All right, I was perusing Amazon.ca for a collection of the “Chronicles of Narnia” in the original order–with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first. This has proved difficult, but that’s not my point.
The site’s “Narnia store” makes the claim that I quoted in the subject, that C.S. Lewis intended The Magician’s Nephew to be read first.
Is this true? If so, why are they making The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the first movie?
Well, I don’t know what Lewis “intended,” or if he “intended” anythiung at all.
“The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe” was the first Narnia book Lewis wrote, and it’s the first Narnia book most people read. “The Magician’s Nephew” was the sixth book he wrote, but the story it tells takes place many years BEFORE “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
Personally, I think it’s best to read the Narnia Chronicles in order from 1 to 7 (Well… actually, “A Horse and his Boy” doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the series, so you can read that one on its own, in any order you like). “The Magician’s Nephew” makes more sense if you’ve already read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Not only that, it clears up a few mysteries readers may have been wondering about after reading “TLTWATW.”
I think that TLTWATW should be read first, too. I guess this debate comes up every time a prequel is created.
There is great controversey over the proper order for the books to be read. These days it seems that chronological order is more popular than publishing order. C.S. Lewis himself has endorsed the chronological order.
The stories have an internal chronological order which is different from the order in which they were written, which starts with LWW. Some people perfer to read them in interal chron order, which Lewis was not adverse to. My recommendation is to read them in order of publication.
Lewis didn’t really seem to care what order they were read in. I assume that was because the overall story arc wasn’t really planned out beforehand (he didn’t know he was going to write The Last Battle when he was writing tLtWatW).
However, I do think the “internal chronological order” proponency came about through a lack of imagination. Just because a book happened first doesn’t mean it’s best to read it first. The publication order seems more organic to me just because you’re discovering all these things about Narnia in the same way that Lewis did. Reading tMN first, you’ll come across the lamppost and think, “Oh…a lamppost”. Reading Lion first, then reading Nephew, you come across the lamppost and think, “OH! The Lamppost!”
That’s the difference, to me.
I’ll say here what I’ve said many times before: If Lewis had wanted folks to read The Magician’s Nephew first, he’d have written it first.
Totally ignoring the direct quote from the author in the post about three above you. 
The author was replying to a letter from a child! What else was he supposed to say? “That’s a pretty stupid idea, kid.”
Published order. They must be read in the published order. Please.
If I ever met up with the little bastard who wrote that letter, I’d wring his neck! :mad:
There have been threads on this question before; I tried searching for them, but the hamsters keeled over in exhaustion. But a clear majority spoke up for reading them in the order they were originally published.
And people say that nobody really appreciates the point of Christian literature these days! 
We’ve discussed this a dozen times. Do a search on “Lewis,” “Narnia,” “order,” and “chronological” in the SDMB archives. You should be able to find a lot of threads on this subject.
Read about Jesus in the published order, or I’ll kick your ass! 
The thing is, Lion explains Aslan and Narnia better than any of the other ones can, for someone who isn’t familiar with them. It was intended to be a standalone book, so it doesn’t really have any hanging mysteries or undefined recalls of the other books. The others more or less assume that you’ve read Lion (recurring characters, undefined terms).
Lion was written as an introduction to Narnia, regardless of whether Lewis’s intention was to write further books or not. Just because something’s “supposed” to happen first (Nephew), doesn’t mean it needs to be read first.
I haven’t read any of the Narnia books (although I’ve been curious). When I worked at a bookstore, people often asked about the books and many were unhappy about the change in the series order. Generally people said that The Magician’s Nephew is the most boring book of the series. I’ve always been curious if this is true. So, for those who’ve read it, what do you think?
As a child, I always thought The Horse and His Boy was the dullest. Sometimes, reading through the series (which I did about once a year), I would skip it.
As an adult, I appreciate Horse much more (the same thing happened with The Silver Chair, too). But, now I do find The Magician’s Nephew a lot less inspiring. It’s probably my least favorite, now.
There’s a lot of crap out there about what Lewis “intended”–especially from his stepsons and from Walter Hooper.
:rolleyes:
(hijack)
I’m partial to at least the title of A Horse and His Boy, as I know a horse who has his own personal person. A very, very jealous horse.
(/end hijack)
I don’t know if I would call The Magician’s Nephew the dullest, but I have always found it to be the least magical. It takes a bunch of mysterious things from the earlier books and de-mystifys them (the wardrobe, the lamp post, etc.).
I love Narnia, but I’ve never really enjoyed The Magician’s Nephew or The Last Battle.
Always liked A Horse and his Boy though.
I think Dawn Treader is the best (after TLTWATW, of course)!