Narnia reading order (was Re: Discworld Novels, reading in order)

[caliburncy]

Hi,

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "lupinesque" <lupinesque at y...> wrote:
> I agree with Tabouli--there is a great sense of discovery when you 
> have read five books since The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
> before you finally come upon the account of the creation of the
> wardrobe.  This came up on this list once before, and someone said
> that Lewis himself wanted the books to be numbered in internal
> chronological order, which to me just proves that authors don't
> always know best.  <g>

You know, what particularly bothers my about this re-ordering that 
has been done, is that the supposed "Lewis intent" to have the books 
placed in chronological order is, apparently, based merely on a 
letter to one of his young readers.

Here's a quote from Into the Wardrobe (http://cslewis.drzeus.net/) 
that includes a quote from said letter:

> In a letter written in 1957 to an American boy named Laurence,
> Lewis wrote the following:
>
> 'I think I agree with your order {i.e. chronological} for reading
> the books more than with your mother's [LUKE EDIT: His mother had
> recommended, naturally, the original publishing order]. The series
> was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I
> did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian
> as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and
> when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last.
> But I found as was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much
> in which order anyone read them. I'm not even sure that all the
> others were written in the same order in which they were
> published.' 

Now personally, I hardly see this as a firm basis to draw the 
conclusion that Lewis wanted his Chronicles re-ordered post-mortem.  
That course of action was never even recommended by Lewis himself, 
but by his (presumably well-meaning) stepson Douglas Gresham, who 
used the aforementioned letter as corroboration.

I suppose the reason this bothers me is that it disturbs me to think 
that, if I were in Lewis' shoes, people would snatch up every 
remaining scrap of everything I had ever said (that was recorded) or 
written, analyze it, and draw overreactive conclusions from it.

How do we know Lewis really wanted this?  He never said as much 
explicitly.  Perhaps he was merely indulging a child, because, as 
Lewis says, the order doesn't matter all that much, and he therefore 
wanted the child to read the books in whatever order he preferred.

Now I'm not saying this is what happened.  I'm saying I don't know.

But then, neither do the people who did the re-ordering, it seems.  
So, in their shoes, I would have left well enough alone.  To do 
otherwise in this circumstance strikes me as rather presumptuous.

Of course, part of the reason this annoys me is that I feel that I 
was sort of tricked into reading the books in chronological order the 
first time I read them.  I am not one of those people that read 
Narnia as a child, so by the time I got around to it, the publishers 
had already started this re-ordering.  When I picked up a boxed set 
of the books, I was surprised that The Magician's Nephew came 
first.  "That's odd," I thought.  "I could have sworn that it began 
with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."  But, not being much 
aware of Lewis-related trivia, nor having any knowledge of the two 
alternate orders that had been proposed, I simply quickly assumed I 
had been mistaken, and therefore did not even check the copyright 
date or otherwise persist in trying to identify the source of my 
confusion.  After all, why would the publishers be wrong?  But as I 
read The Magician's Nephew, I felt a persistence of unease, because I 
knew, in the back of my mind, that this was not the order in which 
the universe was supposed to be unfolding.  Something was definitely 
amiss.  I eventually examined book more thoroughly and found a small 
notice on the copyright page that said the Chronicles had been re-
ordered according to the wishes of C.S. Lewis.

The worst part is that The Magician's Nephew is really the only story 
for which the re-ordering makes a significant difference.  (The other 
book that is "out of order" is The Horse and His Boy, but since the 
events therein are so separate from the rest of the Chronicles, 
reading it pretty much whenever is okay.)  And so, for someone who is 
unaware of the re-ordering that was done, by the time they realize 
it, the damage is done.  The effect of The Magician's Nephew--which 
is so dependent upon familiarity with the rest of the Chronicles--has 
been spoiled for them.

I know this sounds a tad melodramatic.  But this is basically an 
accurate representation of how I felt at the time.  Nowadays, it 
bothers me more on the basis of principle than any actual sense of 
emotion--perhaps because I'm not really a sufficient fan of Narnia in 
order to feel thoroughly scandalized.  (I like them well enough, but 
am not as enamored with them as others are, perhaps because I didn't 
read them as a child.)  But anyway, my point is that I don't really 
see sufficient justification for the re-ordering to be done in the 
first place.

For people reading the Chronicles again, you may do so however you 
choose: forwards, backwards, upside down, whatever.

But if you are looking into reading them for the first time, then I 
highly recommend you read them in the order in which they were 
published:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magicians Nephew
The Last Battle

-Luke