The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a marvelous set of seven fairy tales about a world other than our own where a lion named Aslan serves as the voice of wisdom, goodness and power. Many believe them to be tied to C. S. Lewis's Christian beliefs, which they surely would be as one writes about what one knows and believes at some level, whether intentional or not. However, it seems to me that the stories in the chronicles are as much about basic truth, goodness and the concept that there is a power bigger than each of us, whatever our religion or lack thereof. As regards religious belief(s), all religions in which God is the center share similar `truths' and differ, primarily, in the interpretation of how these truths are to be viewed and how they are to be applied to living. Well, enough of that. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was the first written and it introduces us to four children: Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter. The four siblings have a most extraordinary adventure when they travel to another world called Narnia through a large wardrobe in a room in a large country estate outside London where they've been sent for safety during World War II. They meet some powerful characters, a host of talking animals, and become instrumental in the overthrow of the wicked White Witch who has caused a hundred years of winter in Narnia (but no Christmas). Eventually the children return home. Later they (or some of them, at least) return to Narnia for further adventures in the stories of Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair. Other children experience Narnia as well in The Horse and His Boy and The Magician's Nephew, until the enchanted land comes to an end in The Last Battle. The essay at the end of the book about writing for children is enlightening. As Lewis states, however, don't expect to learn how to write for children by reading the essay. He says he's not conceited enough to think he could do that. Reading it will, however, give the reader better insight into Lewis's philosophy of writing in general, but, most particularly, for the young. There's ongoing controversy over the reading order of these remarkable stories which C.S. "Jack" Lewis began writing in 1949 and finished in 1956 (he died in 1963). My preference is to begin with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (I find it interesting that Hollywood started with this one and not the chronological first one, The Magician's Nephew. It gives me hope that they can do some things right). I, for one, would not want to know some things about Narnia at the beginning of the series. It makes me wonder how future generations will think the six (so far) Star Wars sagas should be viewed. Will there be controversy over whether or not the first in the series should be the prequel we have today in which we learn who, why and how Darth Vader became Darth Vader? I, again, would not want to know right away. Having seen the first one in the 70s, I appreciate that my questions about DV fermented for a time, to be answered later; but, will future generations agree? However you read The Chronicles of Narnia, just read them. It's a worthwhile expenditure of time and effort! Carolyn Rowe Hill

My favorite books to read to my children! Love that this is a compilation even if it is a little on the heavy side!

Absolutely beautiful book, it is just like new! Though used was in my budget, this is so much more than I expected! Thank you !

This series of books “The Chronicles of Narnia” represents the second time I have read them. The first time in physical book form years ago and this time through the “Kindle” format. The incredible beauty and emotion evoked through childhood imagination contained in these wonderfully well-written stories are extraordinarily precious containing a spirit of hope and adventure crossing over both time and space, where physical age is no boundary to its Timeless Treasures. When compared to other Great Stories as L. Frank Baum “The Wizard of Oz” books, these powerfully imaginative stories of the childhood realm (and adults still young-at-heart) actually harmonize and support each other in the gifts that these (and other) authors were given to maintain the closeness and integrity of their own childhood spirits (and therefore our own) are a blessing beyond measure. Very highly recommended!

I needed another copy of the series after I lost my first one years ago and wanted to read them all over again. Was happy to see a copy with Ben Barnes on the cover, since he's become one of my favorite of the new, young actors on the scene today, and decided this would be the copy I would get specifically because of that. Totally worth it. In regards to the writing itself, it's interesting to see the way your perspective of the stories changes as you get older. When I was a little girl, all I saw was fantasy and magic and wait, is that Lion an allegory for Jesus??? Which was strange and unusual for my brain at the time because I didn't know the perspective the author was coming from. Having grown up and been able to learn just where C.S Lewis was going with things and digest the stories in a better fashion, I love the way everything makes so much more sense then it did all those years ago. It's since become my favorite allegory to God that I, as a Christian-raised Atheist, have found. There are parts of it, of course, that made me a little wary, such as the slightly racist moments in the book, but I gave those a bit of a pass because I accept them as a product of the times and take them with a grain of salt. There were also some rather surprising moments in the books, too. Some that were unintentionally hilarious simply because of the evolution of certain nuances of language that when they were written meant something much different then they did now, like when King Caspian meets up with an old acquaintance of his father who buys him from slavers and makes comments that nowadays made it sound like he was wanting to do inappropriate things with the potentially-underage King who reminded him of the man he'd served under years ago but at the time were probably meant to be reassurances to a young boy that he had bought him because he felt bad for him and wanted to protect him. There's also a moment in the books when Caspian is injured by a werewolf that surprised me and made me wonder about the differences in werewolf lore between "our world" and "Narnia." It's never mentioned again, so one is left to assume that Caspian suffers no curses because of the injury, where in traditional lore, he would have ended up howling at the moon the month after! Another interesting thing of note that I never noticed as a child but was unable to ignore the more I read it was the relationship between the King and the Unicorn in The Last Battle. I initially tried to write it off as my brain reinterpreting things in a modern light instead of reading it as it was meant to be because of the evolution of language, the same way I had Caspian's purchase from the slavers a few books earlier. But the more I read their interactions and saw how deeply the two characters were meant to care for one another, I began to seriously wonder if Lewis had intended for them to be a positive example of a homosexual relationship. I didn't know if I was reading into it correctly, and I may still be off, but I have since found that he was actually very forgiving in his dealings with the subject of homosexuality and may have considered it a sin, but also apparently felt that there wasn't anything inherently evil about it. It may be things that I am, again, misinterpreting through a modern lens, but it's interesting to note, and as a bisexual individual, I found it heartwarming to see that one of my favorite novels from childhood written by a strong Christian for the purpose of creating a strong Christian allegory may have been written in such a way as to forgive something that many other Christians today feel is the absolute worst, most disgusting thing you can ever do. Maybe the King and the Unicorn were meant to have a brotherly relationship, though, and I'm reading it all wrong. It's simply something that struck me quite strongly when I reread it and was one of those things that I had completely missed when I first read them as a child. Long story short: I came back to the series because I missed it so much and had lost a previous copy. Rereading it as an adult brought new things to light and made rereading it a more enriching experience and reaffirmed it as one of my favorite novel series ever.

I first became aware of The Chronicles of Narnia from the 3 movies (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) that have been released. Then I came to know their well-known author CS Lewis and that the movies are based on his novels. And reading the original novels has then always been on my mind. In reality, The Chronicles of Narnia comprises of 7 books, of which only 3 have been released as movies. I read these in the chronological order that CS Lewis would have recommended his readers; 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 and The Last Battle. Throughout the books, there are biblical instances that I could identify such as the death and resurrection of Aslan, the Ape Shift as the false prophet, etc. I am glad that I follow this order as this evolves right from the first generation; Digory – the Pevensies’ uncle and Polly in the first book The Magician’s Nephew. As one can only enter Narnia as a child, after Digory and Polly had put on in years which made them no longer able to re-enter Narnia, then came along the second generation; Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie. In the book Prince of Caspian, this is where Peter and Susan were able to last visit Narnia as they were growing up as young adults. The Pevensies’ cousin Eustace Scrubb made his first foray into Narnia in the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, accompanied by Edmund and Lucy. This book marks Edmund’s and Lucy’s last visit to Narnia as like Peter and Susan, they were growing up. The rest of the books describe the third generation; Eustace Scrubb and his school-mate Jill Pole. Reading the final book The Last Battle, the biblical book of Revelations come to my mind, the passing of Old Narnia and entering to new Narnia. And in this book, all the characters starting from Digory, Polly, Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, Jill and the Narnia characters Caspian, Lord Drinian, etc came alive in the new Narnia. Susan was not among them as she had chosen to forsake and renounce her belief in Narnia. There was an unexpected twist in that Aslan had told Digory, Polly, Peter, Edmund and Lucy before that they were no longer able to re-enter Narnia, but yet they did manage to re-enter Narnia. I will leave you to read to find out this twist that I am referring to. Reading these books make me feel like CS Lewis was narrating his novels to me, as often he would use a first person’s narrative. Eg phrases such as (at least, I’m sure I’m not), (By the way, I have never yet heard how these remote islands became attached to the crown of Narnia, if I ever do, and if the story is at all interesting, I may put it in some other book). Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend everyone to read the actual novels.

Having recently been floored by the LWW movie and recalled that I had read LWW as a child, I recently purchased the seven-title anthology and read it through. First and foremost, it's an effortless read, each story averaging just about one hundred pages. Lewis does an excellent job of creating an alternate reality, populated by intriguing creatures, with a fairly believable, reasonably consistent timeline that is educed and successfully negotiated through all seven tales. Be forewarned that Lewis's Christological theosophy surfaces rather more often than I personally found to be convenient. But it is more than difficult enough to convey the 2500-plus-year chronology of an alternate world in a convincing and consistent fashion, so I assign Lewis high marks in that department. I had some favorites and some not-so-favorites among the Chronicles. Personally, I found Dawn Treader to be extremely funny, if for no other reason than that our heroes are stuck with a real ringer, cousin Eustace, who just doesn't understand that he's in an alternate universe and is therefore continually disappointed when he, for example, seeks a British consulate and cannot find one or wishes to bring a legal action against someone and cannot find the supporting infrastructure. Prince Caspian was largely a waste of time (as well as an extremely poor decision for a follow-on movie to LWW, the reasoning being that, "It's the same four kids, so let's do it before they get too old"), the action being confined largely to a single chapter close to the end. The Silver Chair was a handsome adventure, and The Horse and His Boy was likewise a reasonably stirring tale of escape and mistaken identity. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was, quite frankly, better on screen than in print; the written version leaves too much unstated and, therefore, to the reader's imagination. The Magician's Nephew, while it did a good job of tying together some up-front loose ends, failed to establish the narrative punch of some of the later works. Finally, The Last Battle is a disappointment: although it covers the destruction of Narnia, Lewis goes totally over the top in the way he closes out the story: our heroes all end up in a thinly-veiled Heaven with a thinly-veiled Jesus-as-lion watching over them. Come to think of it, the veiling isn't thin: it's non-existent.

Love love love this book. Have read it many times and will read it many more.