How to read The Chronicles of Narnia

Hello!

The Chronicles of Narnia is a magical series, perfect for all ages, especially for all of us who are little kids at heart. If you are like me, the order in which you read a series is very important and in this case we have 2 different ways of reading these books.

You can read the books in the chronological order, numbered from 1 to 7, which is the order in which you find the books in stores.

The chronological order of the books is the following:

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


The second way, is in the published order. Like in the photo below:

I opted for the second version, because I wanted to read the books on which the movies are based first and because I didn't want to learn more about Narnia before the first adventure with the Pevensie brothers in this magical land.

When Lewis started writing the books, he didn’t really have much of a plan for the complete series.  In fact, if he didn’t find inspiration for four more books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader would have been the end of the series.  This would have altered a lot of other book series to come later, as J.K. Rowling has stated that her primary reason for writing seven Harry Potter novels was inspired by and in honor of the seven Chronicles of Narnia.  That was not a coincidence, but an intentional decision she made as a fan of Narnia. 

Here are the books in Publication Order: 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Prince Caspian (1951) 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) 

The Silver Chair (1953) 

The Horse and His Boy (1954) 

The Magician’s Nephew (1955) 

The Last Battle (1956) 

[source]

You see, Lewis started the series with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It is evidenced by not just the date of publication, but also by the language which Lewis uses as the narrator.  When they are in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the first mention of Aslan occurs:
 “They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed.”
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different.

If you had started with The Magician’s Nephew, then you, the reader, would know who Aslan was.  The narrator would not have said “None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do.”

I hope this was helpful. You can read my little opinions on the books in my last 2 book hauls: here and here.

Have fun reading!