I'm obviously an oddity because I did like The Last Battle as a child, at least the ending - I agree the earlier part is uncomfortable and grim but then the contrast with the trumphant end is all the greater. It's never bothered me that it's allegory, and I actually like the bit with the dwarves (even though I'd be a dwarf myself).
One thing I've realised reading your series is how differently even Narnia fans react to the books!
I've absolutely loved discovering which books are other people's favourites and why.
Everyone's dead (apart from Susan, a point that is glossed over, I always felt rather sorry for her here) just never felt like a good ending for me, allegory or not. But then, as I've said before, I was the kind of child (and tbf adult) that liked Narnia precisely because there was always a way home.
Whereas I admired the wholesaleness of it - he really went for it, didn’t he? And Susan never worried me either. I imagine her as a Brenda Last (Handful of Dust) type. But there again I’m in a minority!
Last time through, I found The Last Battle a much more compelling read than I expected - but then, that was with the heavy-handedness already priced in. (The bit about the dwarves 'refusing to see' treads far closer to the most small-minded version of Christianity than is normally the case with Lewis.) Certainly as a child I found the early parts creepy, and the later ones a bit mystifying.
Thank you for reminding me of books I have loved over the years. I too found The Last Battle almost unbearable to read because everything goes wrong and the sense of loss over the whole is huge. My favourites? Difficult to choose! But The Silver Chair and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader perhaps?I may well reread some of them myself - thank you!
I'm obviously an oddity because I did like The Last Battle as a child, at least the ending - I agree the earlier part is uncomfortable and grim but then the contrast with the trumphant end is all the greater. It's never bothered me that it's allegory, and I actually like the bit with the dwarves (even though I'd be a dwarf myself).
One thing I've realised reading your series is how differently even Narnia fans react to the books!
I've absolutely loved discovering which books are other people's favourites and why.
Everyone's dead (apart from Susan, a point that is glossed over, I always felt rather sorry for her here) just never felt like a good ending for me, allegory or not. But then, as I've said before, I was the kind of child (and tbf adult) that liked Narnia precisely because there was always a way home.
Whereas I admired the wholesaleness of it - he really went for it, didn’t he? And Susan never worried me either. I imagine her as a Brenda Last (Handful of Dust) type. But there again I’m in a minority!
Oh yeah. Lewis properly commits to the end of Narnia for which I suppose he deserves some credit, it'd have been easier to give himself a way back.
Last time through, I found The Last Battle a much more compelling read than I expected - but then, that was with the heavy-handedness already priced in. (The bit about the dwarves 'refusing to see' treads far closer to the most small-minded version of Christianity than is normally the case with Lewis.) Certainly as a child I found the early parts creepy, and the later ones a bit mystifying.
Yes - I think it's not just that I don't much like the ending as fiction, it's that I also don't much care for Lewis' theology in this one.
Thank you for reminding me of books I have loved over the years. I too found The Last Battle almost unbearable to read because everything goes wrong and the sense of loss over the whole is huge. My favourites? Difficult to choose! But The Silver Chair and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader perhaps?I may well reread some of them myself - thank you!