The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Titles (Publication Order)	Titles (Chronological Order)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Horse and His Boy The Magician’s Nephew The Last Battle	The Magician’s Nephew The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Horse and His Boy Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Last Battle

I can’t remember a time that I didn’t know about Narnia. One of my earliest memories is of joining my family at the dining room table (probably climbing into someone’s lap) while my mom was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe aloud to my older siblings. Though I just caught a bit in the middle of the story, I still remember being mesmerized by Lewis’ description of the mice knawing through the ropes that bound Aslan to the stone table.

I am grateful to my mom (and the rest of my family) for allowing me to relish these stories for many years without pressing me for an understanding of what it all was supposed to mean. This allowed my imagination to happily steep in these stories in the best way.

My children got to steep in these stories too, both as read-alouds and in the wonderful audio versions available: the dramatized versions narrated by Paul Scofield and the unabridged recordings (narrators, each of one book: Kenneth Branagh, Michael York, Lynn Redgrave, Jeremy Northam, Patrick Stewart, Derek Jacobi and Alex Jennings). I understand that some of my kids can still recite long passages from  memory. 🙂

As an adult, I appreciate the lovely, gentle introduction to Theology and Philosophy that can be found in these stories: from parallels between Aslan and Jesus to echoes of Plato’s Cave Analogy found in The Silver Chair.

In the end, they are just great stories. So many great moments and characters, such as Eustace as a dragon, the Dufflepuds and Puddleglum have really stayed with me through the years, as have concepts like “He’s not a tame lion”, “We don’t get to find out what might have been.” and “We only get to know our own story.” (Sloppily paraphrased from memory). I am still haunted by the concept of Eustace failing to greet his old friend at the beginning of The Silver Chair.

I was so blessed to have grown up in Narnia!