Chronicles Of Narnia

Seven novels by CsLewis about the fictional land of Narnia. Written for children, they are also a good read for grown-ups. The story has many allusions to Christianity.

Belongs to best literature ever written.

In the opinion of some.

True. JrrTolkien, who disliked allegory of all kinds, didn't think much of them at all. AN Wilson's biography of Lewis is one of the few by a experienced literary biographer to acknowledge both the enduring charm and the literary weaknesses, even the apparent sloppiness of the text, which Lewis dashed off at great speed.

CsLewis claimed that the Narnia books aren't allegory. His point is that (e.g.) Aslan doesn't represent Christ in the sort of way that Giant Despair in PilgrimsProgress? represents, er, despair; rather, Aslan is his attempt at saying what Christ might be like, so to speak, in a world like Narnia. Note that he wasn't denying that the portions of the books generally reckoned to be "about" Christianity are about Christianity; merely that they're allegorical.

Interesting to see an Internet-enabled world this weekend in the middle (exactly) of another seven book fantasy series for children which is fast becoming a classic for all ages. Two out of three children in my house (aged 9 and 11) have gone strangely quiet. I have to sneak in a few chapters after bedtimes. -- RichardDrake

See also: HarryPotter

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Publication order:

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of The Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Chronological order (in the chronology of the stories):

1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of The Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

Although to be strict to the point of pedantry, The Horse and His Boy occurs within The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ;-)

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When I was a child I read the whole series, and while reading it, I swear it never occurred to me for a second that any of it had anything to do with Christianity. But then, I don't know terribly much about the religion (despite being supposedly born into it), and I read them in reverse publication order... -- KarlKnechtel

I read them too as a child, and to me they were just cool adventure stories. The religious impact on me was absolutely zero. --ScottJohnson

Me too. But they were unreadable when I tried to re-read them as an adult, because of the bludgening-the-reader-over-the-head-with-religion that was there all the time. -- Anon

I read them dozens of times, then was shocked, bemused, and somewhat smug to be assigned to read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as a theology class assignment for my Jesuit-run high school. Funny, though, was that I had to reread it to get the theological points we were discussing, which did take away my smugness. -- JasonFelice

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About the movie:

It seems peculiar to me that this movie was so heavily pooh-poohed. It was quite wonderfully realized, very faithful to the book, well-acted and paced. My only issue is with the level of gore, which seemed completely unnecessary to this father of a five-year-old. But in general I have no problem. My boy says that the book "has a lot more in it". Which makes me feel, as ever, very proud of him. -- Pete

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