THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA C. S. Lewis Seven books published 1950-1956 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 OVERALL SYNOPSIS The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels by C. S. Lewis telling the history of the magical world of Narnia, from its creation to its final days. The stories primarily concern children from our world who are unexpectedly drawn into Narnia, where animals can speak, mythical creatures live alongside humans, and magic is real. At the centre of Narnia is Aslan, the great lion who created the land and who appears throughout its history at times of greatest need. The first book Lewis wrote, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, introduces Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie. Evacuated from London during the Second World War, they discover a passage through an old wardrobe into Narnia. There they find a country held in perpetual winter by the White Witch. With the return of Aslan, the children become involved in the struggle to free Narnia and eventually become its kings and queens. Prince Caspian returns the Pevensie children to Narnia, where they discover that centuries have passed. The old Narnia has been suppressed by its Telmarine conquerors, and the children help the young Prince Caspian reclaim his rightful throne. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Edmund and Lucy return with their cousin Eustace Scrubb. They join King Caspian on a voyage into the eastern seas in search of seven missing lords. Their journey takes them through strange islands and magical lands towards the very edge of the Narnian world. The Silver Chair follows Eustace and his school friend Jill Pole. Sent by Aslan to find Caspian's missing son, Prince Rilian, they travel into the northern wilderness and eventually beneath the earth itself, accompanied by the memorable and relentlessly pessimistic Marsh-wiggle Puddleglum. Lewis then returned to an earlier period of Narnian history in The Horse and His Boy. Set during the years when the Pevensie children are grown and ruling Narnia, it tells of Shasta and the talking horse Bree escaping from Calormen and travelling north towards Narnia. Their journey becomes entangled with a plot threatening both Archenland and Narnia. The Magician's Nephew goes still further back and reveals the beginning of everything. Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer travel between worlds through magical rings and inadvertently bring the evil Queen Jadis into a newly created world. They witness Aslan sing Narnia into existence and learn the origins of the White Witch, the mysterious lamp-post and, ultimately, the wardrobe through which Lucy first entered Narnia. Finally, The Last Battle takes place during Narnia's final days. A false Aslan is used to deceive its inhabitants, enemies threaten the kingdom, and King Tirian, Eustace and Jill fight what appears to be a hopeless final battle. The destruction of the familiar Narnia proves not simply to be an ending, but the entrance into a greater and more enduring reality. THE TWO ORDERS An unusual feature of The Chronicles of Narnia is that the order in which Lewis wrote and published the books is not the chronological order of events within Narnia. Chronologically, the series runs: The Magician's Nephew The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Horse and His Boy Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Last Battle Lewis, however, introduced Narnia through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and only later explained its origins. Reading the books in publication order therefore allows Narnia to unfold as Lewis originally revealed it. The wardrobe, the lamp-post, the White Witch and Professor Kirke are first encountered as mysteries. Five books later, The Magician's Nephew reveals how they came to be. THE CHRONICLES AS A WHOLE Taken together, the seven books form a history of an entire imaginary world rather than one continuous adventure. Children come and go, centuries pass in Narnia while little time passes in our world, kingdoms rise and fall, and characters who are central to one story may become legends by the next. Running through all seven books are themes of courage, loyalty, temptation, betrayal, forgiveness, sacrifice and redemption. The books remain adventures in their own right and can be enjoyed without treating them as religious allegory. The series begins with children discovering an unknown world through the back of a wardrobe. It ends at the conclusion of that world's history. Between those two events lies the complete story of Narnia.