Reading C.S. Lewis and Where to Begin...

[janahuff]

[john]

[rusmeister]

I'd say depends what you WANT to read. Go by genre. Want children's lit? Then it's CON (Narnia). Want basic apologetics? Try Mere Christianity oe The Screwtape Letters. Want heavy-duty thought? Try Miracles, The Four Loves or The Problem of Pain. Dealing with death? Try A Grief Observed. Want challenging essays? Read The Seeing Eye. And so on.

[Monica]

[Reep]

[quote="Monica"][/quote]
"There's a school of thought that advises reading The Chronicles of Narnia in the order that Lewis wrote them so that one can follow the unfolding of his thought.
If you want a scholarly approach to his works, you could read them in the order he wrote them -- and watch the maturing of his art and his Christian vision. (You can find a bibliography of publishing order on the web.)"

I must confess that my interest is neither a correct 'school of thought' nor very scholarly. I am coming back to The Seven Chronicles after a number of years and I am still quite confused by their new numbering. Which was introduced in 1994 and which is said to be a considerable improvement since it is based on a fictional 2555-year-old Narnian Calendar.
So for the time being I am just keeping at hand a list of their real and actual publication dates:

2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 1950 October 16
4. Prince Caspian 1951 October 15
5. The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" 1952 September 15
6. The Silver Chair 1953 September 7
3. The Horse and His Boy 1954 September 6
1. The Magician's Nephew 1955 May 2
7. The Last Battle 1956 March 19[/i]

[mgton]

[Robyn]

[VixenMage]

[carol]

If you want to read what Lewis believed, then Mere Christianity is a good starting point. After that try his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, where he tells of his search for truth and "joy".

The stories in the Narnia series are another great part of his writing. They and the three space trilogy books use fiction to communicate some of the beliefs and principles dear to Lewis. The order Reep suggests above is a very good piece of advice.

I hope you enjoy reading these books, and let us know what you've thought of them?

[Uncle Squid]

Regarding the "correct" order of CON, I wonder what Lewis himself had to say about it.

I've seen a similar debate Regarding Tom Clancy's body of "Ryanverse" novels (Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games, etc.) and Clancy himself has come onto some of the discussion boards and websites to address the issue. His answer was basicly to read them in any order you want as they weren't written to be read in sequence.

By contrast, you have the Harry Potter series which are very clearly being written in a serial fashion...7 books corresponding to 7 years at Hogwarts (and 7 subsequent movies). JK Rowling has said that this is the way she planned it from when she first started writing Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone.

Obviously since Lewis is no longer with us, he can't exactly come onto the forums and fansites to resolve the issue himself. I'm wondering if he might have addressed the issue before he died...or if that sort of thing even was an issue in his day.

[Monica]

[Stanley Anderson]

[Biff]

[Áthas]