What are The Chronicles of Narnia?
The Chronicles of Narnia consist of a series of seven fantasy novels for children. The books, listed below in the order in which the author wanted them to be read, are â€"
- Book 1 - The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
- Book 2 - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
- Book 3 - The Horse and His Boy (1954)
- Book 4 - Prince Caspian (1951)
- Book 5 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
- Book 6 - The Silver Chair (1953)
- Book 7 - The Last Battle (1956).
These children's books are not only very popular with 8-12 year olds, but teens and adults also enjoy them.
Why has there been confusion about the order of the books?
When C.S. Lewis wrote the first book (
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) in what would become
The Chronicles of Narnia, he wasn’t planning on writing a series. As you will note from the copyrights in parentheses in the booklist above, the books were not written in chronological order, so there was some confusion as to the order in which they should be read. The publisher, HarperCollins, is presenting the books in the order that C.S. Lewis requested.
What is the theme of The Chronicles of Narnia?
The Chronicles of Narnia deals with the struggle between good and evil. Much has been made of the
Chronicles as a Christian allegory, with the lion sharing many of the characteristics of Christ. After all, when he wrote the books, C.S. Lewis was a well-known scholar and Christian writer. However, Lewis made it clear that was not how he approached writing the
Chronicles.
Did C.S. Lewis write The Chronicles of Narnia as a Christian allegory?
In his essay, "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to be Said" (
Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories), Lewis stated,
"Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine."
How did C.S. Lewis approach writing The Chronicles of Narnia?
In the same essay, Lewis stated, "Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord." Given Lewis’s strong Christian faith, that is not surprising. In fact, once the story was established, Lewis said he "...saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed much of my own religion in childhood."
How much of the Christian references do children pick up on?
That depends on the child. As
New York Times journalist A.O. Scott stated in his review of the movie version of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, “To the millions since the 1950's for whom the books have been a source of childhood enchantment, Lewis's religious intentions have either been obvious, invisible or beside the point.†The children I have talked to simply see the
Chronicles as a good story, although when parallels to the Bible and life of Christ are pointed out, older children are interested in discussing them.
Why is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe so popular?
Although
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the second in the series, it was the first of the
Chronicles books that C.S. Lewis wrote. As I said, when he wrote it, he was not planning on a series. Of all the books in the series,
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe seems to be the one that has most captured the imaginations of young readers. All the publicity surrounding the December 2005 release of the movie version also greatly increased the public’s interest in the book.
Are any of The Chronicles of Narnia on VHS or DVD?
Between 1988 and 1990 the BBC aired
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,
Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and
The Silver Chair as a TV series. It was then edited to create the three movies now available on DVD and VHS. Your public library may have copies available. In 2006, several DVD versions of the 2005 movie were released, including full frame and wide screen versions and a gift set with a book (
compare prices).
What are the recent movie versions like?
The most recent movie version of
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was released in 2005. My nine-year old grandson and I saw the movie together; we both loved it. The next
Chronicles movie,
Prince Caspian, was released in 2007. The latest movie version is
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, released on December 10, 2010. For more information about the movies go to
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,
Prince Caspian and
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Who was C.S. Lewis?
Clives Staples Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland and died in 1963, just seven years after completing
The Chronicles of Narnia. When he was nine, Lewis’s mother died, and he and his brother were sent to a series of boarding schools. Although raised a Christian, Lewis lost his faith while a teenager. Despite having his education interrupted by World War I, Lewis graduated from Oxford.
According to Lewis scholar Dr. Art Lindsley,
"When Lewis came to faith in 1931, he was already teaching on the English faculty at Magdalen College, Oxford. Within two years, he had written his first apologetic work Pilgrim’s Regress (1933). Over the next thirty years Lewis produced a stream of books. He wrote capably in a number of types of literature: philosophical and apologetic works about faith in Christ…"
C.S. Lewis gained a reputation as a Medieval and Renaissance scholar, and as a Christian writer of great influence. After twenty-nine years at Oxford, in 1954, Lewis became Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University and remained there until he retired. Among C.S. Lewis's most well-known books are
Mere Christianity,
The Screwtape Letters,
The Four Loves, and
The Chronicles of Narnia (
compare prices of the boxed set).
(Sources: Articles on the C.S. Lewis Institute Web site)
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