Chronicles of Narnia...book order

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adamhovey1988

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Hey y’all, does anyone have any idea what is the right order to read the books? Is it better to read them in publication order or chronological order? Or does it matter? Seriously, type in “Chronicles of Narnia” on google and see how many different answers you get. God bless!
 
I’d say publishing order. I read LWW before the others, and it was magical.
 
Publication order. LWW is the one to start with. The Magician’s Nephew answers a lot of the questions that the earlier books raise and it makes sense to read the origin story just prior to The Last Battle.
 
I am glad you explained your position. I have read some C.S. Lewis, but never The Chronicles of Narnia (so far, the Great Divorce is my favourite work of his), but, I know a lot about the books, and I feel like if I’m going to be a fan of Lewis, I should probably devour as much of his work as possible. I’d have started reading them by now if I knew where to start.
 
I would say that the most common answer in which to read them was publishing order, but someone said to read them Chronologically like watching Star Wars films. If you did that with Stars Wars films, in a chronological order, instead of order of release, you’d start with the worst first. Since, I’ve never read the Narnia series, I haven’t point of reference for that.
 
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LWW is definitely the best of the series. Whatever order you read the others in, I’d start with that one.
 
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Personally, except in cases where the first work published maybe doesn’t leave a great first impression and that’s a major consideration for the person involved, I say always read/watch/whatever in publication order. Narnia is no exception, IMO, and I think LWW is both the most accessible starting point, and lends itself to better appreciating the others in the series.
 
I agree wholeheartedly. I prefer to experience things in the order in which they were released as frequently books and movies will give nods to and/or resolve questions from the earlier works regardless of when the stories occur chronologically.

So you read “The Hobbit” before “The Lord of the Rings,” but watch “The Lord of the Rings” before “The Hobbit”. 🙂

When I read that the reason Narnia is often numbered chronologically now is due mainly to some polite fan letter C.S. Lewis wrote to a little kid, it sort of cemented that for me. It doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to switch up the order.
 
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I’m thinking, I will read them in publication order first, then chronological, what do y’all think?
 
Then I can tell y’all how you’re reading them in the wrong order.😛
 
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Salmonslayer said:
I’m fond of the last battle as the best personally. But the whole series is fantastic.
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Definitely one of my other faves. Love the animals, and Jill/Eustace > Pevensie kids.
 
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Out of curiosity, does anyone know why there’s such a divergence of opinion on this? I know about Lewis’s letter to Laurence Krieg, but, are there any other similar letters saying something like that? Here’s what was said: " I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother’s. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn’t think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found as I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them.”, although, the bolded part sticks out to me.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
Out of curiosity, does anyone know why there’s such a divergence of opinion on this?
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I think it’s probably natural for most people to prefer the order in which they actually read them. Since I believe all of the newer editions number them chronologically, there are probably a fair number of people who read them in that order without investigating beforehand that there even is another order. And then those who grew up with the original numbering are likely to prefer that.

That’s just my guess, anyway. I could be wrong.
 
That might be it. I think from Lewis’s standpoint, he was just glad people were reading them. I could be wrong about that too.
 
I think that’s a good idea, because I’ve noticed that a lot of times I can miss things in books. I’ll have read it, but I don’t always remember it.
 
That’s true! And being the voracious reader I am, I sometimes read multiple books at the same time (like, I’ll be at a library and have multiple books open, wouldn’t recommend it). But, in a series like The Chronicles of Narnia, that might be difficult if you’re not already familiar with the stories, I’d imagine.
 
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