A Very Condensed Narnia

Nancy S. Axelrad recently published at The Saturday Evening Post a (very) "condensed and adapted" version of C.S. Lewis's The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Once there were four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, who were sent from London during the war to live in the country house of an old Professor and his housekeeper, Mrs. Macready. She was not fond of children, and he was a very old man with shaggy white hair, which grew over most of his face as well as on his head.

“This house is so big that no one will mind what we do,” said Peter. “Let’s explore tomorrow.”

Everyone agreed to this, and that was how the adventure began. The first few doors the children tried led to spare bedrooms. Then came a long room full of pictures and a suit of armor; and after that, three steps down and five steps up, a whole series of rooms lined with books, some bigger than a Bible, and lastly, a room that was empty except for one big wardrobe with a mirror in the door.

“Nothing there!” said Peter, and they all trooped out again—except Lucy. She looked inside the wardrobe and saw several fur coats hanging up. She got in among them and kept her arms stretched out in front of her in order to not bump into the back of the wardrobe. This must be enormous! thought Lucy, stepping in further.

She felt something soft and powdery under her feet, and tree branches rubbed against her face. Then she saw a light. In a moment she was standing in the middle of a wood at night with snowflakes falling through the air.

And soon after that, a Faun stepped out from the trees. From the waist up he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat’s, and he had a tail neatly caught up over one arm that also held an umbrella.

“Are you a Daughter of Eve—Human?” he asked.

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