan to rescue him. They had lots of troubles in the giant town, because the giants were trying to eat them. Then they escaped from the town and went into the cavern, but there was the witch of Underworld with weird knight. First, they didn't care about the knight, but later they figured out that the knight was the prince enchanted to be a slave of the witch. They killed the witch and saved the prince. At last, Prince Rilian became King Rilian. This book was interesting to read. The entire voyage was a long cliffhanger that made me anxious of the characters. There were lots of hard and difficult missions to pass by, so I wanted keep reading until the end. It was exciting and thrilling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The fourth book, and again it follows on from the others. Possibly the weakest book in the series, possibly because none of the origional children are in this book. It still deserves 5 stars though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is perhaps my favorite of Narnian stories. Yes, the story is filled with lessons, as are all of the Narnian books. But the addition of Puddleglum, the Marsh-wiggle, allows the reader to become more immersed in the world and to let the blatant morals slide through a bit more unobtrusively.I appreciated Jill as a female character, strong in her own right, but with some softness of all children. For those readers who want to debate the idea that Lewis may be a sexist, I would point to Jill’s existence in his Narnian realm. Not only is Jill an individual with no direct ties to the other cast of characters, she is in my regards the star of this story. She knows when to speak up, when to be silent, but she also has flaws as all humans do. Lewis, in my opinion, highlights these, but does not dwell on them, much as he does with the character of Eustace.Why is The Silver Chair my favorite of the series? Because the story moves in ways that make me cherish a world that is not my own, yet at the same times, makes me hold my own a bit tighter. Yes, the idea of a world filled with magic and creatures of all kinds, deep love, strong magic is an enticing one, where you can ride on the breath of a lion and children can be heroes… but the cookbooks with Man and Marsh-wiggle notes, the eating of a talking beast, and imprisonment of the mind through a chair make me sure that while a vacation to Narnia might be nice, I think I’m happy with my Joy of Cooking, Starbucks and a burger.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Puddlegum's pessimism provides quite a bit of comedy that is missing in the other works in this series. The underground slaves take on which environment is proper is a great twist to the series. The destruction of the chair and the witch goes by way too fast however.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Of the 6 books, I like this one the least (still have The Last Battle to go) as it is SLOW, until the last few chapters. The last third of the book is on par with the other 5 books. Also, for most of the book, the two main characters are very unlikable. There problems with the audio, especially at one of the key points of the story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I started the series with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, making this the fifth book I've read in the series, and so far it's my least favorite. I wasn't going to proceed with the series after the first book I read, because I found the blatant Christian Allegory annoying, but friends told me that, except for The Last Battle, that aspect of the books becomes less evident--and I pretty much found that to be the case, including in this book, although it's hard not to see it when Aslan the Lion enters the story. And actually, in a way I almost enjoyed that aspect this time. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, but I thought that entire scene with the Witch and the Marsh-wiggle Puddleglum debating was a cool version of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It's not a philosophical view I ascribe to, but I had to give Lewis snaps for presenting rather sophisticated philosophical/theological concepts through the workings of a magical spell in a children's story.What annoyed me here were the slaps at co-educational, secular (and democratic/republican ie non-monarchial) education through the school the children Jill and Eustace attend. "Experiment House" has a Head who *gasp* "was by the way, a woman" and where "girls are not taught to curtsy." Quel horror! It irritated me so much--even though it's a very small part of the story, that it was hard for the story's admitted charms to come though. I think much of the accusations I've read that Lewis' Narnia is racist or sexist is mostly Politically Correct hogwash. His girls are every bit as smart, brave and capable as his boys--and as important to the story. But all that does make me cringe.As usual though, Lewis does exhibit a prodigious imagination and powerful imagery in this quest tale as well as winning touches of humor and whimsy. Puddleglum is a great comedic character and settings like Bism unforgettable. It's been obvious reading these that Narnia is as influential in fantasy as Tolkien's Middle Earth. With messenger owls, giants, feasts and the evils of the color green connected to snakes I'm reminded of Rowling's Harry Potter tales just as the warrior mice of Prince Caspian made me think of Jacques' Redwall and the talking horses of The Horse and His Boy made me think of Lackey's companions in her Valdemar books. And it's more obvious with every book Pullman's His Dark Materials is the anti-Narnia.So, bottom line is as a fan of the fantasy genre I'm glad I'm finally catching up with this series. Were I a parent I might feel ambivalent giving this to my children--Lewis' values aren't mine. But I also tend to think it's best to just feed kid's imaginations and not worry books like these are going to indoctrinate them. I know people of all faiths and no faith who loved Narnia as a child--and I can understand why.