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The Magician's Nephew

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:25:24 +0100

The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	C. S. Lewis
Illustrator	Pauline Baynes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Chronicles of Narnia
Genre(s)	Fantasy, Children's Literature
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Publication date	1955
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages	202 pp
Preceded by	The Horse and His Boy
Followed by	The Last Battle

The Magician's Nephew is a fantasy novel for children written by C. S. Lewis. It was the sixth book published in his The Chronicles of Narnia series, but is the first in the chronology of the Narnia novels' fictional universe.

The novel begins in London in the early 1900s. The principal characters are two pre-adolescent children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, Digory being the boy who becomes the Professor Kirke appearing in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The pair are transported to other worlds by the magical experiments of Digory's selfish Uncle Andrew and become caught up in the creation of Narnia and the introduction there of the evil queen Jadis, antagonist of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Although begun shortly after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the novel took Lewis nearly six years to complete, and includes a number of autobiographical elements from Lewis's own life. It explores several Christian themes, including atonement, original sin, temptation and the order of nature.

The book is dedicated to "the Kilmer family".

Plot summary

The story begins in London around 1900. Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row of terraced houses. They decide to explore an attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory's Uncle Andrew in his study. Uncle Andrew, a bumbling yet malevolent magician, tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish. He then blackmails Digory into rescuing Polly by using another yellow ring, while giving him two green rings for their return.

Digory finds himself in a wood among many pools of water, and is reunited with Polly. They discover that jumping into the water while wearing a green ring takes them to a different universe, and Digory convinces Polly to explore further worlds.

After marking the pool leading back to Earth, they enter a pool leading to a crumbling palace among the ruins of the ancient world of Charn. They find a hall lined with statues of former rulers, progressing from the fair and wise to the proud and cruel. They also find a bell, marked by a sign that dares one to ring the bell while warning against doing so. Digory falls for the taunt and rings the bell against Polly's wishes. Its sound awakens the last of the statues, the evil Queen Jadis.

The Queen describes a final war between herself and her sister. When defeat seemed certain, Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, destroying all life on Charn and leaving her to become Queen of a dead world. She cast a spell to petrify herself until the bell was rung. Realising her evil nature, the children flee back through the wood to home, but Jadis follows and is pulled with them to London.

Digory and Polly finally succeed in extracting Jadis from London, but their return to the wood also brings along Uncle Andrew, a cab driver named Frank, and his horse, Strawberry. Digory leads them into the nearest pool, believing it would lead to Charn, but they find instead an empty blackness, which Jadis recognises as a world not yet created. They hear singing, which causes stars to appear and the sun to rise. The singer is Aslan, the great Lion. Aslan breathes life into the world, causing animals and plants to emerge from the earth. Jadis attacks Aslan, but finding the lion invulnerable, she flees. Aslan selects some animals to become intelligent talking beasts, giving them authority over the dumb beasts.

Aslan offers Digory the opportunity to atone for bringing the evil of Jadis into Narnia, and sends him and Polly upon Strawberry, whom he transforms into a talking winged horse, Fledge. They fly to a mountain to retrieve a magic apple from a walled garden where they find Jadis, who has eaten one of the apples, thereby gaining eternal youth. She tempts Digory to eat an apple or to use it to cure his dying mother. Although sorely tempted, Digory refuses, believing that his mother would not condone theft.

Upon their return, Aslan congratulates Digory and tells him to plant the apple. Aslan then crowns Frank and his wife Helen (whom Aslan transports from Earth) King and Queen of Narnia. The apple grows into a tree, which Aslan explains will protect Narnia from the Witch for a time. He also explains that a stolen apple would have cured his mother, but at a terrible price; and gives Digory an apple from the tree to save his mother. Upon returning to London Digory cures his mother with the apple and then buries the core in his back yard. He also buries the rings around the apple core to prevent their misuse.

The apple core grows into a tree, and years later the tree is blown down in a storm. Digory has it made into a wardrobe, linking the narrative to the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which Digory is the "old professor" in whose country house Lucy Pevensie finds the wardrobe and the way into Narnia.

Principal characters

Writing

Lewis had originally intended only to write the one Narnia novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Roger Lancelyn Green, however, asked him how a lamp post came to be sitting in the midst of Narnian woodland. Lewis was intrigued enough by this question to attempt an answer by writing The Magician's Nephew, featuring a younger version of Professor Kirke from the first novel.^[1]

The Magician's Nephew seems to have been the most challenging Narnia novel for Lewis to write. While the other six books were written quickly between 1948 and 1953, The Magician's Nephew occupied him over a six-year period between 1949 and 1954. He commenced in the summer of 1949 after finishing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but came to a halt after producing 26 pages of manuscript, and did not resume work until two years later. The autobiographical aspects of the novel may have been part of the problem.^[2]

Lewis returned to The Magician's Nephew late in 1950, after completing The Silver Chair. He finished nearly three quarters of the novel, but halted once again after Green, to whom Lewis at this time showed all his writing, pointed out a structural flaw in the story. After finishing The Last Battle in 1953, Lewis again returned to The Magician's Nephew, completing it early in 1954.^[3]

Lewis originally titled the novel Polly and Digory; his publisher changed it to The Magician's Nephew.^[4]

The Lefay Fragment

A draft of the opening of the novel survives as the "Lefay Fragment". It differs significantly from the published version and was evidently abandoned by Lewis. The fragment is named for one of its characters, Mrs Lefay, Digory's fairy godmother, who does not appear in the final version (though the name is retained for Uncle Andrew's godmother).^[5]

In the Lefay Fragment Digory is born with the ability to speak to trees and animals. He lives with his officious and bullying Aunt Gertrude, formerly a school mistress and now a government minister. Digory finds respite from Gertrude with his trees and animals, including a talking squirrel named Pattertwig. Polly enters the story as the girl next door, who is unable to understand the speech of non-human creatures. She wants to build a raft to explore a stream that leads to an underground world. Digory helps construct the raft, but to complete it without losing face with Polly, he saws a branch from a talking tree, thereby losing his supernatural powers of speech. The following day he is visited by his Godmother, Mrs Lefay, who knows that Digory has lost his ability. She gives him a card with the address of a furniture shop and instructs him to visit it. At this point the fragment ends.^[6]

Mrs Lefay, Pattertwig and Aunt Gertrude do not appear in the final version of the novel. Pattertwig, however, does appears as a Narnian creature in Prince Caspian, and Aunt Gertrude resurfaces as the Head of the experimental school in The Silver Chair.^[7]

Authenticity

Some doubt has been cast on the authenticity of The Lefay Fragment, as the handwriting in the manuscript differs in some ways from Lewis's usual style, and the writing is not of a calibre similar to his other work. Also, in August 1963 Lewis had given instructions to Douglas Gresham to destroy all his unfinished manuscripts when his rooms at Magdelene College Cambridge were being cleaned out following his resignation from the college.^[8]

Autobiographical elements

Several aspects of The Magician's Nephew parallel Lewis's own life. Both Digory and Lewis were children in the early 1900s, both wanted a pony, and both faced the death of their mothers in childhood. Digory is separated from his father, who is in India, and misses him. Lewis was schooled in the United Kingdom after his mother’s death, while his father remained in Ireland. He also had a brother in India. Lewis was a voracious reader, as is Digory, and both are better with books than with numbers. Digory (and Polly) struggle with sums when trying to work out how far they must travel along the attic space to explore an abandoned house. Lewis failed the maths entrance exam for Oxford. Lewis remembered dreary rainy summer days from his youth, and Digory is faced with the same woe in the novel. Additionally Digory becomes a professor when he grows up, who (like Lewis) takes in evacuated children during World War Two. ^[9]

Digory (especially in his appearance in later books as "Professor Kirke") has mannerisms similar to Lewis' tutor, William Kirkpatrick, whom he calls "Kirk" in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy.

The character of Uncle Andrew closely resembles Robert Capron, a schoolmaster at Wynyard School which Lewis attended with his brother. Lewis suggested in his teens that Capron would make a good model for a villain in a future story. Ketterly resembles Capron in his age, appearance and behaviour.^[10]

Style

The Magician's Nephew is lighter in tone than other Narnia books, in particular The Last Battle, which was published after The Magician's Nephew. This perhaps reflects Lewis looking back at an earlier part of the century with affection, recalling his childhood during the time when the book is set. There are a number of humorous references to life in the old days, particularly to school life. Humorous exchanges also take place between Narnian animals. Jadis's attempt to conquer London is more comical than sinister, juxtaposing the evil empress of fairy tale with Edwardian London and its social mores. This recalls the style of Edith Nesbit's children's books,^[11] which Lewis was fond of; a number were set in the same period; and The Magician's Nephew in several places pays apparent homage to them.^[4]

Reading order

The Magician's Nephew was originally published as the sixth book in the Narnia Chronicles. Reprintings of the novels until the 1980s reflected the order of original publication. In 1980 HarperCollins published the series in the chronological order of the events in the novels, which meant that The Magician's Nephew was renumbered as first in the series. In 1994 HarperCollins, who had previously published editions of the novels outside the United States, acquired the rights to publish the novels in that country as well, and used the chronological sequence in the uniform worldwide edition published in that year.^[12]

Lewis appeared to have given his blessing to this sequence of reading the novels. In a letter dated 23 April 1957, a young fan, Laurence Krieg, wrote to Lewis following the publication of The Magician's Nephew. He asked Lewis to adjudicate between his view of the correct sequence of reading the novels — according to the sequence of events, with The Magician's Nephew being placed first — and that of his mother, who thought the order of publication more appropriate. Lewis wrote back appearing to support the younger Krieg's views, although he did point out that the views of the author may not be the best guidance, and that perhaps it would not matter what order they were read in.^[13]

However the original publication order reflects Lewis's strategies for drawing readers into the world of Narnia. Lucy Pevensie's original discovery of the wardrobe, Narnia and a mysterious lamp post in the woods in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe creates a sense of suspense about an unknown land she is discovering for the first time. This suspense is absent if the reader has already been introduced to Narnia in The Magician's Nephew and has already discovered the origins of Narnia, the wardrobe and the lamp post. Indeed, the narrative of the The Magician's Nephew appears to assume that the reader has already read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and is now being shown its beginnings.^[14]

Themes and interpretations

This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

Parallels with Biblical Genesis

Lewis suggested that he did not directly intend to write his Narnia stories as Christian tales, but that these aspects emerged subconsciously as he wrote — although the books did become more overtly Christian as they progressed. He thought that the tales were not direct representations or allegory, but might evoke or remind readers of Biblical stories.^[15] In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan is a Christ-like figure who suffers a death of atonement and returns to life in a way similar to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.^[16] The Magician's Nephew has similar biblical allusions, reflecting aspects of The Book of Genesis such as the creation, original sin and temptation.^[17]

Jadis's "reasons of State", and her claim to own the people of Charn and to be beyond morality, represent the eclipse of the medieval Christian belief in natural law by the political concept of sovereignty, as embodied first in royal absolutism and later in modern dictatorships.^[18] Uncle Andrew represents the Faustian element in the origins of modern science.^[19]

The Holy Spirit and the Breath of Life

Aslan frequently uses his breath to give strength to characters, demonstrating his benevolent power. He specifically does so in The Magician's Nephew when a "long warm breath" gives life to Narnia. Lewis used the symbol of the breath to represent the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Both spirit and ghost are translations of the word for breath in Hebrew and Greek. The flash from the stars when the Narnian animals are given the ability to talk may also represent the Holy Spirit^[20] or "breath of life" of Genesis chapter 2, as well, perhaps, as the scholastic concept of the divine active intellect which inspires human beings with rationality.

Differences from Genesis

While the creation of Narnia closely echoes the creation of the Earth in the Book of Genesis, there are a number of important differences. In Narnia the fall takes place before the creation, and human beings are not created by Aslan; they are brought into Narnia from our own world. Unlike Genesis, where only human beings created in the image of God are given a soul, animals, half-human and half-animal creatures such as Fauns and Satyrs and even trees and watercourses are given souls and the power of rational thought and speech. This appears to suggest that Lewis combined his Christian worldview with his fondness for nature, myth and fairy tales.^[21]

Nature and a natural order

The Magician's Nephew suggests two opposing approaches to nature, a good approach associated with Aslan as creator and an evil approach associated with human deviation from divine intentions and the harmony of natural order. On the one hand there is the beauty of Aslan's creation of Narnia, whose order reflects the musical harmony that brings landscapes and living things into being. There is also a distinct order to the process of creation, from earth to plants to animals, which evokes the concept of The Great Chain of Being. Lewis himself strongly believed in the intrinsic value of nature for itself, rather than as a resource to be exploited. This is perhaps reflected in how Aslan gives speech to spiritual aspects of nature, such as naiads in the water and dryads in the trees. Uncle Andrew and Jadis represent an opposite, evil approach of bending the forces of nature to human will for the purpose of self gain. They see nature as a resource to use for their plans, and thus disturb and destroy the natural order.^[22]

Influences on The Magician's Nephew

Edith Nesbit

Lewis read Edith Nesbit's children's books as a child and was greatly fond of them.^[4] The Magician's Nephew refers to these books in the opening of the novel as though their events were true, setting the story when "Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road". The Bastable children appear in a number of Nesbit's stories.^[23] Not only is The Magician's Nephew set in the same period and location as several of Nesbit's stories, it shares some similarities specifically with Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet (1906). This novel focuses on four children living in London who discover a magic amulet. Like Digory, their father is away and their mother is ill. They manage to transport the queen of ancient Babylon to London, where, like Jadis, she causes a riot.^[4]

The creation of Narnia

The creation of Narnia strongly reflects the Book of Genesis, but may also have been influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, which also contains a creation scene driven by the effect of music.^[24] Some of the details of the creation of Narnia, such as the emergence of animals from the ground, and the way they shake earth from their bodies are also similar to John Milton's Paradise Lost, and may also have been inspired by descriptions of the processes of nature in The seventh book of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.^[25]

Morgan Le Fay and Pandora's Box

Lewis greatly enjoyed stories of Arthurian legend and wrote poetry about this world. Mrs Lefay visits Digory in the The Lefay Fragment, and becomes Uncle Andrew's nefarious godmother in the finished novel. She gives him a box from Atlantis containing the dust from which he constructs the rings Digory and Polly use to travel between worlds. Both Lefays are probably a representation of Morgan Le Fay, a powerful sorceress in a number of version of King Arthur's tales who is often portrayed as evil. The box itself is also evocative of Pandora's box from Greek myth, which also contained dangerous secrets. ^[26]

The Atlantis legend

The box containing the dust which was used to create the rings for travel between worlds originated in Atlantis. ^[26] Both Lewis and his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien were fascinated with the Atlantis legend. The world of Charn was destroyed by Jadis when speaking The Deplorable Word, a form of knowledge ancient Charnian scholars feared for its destructive potential. Upon publication of The Magician's Nephew, a number of commentators believed Lewis was referring to the use of the atomic bomb at the close of World War II, which was less than a decade prior. However it is perhaps more likely that Lewis was echoing the destruction of Atlantis, which was also destroyed by the forces of evil and arrogance. ^[27]

Adaptations

Potential Walden Media film production

Walden Media, having already made movie adaptions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, and 20th Century Fox, having already made production on the movie adaption of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, also retain the option to make The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew in the future.^[28] Designs for a winged horse resembling Strawberry can be seen in the book The Crafting of Narnia: The Art, Creatures, and Weapons from Weta Workshop.

Actress Tilda Swinton who played Jadis, the White Witch, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe commented on the character and her origins in an interview:

Why is Jadis so angry?

Tilda Swinton: I didn't see her as angry. She's interested in dominating absolutely and is irritated that there is this prophecy that says sooner or later four humans will turn up and make trouble for her reign. She wants to get rid of them fast and it's all going a bit wrong. She's confused and irritated. I don't see her as particularly angry. Have you read ‘The Magician's Nephew'?

No...

Tilda Swinton: I hope they make it. It's a prequel that explains where Jadis came from and how Narnia is created. She's so bad that she destroyed her empire to spite her sister. There's this one deplorable word, which we don't know what it is, that if it's spoken; everything is vanquished and she's the only one alive. She does it to spite her sister. She just wants to dominate. The idea of anybody having anything over her is confusing.^[29]

Theatrical adaptation

Aurand Harris was a well known American playwright for children, whose works are among the most performed in that medium. He wrote 36 plays for children including an adaptation of The Magician's Nephew.^[30] The play was first performed on May 26, 1984 by the Department of Drama, University of Texas, Austin and staged at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. A musical score by William Penn was written for use with productions of the play.^[31]

Endnotes

^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Duriez, Colin (2004). The Life of C.S. Lewis. InterVarsity Press. p. 47. ISBN 0830832076.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lindskoog, Kathryn Ann (1997). Journey Into Narnia: C. S. Lewis's Tales Explored. Hope Publishing House. p. 87. ISBN 0932727891.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. pp. 36-9. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. pp. 36-7. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Lindskoog, Kathryn Ann (2001). Sleuthing C.S. Lewis: more Light in the shadowlands. Mercer University Press. pp. 111-12. ISBN 0865547300.
^ Hinten, Marvin D. (2005). The Keys to the Chronicles: Unlocking the Symbols of C.S. Lewis's Narnia. B&H Publishing Group. pp. 68-9. ISBN 0805440283.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. p. 57-9. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Myers, Doris T. (1998). C. S. Lewis in Context. Kent State University Press. pp. 174. ISBN 0873386175.
^ Schakel, Peter J. (2005). The way into Narnia: a reader's guide. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 13-16. ISBN 0802829848.
^ Schakel, Peter J. (2005). The way into Narnia: a reader's guide. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 17-18. ISBN 0802829848.
^ Schakel, Peter J. (2005). The way into Narnia: a reader's guide. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 19-21. ISBN 0802829848.
^ Sammons, Martha C. (2004). A Guide Through Narnia. Regent College Publishing. pp. 128-9. ISBN 1573833088.
^ Ryken, Leland; Lamp Mead, Marjorie (2005). A reader's guide through the wardrobe: exploring C.S. Lewis's classic story. InterVarsity Press. p. 165. ISBN 0830832890.
^ Vaus, Will; Gresham, Douglas (2004). Mere theology: a guide to the thought of C.S. Lewis. InterVarsity Press. pp. 76-7. ISBN 083082782X.
^ See chapter 1 of Lewis's History of English Literature in the Sixteenth Century.
^ See The Abolition of Man.
^ Colbert, David (2005). The Magical Worlds of Narnia. McArthur & Company. pp. 81-3. ISBN 1552785416.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. p. 73-4. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Myers, Doris T. (1998). C. S. Lewis in Context. Kent State University Press. pp. 169-70. ISBN 0873386175.
^ Hinten, Marvin D. (2005). The Keys to the Chronicles: Unlocking the Symbols of C.S. Lewis's Narnia. B&H Publishing Group. pp. 68. ISBN 0805440283.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:58:44 +0100

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

For the film adaptation of the novel, see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. For other uses, see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (disambiguation).

The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe

Cover of 1950 first edition (hardcover)

Author C. S. Lewis

Illustrator Pauline Baynes

Cover artist Pauline Baynes

Country United Kingdom

Language English

Series The Chronicles of Narnia

Genre(s) Fantasy, children's literature

Publisher Geoffrey Bles

Publication date 1950

Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)

Pages 208 (modern hardcover)

ISBN ISBN 0-06-023481-4 (modern hardcover)

OCLC 28291231

Followed by Prince Caspian

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Written in 1950 and set in approximately 1940, it is the first-published book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series' internal chronological order, after The Magician's Nephew. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.^[1]

Lewis dedicated the book to his god-daughter, Lucy Barfield.

Character list

Peter Pevensie is the oldest of the Pevensie siblings. At first, Peter disbelieves Lucy's stories about Narnia, but changes his mind when he sees it for himself. He is hailed as a hero for his part in the overthrow of the White Witch. He is eventually crowned as High King of Narnia, and becomes known as King Peter the Magnificent.
Susan Pevensie is the second oldest of the Pevensie children. She also does not believe in Narnia until she actually comes there. She is crowned Queen of Narnia, and becomes known as Queen Susan the Gentle.
Edmund Pevensie is the third of the Pevensie children. In Narnia he meets the White Witch, who plies him with treats (Turkish Delight) and smooth talk. Tempted by the White Witch's promise of power and seemingly unending supplies of Turkish Delight, Edmund betrays his siblings, but eventually regrets his actions and repents. After he helps Aslan and the good citizens of Narnia defeat the White Witch, he is crowned King of Narnia with his brother, and becomes known as King Edmund the Just.
Lucy Pevensie is the youngest Pevensie child. She is the first of them to discover the land of Narnia when she slips through the magical wardrobe in the professor's house. When Lucy tells her siblings, Peter and Susan refuse to believe her and are convinced that she is just having a game, while Edmund persistently encourages and teases her about it. After the restoration of Narnia, Lucy is crowned Queen of Narnia with her sister Susan, and becomes known as Queen Lucy the Valiant.
Jadis, the White Witch comes from the city of Charn, in a dying world. In Narnia she proclaims herself queen and through her magic rules with an iron fist. Her spell on Narnia makes it always winter but never Christmas. When provoked she uses her wand to turn opponents to stone. But she fears the fulfillment of a prophecy that "two sons of Adam" and "two daughters of Eve" will come to Narnia and help Aslan to overthrow her.
Aslan, a lion, is the true ruler of Narnia. He sacrifices himself to spare Edmund, but is resurrected in time to aid the citizens of Narnia and the Pevensie children in their battle against the White Witch and her minions.
Mr. Tumnus, a faun, is the first person that Lucy meets in Narnia. Tumnus befriends her, despite the White Witch's standing order to kidnap any human who enters Narnia. After getting to know Lucy, he changes his mind about handing her over to the witch. But he is betrayed accidentally by Edmund, who tells the White Witch, before he knew who she was, that Lucy had met a faun. Tumnus is eventually arrested and turned into stone. He is later restored by Aslan and becomes a close friend of the Pevensies.
Professor Digory Kirke takes the Pevensie children in when they are evacuated from London. He is the only one who believes that Lucy did indeed visit Narnia and tries to convince the others of her veracity. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe hints that he knows more of Narnia than he lets on; The Magician's Nephew reveals that he had been present at Aslan's creation of Narnia.
Mrs. Macready is the housekeeper for Professor Kirke when the Pevensies come to stay.
Mr. Beaver is a friend of Tumnus. He assists the Pevensies in searching for Tumnus and dethroning the White Witch.
Mrs. Beaver is Mr. Beaver's wife.
The Dwarf is the White Witch's right hand man. Unnamed in the book, he is called Ginnarbrick in the film, where he has a more significant role.
Maugrim/Fenris Ulf, a wolf, is the chief of the White Witch's secret police. She sends him to hunt down the Pevensie children. He is killed by Peter at the Stone Table.
Father Christmas arrives when the Witch's magical hold over Narnia begins to break. He gives Peter, Susan and Lucy gifts, which ultimately will help them defeat the White Witch. (Edmund was with the White Witch at the time.) Mrs Beaver is given a better sewing machine and Mr. Beaver gets his dam completed.
Giant Rumblebuffin is turned to stone by the White Witch and brought back to life by Aslan. He breaks down the Witch's gate and crushes some of her army.

Plot summary

World War II has just begun and four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, are evacuated from London in 1940 to escape the Blitz. They are sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke, who lives in a country house in the English countryside with his housekeeper, Mrs Macready.

One rainy day, the children decide to explore the house. Lucy, the youngest, is curious about the wardrobe in an empty room, and discovers that it is a portal to a snow-covered forest with a gaslight post in the center. There she meets a faun, who introduces himself as Tumnus and invites her home for tea. He tells her that the land is called Narnia and is ruled by the ruthless White Witch, who ensures that it is always Winter but never Christmas.

Lucy returns through the wardrobe, having spent hours in Narnia, to find that only a few seconds have passed in England. She is unable to convince the others of her adventure, as the wardrobe now appears merely a wardrobe. Edmund, the next youngest of the four siblings, is particularly spiteful towards Lucy.

Several weeks later Lucy and Edmund hide in the wardrobe while playing hide-and-seek, and find that it leads again into Narnia. In the forest, Edmund fails to catch up with Lucy and encounters instead a pale lady on a sledge pulled by a white reindeer. She introduces herself as the Queen of Narnia, and enchants him with some magical Turkish delight. She promises to make him Prince and eventually King of Narnia, if only he will bring the other children to her castle.

After the witch drives on, Lucy finds Edmund in the woods and they return together through the wardrobe. Lucy mentions the White Witch and Edmund realizes that she is none other than the lady who befriended him. Back in England, Edmund lies to Peter and Susan, claiming that he and Lucy were just playing and that the wardrobe is no more than an ordinary one. Lucy is very upset at his duplicity.

A few days later, all four children scramble to avoid Mrs Macready, who is showing some visitors around the house. They hide in the wardrobe and find themselves in Narnia. Lucy guides them to Tumnus's cave, but they discover that Tumnus has been arrested, just as the White Witch had threatened, and that his cave has been ransacked by Maugrim, chief of the witch's secret police. A pair of talking beavers, Mr Beaver and Mrs Beaver, shelter the children and recount an ancient prophecy that the witch's power will fail when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve fill the four thrones at Cair Paravel. The beavers tell of the true king of Narnia — a great lion called Aslan — who has been absent for many years, but is now "On the move again."

Edmund, still in thrall to the witch, steals away to her castle; and the others set off to find Aslan when they realise that they have been betrayed. The White Witch treats Edmund harshly when he arrives without his siblings, and sets out in pursuit of them. But her power over Narnia is failing, and a thaw strands her sleigh. The other children reach Aslan, and a penitent Edmund is rescued just as the witch is about to kill him. Calling for a truce, the witch demands that Edmund be returned to her, as an ancient law (the "Deep magic") gives her possession of all traitors. Aslan offers himself in Edmund's place, and the witch accepts. Aslan is sacrificed by the witch, but comes back to life through "Deeper magic": when one who is blameless willingly dies on behalf of the guilty, he may return to life.

In a final battle, the witch is defeated and killed by Aslan. The children become kings and queens, and spend 15 years reigning in Narnia. They grow to maturity before returning to our world, where they find themselves children again. They hear Mrs Macready still talking to the visitors in the passageway; their years in Narnia have taken no more than a few minutes of time on this side of the door.

They explain their adventure to the professor, who believes them straight away and tells them that they would return to Narnia one day, though never again through the wardrobe.

Writing

Lewis described the origin of The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe in an essay entitled “It All Began with a Picture”:

“…the Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy woodland. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it.’” ^[2]

During World War II, many children were evacuated from London to the English countryside to escape attacks on London by Nazi Germany. In autumn of 1939 four school girls were billeted at Lewis’s home, The Kilns, three miles outside Oxford.^[3] Lewis later suggested that the experience gave him a new appreciation of children, and at this time he commenced a children’s story, but only managed to complete a single paragraph:

“This book is about four children whose names were Ann, Martin, Rose and Peter. But it is most about Peter who was the youngest. They all had to go away from London suddenly because of the Air Raids, and because Father, who was in the Army, had gone off to War and Mother was doing some kind of war work. They were sent away with a kind of relation of Mother’s who was a very old professor who lived all by himself in the country.” ^[4]

In the summer of 1948 he told Chad Walsh, a friend, that he had started writing a children’s book in the tradition of E. Nesbit. It was a continuation of the story he had begun in 1939, when child evacuees had come to live at The Kilns. On March 10, 1949 a former student of Lewis, Roger Lancelyn Green dined with him at Magdalen college. After the meal, Lewis read two chapters from his new children's story to Green. He had previously read it to J.R.R. Tolkien and Tolkien had been unimpressed. Lewis asked Green’s opinion of the tale, and Green thought it was good. By the end of the month the complete story was ready.^[5]

Initially the character of Aslan was not present in the story. Lewis had already conceived of the land of Narnia as a frozen kingdom under the terror of the totalitarian rule of the White Witch, mostly probably reflecting the events of the Second World War and the situation of countries under Nazi occupation.^[6] He had suffered from nightmares for most of this life. Around the time he was writing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe he had a number of dreams with lions in them and soon the figure of Aslan made a dramatic entrance into his imagination, effecting a complete transformation upon the story and to draw the novel and the entire series of Narnia stories together.^[7]

Illustrations

Lewis’s publisher, Geoffrey Bles allowed him to choose the illustrator for the novel and the Narnia series. His choice was Pauline Baynes, possibly as a result of J.R.R. Tolkien’s recommendation. Baynes had greatly impressed Tolkien with her illustrations for his Farmer Giles of Ham (1949). However Baynes claimed that Lewis learned about her work after going into a bookshop and asking for a recommendation of an illustrator who was skilled at portraying both humans and animals. In December 1949 Geoffrey Bles showed Lewis the first drawings for the novel and Lewis sent Baynes a note congratulating her, particularly on the level of detail. Lewis’s appreciation of the illustrations is perhaps well understood by correspondence with Baynes after Lewis won the Carnegie Medal for best Children’s book of 1956 for The Last Battle, and wrote to Baynes saying “is it not rather ‘our’ medal? I’m sure the illustrations were taken into account as well as the text".^[8]

The British edition of the novel had 43 illustrations. American editions generally had less. The popular United States paperback edition published by Collier between 1970 and 1994, which sold many millions, had only 17 illustrations, many of them severely cropped from the originals thus giving many readers in that country a very different experience when reading the novel. All the illustrations were restored for the 1994 worldwide HarperCollins edition, although these lacked the clarity of early printings.^[9]

Reception

Lewis very much enjoyed writing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and embarked on the sequel Prince Caspian soon after finishing the first novel. He completed the sequel in less than a year, by the end of 1949. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had not been widely released until 1950; thus his initial enthusiasm did not stem from favourable reception by the public.^[10]

While Lewis is known today on the strength of the Narnia stories as a highly successful children’s writer, the initial critical response was muted. At the time it was fashionable for children’s stories to be realistic: fantasy and fairy tales were seen as indulgent, appropriate only for very young readers, and potentially harmful to older children, even hindering their ability to relate to everyday life. Some reviewers thought the tale overtly moralistic, or the Christian elements over-stated — attempts to indoctrinate children. Others were concerned that the many violent incidents might frighten children.^[11]

Lewis’s publisher, Geoffrey Bles, feared that the Narnia tales would not sell and might damage Lewis’s reputation and affect sales of his other books. Nevertheless the novel and its successors were highly popular with young readers, and Lewis’s publisher was soon anxious to release further Narnia stories.^[12]

Allusions

Professor Kirke is based on W.T. Kirkpatrick, who tutored a 16-year-old Lewis. "Kirk," as he was sometimes called, taught the young Lewis much about thinking and communicating clearly, skills that would be invaluable to him later.^[13]

Narnia is caught in endless winter that has lasted a century when the children first enter. Norse mythology also has a "great winter", known as the Fimbulwinter that is said to precede Ragnarok. The trapping of Edmund by the White Witch is reminiscent of the seduction and imprisonment of Kay by The Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's novella of that name.

The dwarves and giants are from Norse mythology. Fauns, centaurs, minotaurs, dryads, etc. are all from Greek mythology. Father Christmas, of course, was part of popular English folk lore.

The main story is an allegory of Christ's crucifixion. Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund, a traitor who deserved death, in the same way that Christ sacrificed Himself for sinners. The cross is replaced by the Stone Table (reminiscent of Neolithic dolmens),^[14] both pagan symbols set in contrast to Christ. The breaking of the table, like the rending of the temple curtain at Christ's death, represents the passing of the old order, to be replaced by the new. As with the Christian Passion, it is women (Susan and Lucy) who tend Aslan's body after he dies and are the first to see him after his resurrection. The significance of the death contains elements of both the ransom theory of atonement and the satisfaction theory: Aslan suffers Edmund's penalty (satisfaction), and buys him back from the White Witch, who was entitled to him by reason of his treachery (ransom). In Christian tradition, Christ is associated with the Biblical "Lion of Judah", mainly on the strength of Revelation 5:5.

The freeing of Aslan's body from the stone table by field mice is reminiscent of Aesop's fable of "The Lion and the Mouse." In the fable, a lion catches a mouse, but the mouse persuades the lion to release him, promising that the favor would be rewarded. Later in the story, he gnaws through the lion's bonds after he has been captured by hunters.^[15]

The plot device of a magic wardrobe which has no back and which provides to children an entrance to worlds of magic and fantasy appeared in 1931 in Erich Kästner's (otherwise very different) children's book The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas.

Differences between the British and American editions

Prior to the publication of the first American edition of Lion, Lewis made the following changes.

In chapter one of the American edition, the animals that Edmund and Susan express interest in are snakes and foxes rather than the foxes and rabbits of the British edition.
In chapter six of the American edition, the name of the White Witch's chief of police is changed to "Fenris Ulf" from "Maugrim" in the British.
In chapter thirteen, "the roots of the World Ash Tree" takes the place of "the fire-stones of the Secret Hill".

When HarperCollins took over publication of the series in 1994, they used the British edition for all subsequent editions worldwide.^[16]

Adaptations

This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

The story has been adapted three times for television. The first adaptation was a ten-part serial produced by ABC Weekend Television for ITV and broadcast in 1967. In 1979, an animated TV-movie^[17], directed by Peanuts director Bill Meléndez, was broadcast and won the first Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. A third television adaptation was produced in 1988 by the BBC using a combination of live actors, animatronic puppets and animation. The programme was nominated for an Emmy and won a BAFTA. It was followed by three further Narnia adaptations.

Notable stage productions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have included commercial productions by Malcolm C. Cooke Productions in Australia (directed by Nadia Tass, and described by Douglas Gresham as the best production of the novel he had seen - starring Amanda Muggleton, Dennis Olsen, Meaghan Davies and Yolande Brown) and by Trumpets Theatre, one of the largest commercial theatres in the Philippines.

In 2005, the story was adapted for a theatrical film.

Multiple audio editions have been released. The best-known consists of the book read aloud by Michael York. However, three audio CDs in the form of "radio plays" with various actors, sound effects, and music have also been released, one by the BBC, one by Radio Theatre, and one by Focus on the Family.

In 1984, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was staged at London's Westminster Theatre, produced by Vanessa Ford Productions. The play, adapted by Glyn Robbins, was directed by Richard Williams and designed by Marty Flood. In 1998 the Royal Shakespeare Company premiered their stage version, adapted by Adrian Mitchell, with music by Shaun Davey.

Further reading

Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-7890-6.
Ryken, Leland; and Mead, Marjorie Lamp (2005). A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Classic Story. London: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 0-8308-3289-0.
Sammons, Martha C. (1979). A Guide Through Narnia. Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw Publishers. ISBN 0-87788-325-4.

[edit] References

^ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. pp. 29-30. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Veith, Gene Edward (2005). The Soul of the Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. David C. Cook. pp. 36-9. ISBN 0781442125.
^ Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey-Bass. pp. 41-2. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
^ Edwards (2007). C.S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 184-6. ISBN 0275991172.
^ Edwards, Owen Dudley (2007). British Children's Fiction in the Second World War. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 141. ISBN 0748616519.
^ Edwards, Bruce L. (2007). C.S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 185. ISBN 0275991172.
^ Schakel, Peter J. (2002). Imagination and the arts in C.S. Lewis: journeying to Narnia and other worlds. University of Missouri Press. pp. 30-1. ISBN 082621407X.
^ Schakel, Peter J. (2002). Imagination and the arts in C.S. Lewis: journeying to Narnia and other worlds. University of Missouri Press. p. 32. ISBN 082621407X.
^ Veith, Gene (2008). The Soul of Prince Caspian: Exploring Spiritual Truth in the Land of Narnia. David C. Cook. pp. 11-12. ISBN 0781445280.
^ Veith, Gene (2008). The Soul of Prince Caspian: Exploring Spiritual Truth in the Land of Narnia. David C. Cook. pp. 12. ISBN 0781445280.
^ Veith, Gene (2008). The Soul of Prince Caspian: Exploring Spiritual Truth in the Land of Narnia. David C. Cook. pp. 13. ISBN 0781445280.
^ CS Lewis Institute Resources.
^ See, for example, Dolmen at answers.com.
^ Project Gutenberg.
^ Ford, Paul (2005). Companion to Narnia, Revised Edition. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 0-06-079127-6.
^ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Internet Movie Database

Chronicles of Narnia

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:38:03 +0100

The Chronicles of Narnia

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The Chronicles of Narnia

First-edition covers, in order of publication.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

Author Clive Staples Lewis

Language English

Genre Fantasy
Children's literature

Publisher HarperTrophy

Published 1950–1956

Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 120 million copies in 41 languages. Written by Lewis between 1949 and 1954 and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, The Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, stage, and cinema. In addition to numerous traditional Christian themes, the series borrows characters and ideas from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as from traditional British and Irish fairy tales.

The Chronicles of Narnia present the adventures of children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the fictional realm of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good battles evil. Each of the books (with the exception of The Horse and His Boy) features as its protagonists children from our world who are magically transported to Narnia, where they are called upon to help the Lion Aslan handle a crisis in the world of Narnia.

Contents
[hide]

1 The seven books
1.1 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
1.2 Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)
1.3 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
1.4 The Silver Chair (1953)
1.5 The Horse and His Boy (1954)
1.6 The Magician's Nephew (1955)
1.7 The Last Battle (1956)

2 Reading order
3 Christian parallels
3.1 J. R. R. Tolkien

4 Influences on Narnia
4.1 Lewis's life
4.2 Inklings
4.3 Influences from mythology and cosmology
4.4 Name

5 Narnia's influence on others
5.1 Influence on authors
5.2 Influence on popular culture

6 Criticism
6.1 Gender stereotyping
6.2 Race
6.3 Paganism

7 Reception: influence of religious viewpoints
8 The Narnian universe
8.1 Inhabitants
8.2 Geography
8.3 Cosmology
8.4 History

9 Narnia in other media
9.1 Television
9.2 Radio
9.3 Stage
9.4 Film
9.5 Music
9.6 Audio books
9.7 Games

10 See also
11 References
12 Notes
13 Further reading
14 External links

The seven books

The Chronicles of Narnia have been in continuous publication since 1954 and have sold over 100 million copies in 41 languages.^[1]^[2] Lewis was awarded the 1956 Carnegie Medal for The Last Battle, the final book in the Narnia series. The books were written by Lewis between 1949 and 1954 but were written in neither the order they were originally published nor in the chronological order in which they are currently presented.^[3] The original illustrator was Pauline Baynes and her pen and ink drawings are still used in publication today. The seven books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia are presented here in the order in which they were originally published (see reading order below). Completion dates for the novels are English (Northern Hemisphere) seasons.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Main article: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, completed in the winter of 1949^[3] and published in 1950, tells the story of four ordinary children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie . They discover a wardrobe in Professor Digory Kirke's house that leads to the magical land of Narnia. The Pevensie children help Aslan save Narnia from the evil White Witch, who has reigned over the kingdom of Narnia for 100 years of perpetual winter.

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)

Main article: Prince Caspian

Completed in the autumn of 1949 and published in 1951, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia tells the story of the Pevensie children's second trip to Narnia. They are drawn back by the power of Susan's horn, blown by Prince Caspian to summon help in his hour of need. Caspian has fled into the woods to escape his uncle, Miraz, who had usurped the throne. The children set out once again to save Narnia; and aided by other Narnians, and ultimately by Aslan, they return the throne to Caspian, the rightful ruler.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

Main article: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Completed in the winter of 1950 and published in 1952, The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ returns Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their priggish cousin, Eustace Scrubb, to Narnia. Once there, they join Caspian's voyage to find the seven lords who were banished when Miraz took over the throne. This perilous journey brings them face to face with many wonders and dangers as they sail toward Aslan's country at the end of the world.

The Silver Chair (1953)

Main article: The Silver Chair

Completed in the spring of 1951 and published in 1953, The Silver Chair is the first Narnia book without the Pevensie children. Instead, Aslan calls Eustace back to Narnia together with his classmate Jill Pole. There they are given four signs to find Prince Rilian, Caspian's son, who had been kidnapped ten years earlier. Eustace and Jill, with the help of Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle, face great danger before finding Rilian, held prisoner in an enchantment by a Green Witch.

The Horse and His Boy (1954)

Main article: The Horse and His Boy

Completed in the spring of 1950 and published in 1954, The Horse and His Boy takes place during the reign of the Pevensies in Narnia, an era which begins and ends in the last chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The story is about Bree, a talking horse, and a young boy named Shasta, both of whom have been held in bondage in Calormen. By chance, they meet each other and plan their return to Narnia and freedom. On their journey they discover that the Calormenes are about to invade Archenland, and they plan to arrive there first to alert the King.

The Magician's Nephew (1955)

Main article: The Magician's Nephew

Completed in the winter of 1954 and published in 1955, the prequel The Magician's Nephew brings the reader back to the very beginning of Narnia where we learn how Aslan created the world and how evil first entered it. Digory Kirke and his friend Polly Plummer stumble into different worlds by experimenting with magic rings made by Digory's uncle, encounter Jadis (The White Witch), and witness the creation of Narnia. Many long-standing questions about Narnia are answered in the adventure that follows.

The Last Battle (1956)

Main article: The Last Battle

Completed in the spring of 1953 and published in 1956, The Last Battle chronicles the end of the world of Narnia. Jill and Eustace return to save Narnia from Shift, an ape, who tricks Puzzle, a donkey, into impersonating the lion Aslan, precipitating a showdown between the Calormenes and King Tirian.

Reading order

Fans of the series often have strong opinions over the correct ordering of the books. Under dispute is the placement of two volumes, The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy, which take place significantly earlier than they were written, and which also fall somewhat outside the main story arc connecting the others. The "reading order" of the other five books is not disputed.

The books were not numbered when originally published. The first American publisher, Macmillan, numbered the books in the original publication order. When Harper Collins took over the series in 1994, the books were renumbered using the internal chronological order, as suggested by Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham. Lewis's own input on the order was limited to keeping the Caspian triad together, so that The Silver Chair was published before The Horse and His Boy though the latter was completed first.^[4]

Publication order Chronological order Written order Final Completion order^{[citation needed]}

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Magician's Nephew The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Prince Caspian The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Prince Caspian Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Horse and His Boy The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair Prince Caspian The Horse and His Boy The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Silver Chair

The Magician's Nephew The Silver Chair The Magician's Nephew The Last Battle

The Last Battle The Last Battle The Last Battle The Magician's Nephew

To make the case for his suggested order, Gresham quoted Lewis' reply to a letter from an American fan in 1957 who was having an argument with his mother about the order:

I think I agree with your order [i.e. chronological] 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 I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published.^[5]

In the Harper Collins adult editions of the books (2005), the publisher asserts Lewis's preference for the numbering they adopted in a notice on the copyright page:

Although The Magician's Nephew was written several years after C. S. Lewis first began The Chronicles of Narnia, he wanted it to be read as the first book in the series. Harper Collins is happy to present these books in the order which Professor Lewis preferred.

But the only such evidence to have come to light is the letter quoted above. Some readers who appreciate the original order believe that Lewis was simply being gracious to his youthful correspondent: he could have changed the books' order in his lifetime had he so desired.^[6] They maintain that much of the magic of Narnia comes from the way the world is gradually presented in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They believe that the mysterious wardrobe, as a narrative device, is a much better introduction to Narnia than The Magician's Nephew — where the word "Narnia" appears in the first paragraph as something already familiar to the reader. Moreover, they say, it is clear from the texts themselves that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was intended to be read first, and that The Magician's Nephew was not. When Aslan is first mentioned in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for example, the narrator says that "None of the children knew who Aslan was, any more than you do". Fans of the original order point out that this is nonsensical if one has already read The Magician's Nephew.^[7] Other similar textual examples are also cited. This argument hinges partly on the difference between Chronology and Narrative.^[8]

Christian parallels

Specific Christian parallels may be found in the entries for individual books and characters.

C.S. Lewis was an adult convert to Christianity and had previously authored some works on Christian apologetics and fiction with Christian themes. However, he did not originally intend to incorporate Christian theological concepts into his Narnia stories. As he wrote in Of Other Worlds:

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.

Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory^[9] and the author of The Allegory of Love, maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This indicates Lewis' view of Narnia as a fictional parallel universe. As Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs Hook in December 1958:

If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality, however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all.^[10]

With the release of the 2005 Disney film there was renewed interest in the Christian parallels found in the books. Some find them distasteful, while noting that they are easy to miss if you are not familiar with Christianity.^[11] Alan Jacobs, author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis, implies that through these Christian aspects, Lewis becomes "a pawn in America's culture wars".^[12] Some Christians see the Chronicles as excellent tools for Christian evangelism.^[13] The subject of Christianity in the novels has become the focal point of many books. (See Further Reading below.)

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien was a close friend of Lewis and a fellow author and Christian, instrumental in Lewis's own conversion to Christianity.^[14] As members of the Inklings literary group the two often read and critiqued drafts of their work. Nonetheless, Tolkien was not enthusiastic about the Narnia stories, in part due to the eclectic elements of the mythology and their haphazard incorporation, in part because he disapproved of stories involving travel between real and imaginary worlds.^[15] Though a Christian himself, Tolkien felt that fantasy should incorporate Christian values without resorting to the obvious allegory Lewis employed.^[16]

Influences on Narnia

Lewis's early life has echoes within the Chronicles of Narnia. Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898, Lewis moved with his family to a large house on the edge of the city when he was seven. The house contained long hallways and empty rooms, and Lewis and his brother invented make-believe worlds while exploring their home ^[17]. Like Caspian and Rilian, Lewis lost his mother at an early age. Lewis also spent much of his youth in English boarding schools which correlates with the education of the Pevensies. During World War II, many children were evacuated from London because of air raids. During this time, some of these children, including one named Lucy, stayed with Lewis at his home in Oxford, just as the Pevensies stayed with the professor.^[18]

Inklings

Lewis was the chief member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group in Oxford which at various times included the writers J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Lewis's brother W. H. Lewis, and Roger Lancelyn Green. Readings and discussions of the members' unfinished works were one of the main activities of the group when they met, usually on Thursday evenings, in C. S. Lewis's college rooms at Magdalen College. Some of the Narnia stories are thought to have been read to the Inklings for their appreciation and comment.

Influences from mythology and cosmology

The fauna of the series borrows from both Greek mythology and Germanic mythology. For example, centaurs originated in Greek myth, and dwarves have origins in Germanic myth. Drew Trotter, president of the Center for Christian Study, noted that the producers of the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia felt that the books closely follow the archetypal pattern of the monomyth as detailed in Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces.^[19]

Lewis had also read widely in medieval Celtic literature, an influence reflected throughout the books, most strongly in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The entire book imitates one of the immrama (pronounced IM-rah-vuh), "Voyages," a type of traditional medieval Irish tale in which the protagonists sail to a series of remarkable islands. Medieval Ireland also had a tradition of High Kings ruling over lesser kings and queens or princes, as in Narnia. Lewis' term "Cair," as in Cair Paravel, also mirrors the Welsh "Caer, "fortress" (appearing as Car- in the English versions of place names such as Cardiff (Welsh Caerdydd)). Reepicheep's small boat, the coracle, is also the traditional boat of the Celtic countries.

Some of the elements of the books are more generally medieval, such as the shape of the one-footed Monopods or Dufflepuds in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which reflects a type of people medieval sources claimed lived somewhere in the wondrous East.

In 2008 Michael Ward published Planet Narnia^[20], which proposed that each of the seven books related to one of the seven moving heavenly bodies or "planets" known in the Middle Ages, according to the Ptolemaic or Geocentric model of cosmology. Each of these heavenly bodies was believed in the Middle Ages to have certain attributes, and these attributes were deliberately (but secretly) used by Lewis to furnish elements of the stories of each book. "In The Lion [the Pevensie children] become monarchs under sovereign Jove; in The Dawn Treader they drink light under searching Sol; in Prince Caspian they harden under strong Mars; in The Silver Chair they learn obedience under subordinate Luna; in The Horse and His Boy they come to love poetry under eloquent Mercury; in The Magician's Nephew they gain life-giving fruit under fertile Venus; and in The Last Battle they suffer and die under chilling Saturn."^[21] Lewis was known to have an interest in the literary symbolism of medieval and Renaissance astrology which is reflected far more overtly in other works of his such as his study of the Elizabethan world-view The Discarded Image, his early poetry, and more overt references to it in his science-fiction trilogy. Other Narnia scholars find Ward's assertion that Lewis intended the Chronicles as an embodiment of medieval astrology implausible^[3].

Name The origin of the name Narnia is uncertain. According to Paul Ford's Companion to Narnia, there is no indication that Lewis was alluding to the ancient Italian Umbrian city Nequinium, which the conquering Romans renamed Narnia in 299 BC after the River Nar. However, since Lewis studied classics at Oxford, it is possible that he came across at least some of the seven or so references to Narnia in Latin literature.^[3] There is also the possibility (but no solid evidence) that Lewis, who studied medieval and Renaissance literature, was aware of a reference to Lucia von Narnia ("Lucy of Narnia") in a 1501 German text, Wunderliche Geschichten von geistlichen Weybbildern ("Wondrous stories of monastic women") by Ercole d'Este.^[22] There is no evidence of a link with Tolkien's Elvish (Sindarin) word narn, meaning a lay or poetic narrative, as in his posthumously published Narn i Chîn Húrin, though Lewis may have read or heard parts of this at meetings of the Inklings.

Narnia's influence on others

Influence on authors

A more recent British series of novels, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, has been seen as a response to the Narnian books. The series by Pullman, a self-described atheist, wholly rejects the spiritual themes that permeate the Narnian series, but treats many of the same issues and introduces some similar character types (including talking animals).^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26] Both His Dark Materials and the first published Narnia book open with a young girl hiding in a wardrobe.

Fantasy author Neil Gaiman wrote the 2004 short story The Problem of Susan,^[27] in which an elderly woman, Professor Hastings, is depicted dealing with the grief and trauma of her entire family dying in a train crash. The woman's first name is not revealed, but she mentions her brother "Ed", and it is strongly implied that this is Susan Pevensie as an elderly woman. In the story Gaiman presents, in fictional form, a critique of Lewis' treatment of Susan. The Problem of Susan is written for an adult audience and deals with sexuality and violence.^[28] Gaiman's young-adult horror novella Coraline has also been compared to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (Both books involve young girls traveling to magical worlds through doors in their new houses and having to fight evil with the help of talking animals.) Additionally, Gaiman's Sandman graphic novel series features a Narnia-like "dream island" in its story arc entitled A Game of You.

In Katherine Paterson's book Bridge to Terabithia, one of the main characters, Leslie, tells the other main character, Jesse, of her love of C. S. Lewis' books, and mentions Narnia. Some people have accused Paterson of plagiarism, claiming that her book has taken the name of a Narnian island named "Terebinthia"; but Paterson has said that the reference was not deliberate.^[29]

Science-fiction author Greg Egan's short story Oracle depicts a parallel universe with an author nicknamed "Jack" who has written novels about the fictional Kingdom of Nesica, and whose wife is dying of cancer. The story uses several Narnian allegories to explore issues of religion and faith versus science and knowledge.^[30]

Influence on popular culture

As one would expect with any popular, long-lived work, references to The Chronicles of Narnia are relatively common in pop culture. References to the lion Aslan, travelling via wardrobe, and direct references to The Chronicles of Narnia occur in books, television, songs, games, and graphic novels. Characters in fiction who enjoy the Narnia books include the title character of Roald Dahl's book Matilda, the children in Bridge to Terabithia and Roger in A Mango-Shaped Space.

Musical references to Narnia include Phish's song Prince Caspian from the album Billy Breathes.

The graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (vol. 2, num. 1) makes multiple references to many famous works of fantasy literature including a text fragment referring to the apple tree from The Magician's Nephew. The next comic in the series mentions the possibility of making a wardrobe from the apple tree.

Popular television shows which refer to Narnia include multiple appearances of Aslan in South Park, in "Family Guy", Mr.Tumnus makes an appearance when Peter sticks his head into his dryer, and a character in Lost named Charlotte Staples Lewis among many other references to authors in that series.

A computer game with an oblique reference to Narnia is Simon the Sorcerer which contains a scene in which the main character finds a stone table and calls it "perfect for troll meals and shaved lions".

Criticism

Gender stereotyping

C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia have received various criticisms over the years, much of it by fellow authors. Most of the allegations of sexism center around the description of Susan Pevensie in The Last Battle where Lewis characterizes Susan as being "no longer a friend of Narnia" and interested "in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations".

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, has said:

There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex, I have a big problem with that.^[31]

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy and so fierce a critic of Lewis' work as to be dubbed "the anti-Lewis",^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26] calls the Narnia stories "monumentally disparaging of women",^[32] interpreting the Susan passages this way:

Susan, like Cinderella, is undergoing a transition from one phase of her life to another. Lewis didn't approve of that. He didn't like women in general, or sexuality at all, at least at the stage in his life when he wrote the Narnia books. He was frightened and appalled at the notion of wanting to grow up.^[33]

Among others, fan-magazine editor Andrew Rilstone opposes this view, arguing that the "lipsticks, nylons and invitations" quote is taken out of context. They maintain that in The Last Battle, Susan is excluded from Narnia explicitly because she no longer believes in it. At the end of The Last Battle Susan is still alive and may end up rejoining her family. Moreover, Susan's adulthood and sexual maturity are portrayed in a positive light in The Horse and His Boy, and therefore are argued to be unlikely reasons for her exclusion from Narnia.

Additionally, Lewis supporters cite the positive roles of women in the series, including Jill Pole in The Silver Chair, Aravis Tarkheena in The Horse and His Boy, Polly Plummer in The Magician's Nephew, and particularly Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Jacobs asserts that Lucy is the most admirable of the human characters, and that, in general, the girls come off better than the boys through the stories.^[12]^[34]^[35] Karin Fry, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, n

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Cover of 1950 first edition (hardcover)
Author	C. S. Lewis
Illustrator	Pauline Baynes
Cover artist	Pauline Baynes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Chronicles of Narnia
Genre(s)	Fantasy, children's literature
Publisher	Geoffrey Bles
Publication date	1950
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	208 (modern hardcover)
ISBN	ISBN 0-06-023481-4 (modern hardcover)
OCLC	28291231
Followed by	Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia
First-edition covers, in order of publication.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Horse and His Boy The Magician's Nephew The Last Battle
Author	Clive Staples Lewis
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy Children's literature
Publisher	HarperTrophy
Published	1950–1956
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)

Publication order	Chronological order	Written order	Final Completion order^{[citation needed]}
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	The Magician's Nephew	The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian	The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	Prince Caspian	Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	The Horse and His Boy	The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair	Prince Caspian	The Horse and His Boy	The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy	The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	The Silver Chair	The Silver Chair
The Magician's Nephew	The Silver Chair	The Magician's Nephew	The Last Battle
The Last Battle	The Last Battle	The Last Battle	The Magician's Nephew