November 4, 2005

Which Chronicles of Narnia Book Comes First?

(Filed under: Book Buzz)

With the buzz building for the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie, the books are getting a lot of attention. One of the big questions is which book comes first, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Magician's Nephew? The National Review answers the question, though it's not an easy one.

In the chronological order of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew comes first. In the order they were written, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe comes first. Author C.S. Lewis commented a few isolated times that he thought The Magician's Nephew should come first. Thirty years after his death his publisher decided to reorder the series based on these comments, though Lewis himself never asked for the series to be reordered.

The National Review article goes on to claim that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was originally intended to be the only book in the series, and it gives a much better introduction to the entire world of Narnia. The Magician's Nephew functions more as a prequel and assumes some understanding of Narnia.

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