The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book to be written and published, is generally considered the best introduction to Narnia by scholars and fans alike. Given that this book was published in 1954, it's possible to forgive the cultural insensitivity, but it's sad that children around the world still uncritically read such racist material. Books of Chronicles of Narnia #1-7: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950); Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (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). The beginning of the novel was fun, which is when Eustace and Jill embark on their new adventure. They are sent on a mission and we read about their journey. I found many parts dull. This story didn’t have much of an impact on me. The comic book series Pakkins' Land by Gary and Rhoda Shipman in which a young child finds himself in a magical world filled with talking animals, including a lion character named King Aryah, has been compared favorably to the Narnia series. The Shipmans have cited the influence of C.S. Lewis and the Narnia series in response to reader letters. [68]

Richard Lea (19 March 2019). "Francis Spufford pens unauthorised Narnia novel". The Guardian . Retrieved 21 March 2019. Written by Lewis, illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and originally published in London between 1950 and 1956, The Chronicles of Narnia has been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, the stage, and film. Levin, Josh (23 December 2005). "The Chronicles of Narnia Rap". Slate . Retrieved 19 December 2010. Nicholas Wanberg has argued, echoing claims by Mervyn Nicholson, that accusations of racism in the books are "an oversimplification", but he asserts that the stories employ beliefs about human aesthetics, including equating dark skin with ugliness, that have been traditionally associated with racist thought. [100]Duriez, Colin (2015). Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien and the Shadow of Evil. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books. pp.180–182. ISBN 978-0-8308-3417-4.

Johnson, William C.; Houtman, Marcia K. (1986). "Platonic Shadows in C. S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles". Modern Fiction Studies. 32 (1): 75–87. doi: 10.1353/mfs.0.1154. S2CID 162284034 . Retrieved 1 October 2018. Marsha Daigle-Williamson argues that Dante's Divine Comedy had a significant impact on Lewis's writings. In the Narnia series, she identifies this influence as most apparent in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair. [53] Daigle-Williamson identifies the plot of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a Dantean journey with a parallel structure and similar themes. [54] She likewise draws numerous connections between The Silver Chair and the events of Dante's Inferno. [55] In the end, I rejected the Narnia books for that reason. Later, finding out Lewis was a devout Christian and Aslan was basically supposed to be Jebus in a lion suit, I wasn't at all surprised.

Nowadays, I recommend Miyazaki movies (especially Kiki) to every tween girl I meet to cleanse their palate of some of the more despicable Disney depictions of femininity, and I happily gift kids (and adults!) with the Dark Materials trilogy to counteract their exposure to the Narnia dogma. Little did I know that this would be the series that would transform me into a devoted booknerd. At the age of 12, I managed to fly through each novel because they were just so beautiful and fantastic. The perfect mix of magic, adventure, and biblical allusions captivated me from start to finish. By the time I read The Last Battle, I was already a hardcore fanboy. Although Lewis pleaded ignorance about the source of his inspiration for Aslan, Jared Lobdell, digging into Lewis's history to explore the making of the series, suggests Charles Williams's 1931 novel The Place of the Lion as a likely influence. [8] Gaiman, Neil (2004). "The Problem of Susan". In Sarrantonio, Al (ed.). Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy Volume II. New York: New American Library. ISBN 978-0-451-46099-8.

Beatrice Verhoeven (3 October 2018). "Netflix to Develop Series, Films Based on CS Lewis' 'The Chronicles of Narnia' ". the wrap . Retrieved 28 November 2018. Lobdell, Jared (2016). Eight Children in Narnia: The Making of a Children's Story. Chicago, IL: Open Court. p.63. ISBN 978-0-8126-9901-2.The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first adapted in 1967. Comprising ten episodes of thirty minutes each, the screenplay was written by Trevor Preston, and directed by Helen Standage. Downing, David C. (2005). Into The Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. Jossey Bass. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7. The characters have positive and negative things to say about both male and female characters, suggesting an equality between sexes. However, the problem is that many of the positive qualities of the female characters seem to be those by which they can rise above their femininity ... The superficial nature of stereotypical female interests is condemned. [92] Simpson, Paul (2013). A Brief Guide to C. S. Lewis: From Mere Christianity to Narnia. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0762450763 . Retrieved 9 July 2015. Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil—what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia.

Young, Cathy (March 2008). "A Secular Fantasy– The flawed but fascinating fiction of Philip Pullman". Reason. The Royal Shakespeare Company premiered The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1998. The novel was adapted as a musical production by Adrian Mitchell, with music by Shaun Davey. [124] The show was originally directed by Adrian Noble and designed by Anthony Ward, with the revival directed by Lucy Pitman-Wallace. Well received by audiences, the production was periodically re-staged by the RSC for several years afterwards. [125] See also [ edit ] Barrett, Justin L. (2010). "Some Planets in Narnia: a quantitative investigation of the Planet Narnia thesis" (PDF). Seven: an Anglo-American literary review (Wheaton College) . Retrieved 28 April 2018. a b Wagner, Hank; Golden, Christopher; Bissette, Stephen R. (28 October 2008). Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. St. Martin's Press. pp.395–. ISBN 978-1-4299-6178-3. Recommended for adults who thrive in a Christian religious environment or those who can overlook these aspects totally and enjoy the story. Not for gullible children, unless accompanied by a discerning adult.

Christmas Gifts

Michael Ward's 2008 book Planet Narnia [41] proposes that each of the seven books related to one of the seven moving heavenly bodies or "planets" known in the Middle Ages according to the Ptolemaic geocentric model of cosmology (a theme to which Lewis returned habitually throughout his work). At that time, each of these heavenly bodies was believed to have certain attributes, and Ward contends that these attributes were deliberately but subtly used by Lewis to furnish elements of the stories of each book: Ten year old Mer's desire to live in that world and shoot arrows and eat Turkish Delight and befriend those magical talking beasts was all-consuming. Most of all, I wanted to know Aslan. To be cuddled and loved by that big, fierce, lovable lion. But in the end, I had to let go of him and his realm. (I remember being so disconsolate, in fact, that my parents let me stay home from school for a day! And they NEVER let me play hookey! So weird, remembering that.) Lewis read Edith Nesbit's children's books as a child and was greatly fond of them. [51] He described The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe around the time of its completion as "a children's book in the tradition of E. Nesbit". [52] The Magician's Nephew in particular bears strong resemblances to Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet (1906). This novel focuses on four children living in London who discover a magic amulet. Their father is away and their mother is ill, as is the case with Digory. They manage to transport the queen of ancient Babylon to London and she is the cause of a riot; likewise, Polly and Digory transport Queen Jadis to London, sparking a very similar incident. [51] In addition to sexism, Pullman and others have also accused the Narnia series of fostering racism. [85] [95] Over the alleged racism in The Horse and His Boy, newspaper editor Kyrie O'Connor wrote: Hurst, Josh (5 December 2005). "Nine Minutes of Narnia". Christianity Today Movies. Archived from the original on 12 March 2008.