In what order should you read the Narnia books?
I spent this past New Year in Wisconsin with some of my girlfriend’s family. During the meal the subject of The Chronicles of Narnia came up and, in particular the order in which these books should be read.
Newcomers to C.S. Lewis may be surprised to find out that, not only are there two main different ways of reading Lewis’ series, but that the difference between these two different approaches are often the subject of enthusiastic internet debates.
The difference in approaches stems from the fact that the Narniad was published in the following order:
Publication Order
- The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
- Prince Caspian (1951)
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
- The Silver Chair (1953)
- The Horse and His Boy (1954)
- The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
- The Last Battle (1956)
However, these books tell a non-linear story. If one were to arrange the books in the order in which they chronologically take place in Narnia, the books would be arranged thus:
Chronological Order
- The Magician’s Nephew
- 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 Chronological Order is the order which you’ll see the books listed if you buy a modern collection, or if you buy a single-volume book. If you have listened to the Pints With Jack, you will know that I am emphatically on the side of Publication Order. We’ll get to why this is the case later, but first we need to explain why the ordering of these books was changed in recent years…
This resulted in the British and then American books evenutually being renumbered. Following the series’ aquisition by Harper Books, the books were universally published in chronological order. Harper Collins included the following line:
The HarperCollins editions of The Chronicles of Narnia have been re-numbered in compliance with the original wishes of the author, C. S. Lewis.
This was later updated to:
Although The Magician’s Nephew was written several years after C. S. Lewis first began The Chronicles of Narnia, he wanted it to be read as the first book in the series. HarperCollins is happy to present these books in the order in which Professor Lewis preferred.
The movies made thus far appear in the Publication Order. We’ll see what Netflix do…
Why Publication Order?
So why am I so emphatically in favour of the Publication Order?
That’s the order in which I first read them
…and reading the parts of the story out of chronological order didn’t hurt my reading of the seris.
Consensus of Lewis Scholars
There is almost unanimous consensus among Lewis scholars that the “correct” ordering of the Narniad is the Publication Order. Listeners to our podcast will remember the enthusiastic advocasy of Professor Louis Markos. Dr. Michael Ward says the same thing in his book Planet Narnia.
Some lines don’t make sense otherwise
There are just some parts of the Chronicles which just don’t make a whole lot of sense if you read them in Chronlogical Order, the most important one being a line from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When the Pevensie children enter Narnia and discover that Mr. Tumnus has been arrested, they are met by Mr. Beaver who says the following:
“Aslan is on the move”
Lewis goes on to comment that “None of the children knew who Aslan was anymore than you do…”. However, if you read the books in Chronological Order, you know exactly who Aslan is. This brings me to my next point…
The Magician’s Nephew isn’t as easy a hook
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has a far better capacity to hook the reader. There’s a reason that when the Walden Media movies were being made that thyey began with LWW. The Magician’s Nephew is, I’d argue a more mature book than Wardrobe. LWWW provides the best introduction.
The Horse and his boy doesn’t stand out
The main issue with the Chronological Ordering is the reading of The Magician’s Nephew too early. However, I’d also argue that reading THAHB too early deprives us of the the essential character of the book. It is meant to feel unfamiliar.
You are deprived of puzzles
If you read The Magician’s Nephew first, you have several questions answered for you in advance, You know what Narnia is. You know where the wardrobe came from. You know who Aslan is. You know who the White Witch is. You know why there is a lamp-post in the middle of a wood in Narnia.
While I could imagine someone might try and argue that it’s advantageous to know these answers in advance, I’d suggest that it rather deprives the reader of some intrege. It also deprives the reader of the joy of uncovering the secrets of Narnia, as well as being reintroduced to “The Professor” as a boy, only to encounter him once again in The Last Battle.
What then, do we make of Lewis’ own apparent suggestion that Narnia should be read in Chronological Order? Is it because it was a throw-away comment? Was he thinking it’d just be easier for kids? Was he selfless? Forgetful about what he had written?
