Narnia Book Order

Important Considerations for First-Time Readers

I agree with Miller here that reading the Narnia books in the order that they were written is indeed the best way to experience them. If you are reading them for the first time as a result of the upcoming film, or if you are suggesting them to people, please encourage them to — at the very least — read The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe first.

The article explores the reason behind the re-ordering and makes arguments against it. It contains some mild spoilers, but nothing that you don’t know from seeing movie previews, I’m sure. (It does restate the quite-generic last line of LWW, but I think you can survive that.)

Here is the order in which the books were written (borrowed from the linked article so that I don’t have to look in my copies just now):

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian (1951)
3. The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader” (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

On a related note, here is A Family Guide to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for anyone interested in some discussion (at an all-family level) of the symbolism in the first book. (Oh yeah, free PDF while you wait for mailing on credit card orders!)