Have been reading them all with my son and at the same time watching the BBC series on DVD, which despite being clunky compared to today's productions, is really faithful to the text and really does engage a 9 year old.
Oh, I am delighted to dig into this! I stumbled on your post about Prince Caspian, and decided to come back here and read them in order. I’m very much looking forward to it. I too spent my childhood in Narnia (or searching for it through stone arches and cupboard doors). Last year I bought a little stone house in Narni, the Italian city that inspired the name for Narnia. I’m turning the cellar into a bookshop called The Wardrobe. I love finding kindred spirits!
Intriguing. I see obvious parallels with my own experience, growing up in a churchgoing household (in fact my Dad was a vicar). I was at a church school too, and we had The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe* read to us by our first-year junior teacher, Mrs Hammond, so I'd guess it met with official approval.
At seven I had absolutely no clue what allegory was and didn't see anything like that in the story. But it's all too obvious to me now and I think this is the main reason Lewis has slipped away from my list of favourite fantasy authors. (Unlike Tolkien, also a deeply devout Christian, who took a different approach in his fantasy and, I think, disliked allegory.)
Still, I have to give it credit as my real introduction to fantasy.
I think you'd have to be a fairly precocious child to consciously figure out what's going on in TLTWATW at 7 or 8 without any parental / other input. I'm pretty sure I just enjoyed them on the fantasy story level. I never really got on with Tolkien (beyond The Hobbit) but what he does with the Christian themes / fantasy combination is certainly much subtler and therefore probably more interesting for those inclined to reflect on it.
The "chronological" can't be "Lewis’ preferred reading order." Maybe a *re-reading* order, for those for whom there are *no surprises.* But for first-time readers, putting Magician's Nephew before LWW destroys or undermines multiple literary devices of his, in both books.
See Lewis’s letter of 21 April 1957 to Walter Hooper - it's a reply to a question about best reading order and his answer is the chronological order outlined here. You're not alone in disagreeing with his assessment but nonetheless it was his view.
It's in one of his letters, I'll dig out the reference for you later! I do tend to agree that for first time readers it makes sense to start with TLTWATW though. That said, TMN is my absolute favourite of the series.
I think I've read the letter, though I don't recall the exact wording.
He *cannot* have sincerely and thoughtfully meant to say that first-time readers should go "chronologically." The books are just worse that way, with significant parts of his obviously deliberate construction made irrelevant.
The whole sequence of Edmund's seduction, and the question of whether/how wicked the White Witch is, and the corollary of the reveal of Jadis in Charn - in writing and publication order there are two dark surprises here; in "chronological" there are none.
Similarly, the two introductions of Narnia itself, at discovery by Lucy, and at its "earlier" creation, are both far less mysterious and wonderful in chrono order. Chrono readers lose sharing the first-time wonder of the wardrobe with Lucy - and the questions of whether the magic is only for her, or repeatable - we already know the worlds persist, and groups can travel back and forth - *and* the dawning recognition of Narnia's specific dawn.
The renumbering of the books in later editions was a crime against their literary design, and a theft from the succeeding generations of children who followed that sequence.
"Lewis scholars almost universally agree that we should disagree with what Lewis said about the order of publication. C. S. Lewis was not the kind of person to focus on himself, and though he remembered everything he ever read almost word for word, he lacked such perfect memory toward anything he actually wrote."
"Lewis cannot tell us what order they should be best read in because he was not a reader of Narnia. ... A reader needs something different. And the first-time reader needs what she gets from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at the beginning of a series. She doesn’t get that from The Magician’s Nephew."
Have been reading them all with my son and at the same time watching the BBC series on DVD, which despite being clunky compared to today's productions, is really faithful to the text and really does engage a 9 year old.
I'm tempted to go back and watch them again once I've finished the reread project!
Oh, I am delighted to dig into this! I stumbled on your post about Prince Caspian, and decided to come back here and read them in order. I’m very much looking forward to it. I too spent my childhood in Narnia (or searching for it through stone arches and cupboard doors). Last year I bought a little stone house in Narni, the Italian city that inspired the name for Narnia. I’m turning the cellar into a bookshop called The Wardrobe. I love finding kindred spirits!
How fantastic. I hope you enjoy the posts.
I want to reread Narnia, but confess I am slightly fearful that the magic will be lost. This was a treat to read and I look forward to your posts.
That was my big worry too but it was unfounded!
I am very relieved!
Intriguing. I see obvious parallels with my own experience, growing up in a churchgoing household (in fact my Dad was a vicar). I was at a church school too, and we had The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe* read to us by our first-year junior teacher, Mrs Hammond, so I'd guess it met with official approval.
At seven I had absolutely no clue what allegory was and didn't see anything like that in the story. But it's all too obvious to me now and I think this is the main reason Lewis has slipped away from my list of favourite fantasy authors. (Unlike Tolkien, also a deeply devout Christian, who took a different approach in his fantasy and, I think, disliked allegory.)
Still, I have to give it credit as my real introduction to fantasy.
*What? An Oxford don omitting the Oxford comma?
I think you'd have to be a fairly precocious child to consciously figure out what's going on in TLTWATW at 7 or 8 without any parental / other input. I'm pretty sure I just enjoyed them on the fantasy story level. I never really got on with Tolkien (beyond The Hobbit) but what he does with the Christian themes / fantasy combination is certainly much subtler and therefore probably more interesting for those inclined to reflect on it.
The "chronological" can't be "Lewis’ preferred reading order." Maybe a *re-reading* order, for those for whom there are *no surprises.* But for first-time readers, putting Magician's Nephew before LWW destroys or undermines multiple literary devices of his, in both books.
See Lewis’s letter of 21 April 1957 to Walter Hooper - it's a reply to a question about best reading order and his answer is the chronological order outlined here. You're not alone in disagreeing with his assessment but nonetheless it was his view.
It's in one of his letters, I'll dig out the reference for you later! I do tend to agree that for first time readers it makes sense to start with TLTWATW though. That said, TMN is my absolute favourite of the series.
I think I've read the letter, though I don't recall the exact wording.
He *cannot* have sincerely and thoughtfully meant to say that first-time readers should go "chronologically." The books are just worse that way, with significant parts of his obviously deliberate construction made irrelevant.
The whole sequence of Edmund's seduction, and the question of whether/how wicked the White Witch is, and the corollary of the reveal of Jadis in Charn - in writing and publication order there are two dark surprises here; in "chronological" there are none.
Similarly, the two introductions of Narnia itself, at discovery by Lucy, and at its "earlier" creation, are both far less mysterious and wonderful in chrono order. Chrono readers lose sharing the first-time wonder of the wardrobe with Lucy - and the questions of whether the magic is only for her, or repeatable - we already know the worlds persist, and groups can travel back and forth - *and* the dawning recognition of Narnia's specific dawn.
The renumbering of the books in later editions was a crime against their literary design, and a theft from the succeeding generations of children who followed that sequence.
Some further points to reflect on.
"Lewis scholars almost universally agree that we should disagree with what Lewis said about the order of publication. C. S. Lewis was not the kind of person to focus on himself, and though he remembered everything he ever read almost word for word, he lacked such perfect memory toward anything he actually wrote."
https://www.cslewis.com/the-narnian-order-of-things/
"Lewis cannot tell us what order they should be best read in because he was not a reader of Narnia. ... A reader needs something different. And the first-time reader needs what she gets from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at the beginning of a series. She doesn’t get that from The Magician’s Nephew."
https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2015/02/03/readingnarnia/
I absolutely understand why some people prefer to reread in publication order, it's not what I've chosen to do here but each to their own.