Chronicles of Narnia

poisonivy · 07-03-2012, 04:26 PM

What order do you recommend I read these books in? By order written or in chronological order?

claudine19 · 07-03-2012, 04:50 PM

My set is numbered, 1-7. That's the order I'd go in if I were starting fresh.

poisonivy · 07-03-2012, 05:16 PM

Yes I'm ashamed to say I've never read them.

greenjumper · 07-03-2012, 05:23 PM

I would definitely read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" before I read the "Magician's Nephew"....that one won't hold as much significance to the reader (in my opinion) if they haven't read the first published book. It's sort of a prequel...and who cares about the prequel if you don't know about the original...you know.

I'm sure you'll understand the story, but you'll miss little throwbacks to things earlier in the series.

I believe C.S. Lewis is quoted saying several different things about the order including that reading them in a certain order will take away from certain aspects of the story but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter as long as you read "The Lion...etc" before "The Last Battle".

If I were to read them again (and I may....my father read them to my sister and I when we were children). I'd probably do it in publication order or a modified version of the publication order.

Narnia · 07-03-2012, 05:40 PM

Stick with the original publication order (2456317 is what they'd be numbered today).
The Magicians Nephew may be boring and insignificant to you if read first.
Fun fact - The Last Battle was written before the Magicians Nephew. He felt that he needed to know how the series would end before he could finish the prequel.
Enjoy the series

Sent from my "smart" phone, 'scuse crazy typos.

poisonivy · 07-03-2012, 05:51 PM

Thanks. My 16 year old loves them.

Eilonwy · 07-03-2012, 09:03 PM

IMO it's best to read any book series in the order it was written, because books written later will rely on knowledge from the earlier books.