{"id":203,"date":"2015-03-07T09:02:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefaberfamily.org\/peregrinator\/?p=203"},"modified":"2015-03-07T09:02:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T14:02:20","slug":"the-chronicles-of-narnia-reading-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefaberfamily.org\/peregrinator\/2015\/03\/the-chronicles-of-narnia-reading-order\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chronicles of Narnia – Reading Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been reading a couple of articles on this subject recently. The first, by Brenton Dickieson<\/a>, argues that “the best way to read Narnia is to re-read Narnia.” It’s hard to argue with that (and though I’ve taken a quote from the last paragraph in order to summarize the article, the whole thing is well worth reading). But he also argues that the “Published Order” is best when reading the Chronicles<\/em> for the first time.<\/p>\n

The second article, by Stephen Greydanus<\/a>, argues that the Published Order is the only way to read Narnia, and goes so far as to say that the “Chronological Order” promoted by the publishers is a “travesty.” But I think Greydanus, too, is thinking mainly of first-time readers. Perhaps an unsuspecting parent will pick up The Magician’s Nephew<\/em> and give it to his children, or even read it aloud to them! I’m not sure I would call that a “travesty” but it would certainly destroy the sense of wonder that one has upon reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em> for the first time, and discovering the world of Narnia along with the Pevensie children.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em> was not my own introduction to the world of Narnia, but neither was The Magician’s Nephew<\/em> (I had an unusual teacher for fourth grade, and we read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader<\/em> in class – as well as The Hobbit<\/em>), so I remember how odd Professor Kirke sounded when he counselled the older Pevensies, even though I only understood his words much later in life. And I do, of course, remember my older children’s wide eyes upon reading Lion<\/em> to them.<\/p>\n

That said, although I prefer the Published Order to the Chronological, I don’t quite agree with\u00a0Greydanus’ assertion that “there is a natural break between the first four stories and the last three stories.” One could just as well argue that there is a natural progression between The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em> and The Last Battle<\/em>, with The Horse and His Boy<\/em> and The Magician’s Nephew<\/em> as standalone stories. The Silver Chair<\/em> isn’t the last of Eustace Scrubb’s adventures in Narnia, and it is also a “break” from the first three (published) books in that the Pevensie children aren’t in it.<\/p>\n

As I’ve mentioned above, if the choice is between the Published Order and the Chronological Order, I’ll choose the former every time, at least for first-time readers. (When you’ve read the books as many times as I have, you can pretty much pick up any volume and start from there.) That said, I don’t think we need to be as rigid as that. In my opinion:<\/p>\n