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Harry Potter discussion forum for movies, books, and more! - The Leaky Lounge _ Non HP Book Club: The Hobbit _ Reading The Narnia Chronicles

Posted by: Dreamteam Mar 28 2008, 07:36 PM

As the books in the Narnia series are fairly short I thought we should discuss how we want to read the series. For anyone who wants some descriptions of the books, their history, illustrations and more http://books.narnia.com/chronicles/books/index.html is a great site.

The books tell the story in this order:
Book 1, The Magician's Nephew
Book 2, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Book 3, The Horse and His Boy
Book 4, Prince Caspian
Book 5, The Voyage of "The Dawn Treader"
Book 6, The Silver Chair
Book 7, The Last Battle

but they were published in this order
Book 2, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Book 4, Prince Caspian
Book 5, The Voyage of "The Dawn Treader"
Book 6, The Silver Chair
Book 3, The Horse and His Boy
Book 1, The Magician's Nephew
Book 7, The Last Battle

As they're fairly short books we should also discuss whether we want to spend a month on each book or whether we should read two books at a time and then read the final book and have an overall discussion of themes acrosss the series (such as characters' journeys, good v evil, courage, etc) in a separarate month. The decision about whether we read them in the story order or published order will decide which books are paired together.

Posted by: L.J Mar 31 2008, 08:07 PM

Well, as I was first to vote, I have no idea what anyone else thinks yet!

I would prefer to read them in the story order, rather than published order, as that just makes more sense to me - they story of Narnia follows on in story order, right? I haven't read this series for a VERY long time, so really can't remember!

Though I really wouldn't mind reading them in the published order, either - they were published in the order of the characters stories, right? (Well, at least the first 4?)

I was thinking it'd be good to discuss each book for just 2 weeks (before this thread was posted). I still think that may be best, as, if we discuss them in story order, then the 2 books we do together each month will each have different main characters. The only 2 that will have any of the same characters are Books 5 & 6 with Eustace, I think (I don't mean Narnia beings, just the main characters from our world). Then again, not everyone can get online as much as me, so if each Book Club was only open for 2 weeks, that wouldn't be fair to them.

Umm, I voted before I thought of the above, so maybe discussing them in published order would actually make more sense. I'm confused now

Posted by: Perenelle Apr 1 2008, 10:20 AM

Tee hee, it can be quite confusing. I voted for published order simply because that's the way I've always read them. I prefer written order to chronological!

Posted by: Moose_Starr Apr 1 2008, 10:31 AM

Me too, I voted for *published order* because I guess that's the way they were intended to be read & I think even the movie people are going with published order not chronological order but, I'm actually happy either way because discussing them will be fun

Posted by: MuggleQueen Apr 1 2008, 11:14 AM

I would definitely prefer to read them in the story order because I think it makes a lot more sense than the publishing order.

For the next point - I voted 'other' because I think that one month is a bit too long to spend on such short books, but I don't think they should be discussed in pairs, because not all of them go with another book. E.g. it wouldn't make a lot of sense to discuss The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe together in a pair because they have different characters and are generally completely different! But something like Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader could be more easily discussed as a pair as they involve the same characters - then they could be compared, whereas TMN and TLTWATW couldn't be.

If that won't work out, then maybe (as I suggested in a previous poll) there could be a poll where everyone gets to choose their three favourite books to discuss. There could be a first choice, second choice and third choice as different parts of the poll and then each vote for the first part counts as 3 points, each vote vote for the second part counts as 2 points and each vote of the third part counts as 1 point. Then the total number of points for each book could be added up and then the three highest scoring books get picked to be discussed, in reading order.

Um, I'm not entirely sure that made any sense! But I guess it doesn't matter as that option would leave people disappointed if their favourite book didn't get picked....

Posted by: Miss_Talons Apr 1 2008, 06:23 PM

I voted to read them in the story's order because it does make a bit of sense to do it that way. That's the way I first read them, and from what I can remember, there are some very significant themes and connexions that can be made if read that way.

Which leads me to my next point, the books being read in pairs: I think it would be interesting to contrast two books in the series at a time, particularly when considering CS Lewis' inspirations (and intentions) and considering the length of each book. It would give rise to more interesting discussions, in my opinion.

Posted by: Heidy Apr 2 2008, 06:00 AM

I don't mind in which order we read. I've always read them in chronological order, but published order would be fine, if that's the consensus. I do prefer L.J's plan of discussing one book for two weeks as oppose to two books together. I think two weeks is a fair amount of time to discuss each book. We can always do a joint discussion towards the end of the month after everyone has read both books.

In any case, I'll be fine with whatever is decided.

Posted by: Amontillada Apr 7 2008, 09:00 AM

I (who need to get my fingers on the right keys this morning ) voted for reading them in the published order--i.e. THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE first. I prefer that order because that is the way I first read them. I think it's only relatively recently that the publisher (at least in the United States) has started numbering and arranging them, in omnibus volumes, in story order. I myself think THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW is more interesting if you already know the "later" stories--so as you read it, you think "Aha! That's where the lamppost originated," for instance.

MuggleQueen has a point about the way the books are paired: for example, pairing THE LION... with THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW doesn't make a great deal of sense, whereas PRINCE CASPIAN and THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN-TREADER (which show us Caspian at different ages and points in his life) would fit together better. Actually, I suggest pairing THE LION... with THE HORSE AND HIS BOY, which gives us a glimpse at Narnia during the adult reign of the characters who become kinds and queens as children in THE LION....

Posted by: Neville Fan Apr 12 2008, 06:07 PM

I've read the books several times but have only ever read them in story order (maybe one day I'll read them in publication order) apart from when I first got into the Narnia books in the 80s (via the BBC) and I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe first.

Would be good to read Prince Caspian around the same time as the film comes out so we could discuss differences in the book and film.

Posted by: Dreamteam Jun 22 2008, 08:07 PM

This is a thread that was started in a previous Book Club a couple of months ago. As the Narnia books are currently in the lead in the poll for reading the next individual book and series I thought it would be good to revive the poll so that people here can vote for how we read the books, i.e. in the order in which they were written or in the order of events in the story.

Posted by: ravenclawgirl34 Jun 23 2008, 09:39 AM

I voted for published order, and then pairing the books.

It actually makes a lot more sense to pair them according to the published order, as most of them fall into 'natural' pairs that way. LWW and PC have the four Pevensies as the main characters, VDT and SC have Eustace in common, and in some ways he is the main-est main character in those books (if that makes sense...), HHB and MN are 'prequel-ish' books, (well, HHB isn't technically a prequel, but it sort of... feels that way, some) and that leaves LB, which is the end either way you slice it.

Posted by: WaggaWaggaWerewolf Jun 23 2008, 04:19 PM

I'd go for story order, myself. Pairing the books is easier if you look at it this way: Last battle & Silver chair go together because they both have as their main characters Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb, plus the kings involved are descendants of Caspian rather than Caspian, himself. Last Battle has never been filmed, though Silver Chair has been.

I don't think you can separate Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, especially as the BBC now publish their two 1990's films of that name together on the one DVD. The Pevensies are all or partly present. Though Eustace is introduced as a Pevensie cousin in VDT.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which has been repeatedly filmed - 3 times to date - could be paired easily with Magician's Nephew, the story beginning, because both these books deal with Jadis, The White Witch, and the Professor, who is Diggory Kirke, also plays a part in LWW, as the owner of the wardrobe Lucy gets into, as well as the host of the Pevensies.

On the other hand, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe could also be paired with the Horse and His Boy, since both deal with the reigns of the Pevensies, three of whom feature in HHB. There are seven books, so if you are going to pair them, there is still going to be an odd one out. Would a triology of the first three be a good idea? Neither Magician's Nephew nor Horse and his Boy have ever been filmed. An alternative triology is PC, VDT & Silver Chair, since all three deal with the main events of the reign of Caspian X.

Whichever way you choose to pair books up otherwise, one is going to have to stand alone, even if the books are going to be discussed in published order. The stand alone book is either LWW itself since it is easily the best known of the Narnia stories, or the Horse and His Boy as the most distinctive, in my opinion.

Posted by: schopenhauerfan Jun 24 2008, 07:12 AM

Reading the books in publication order was how it was generally done through the early 90s. Quite frankly for someone reading the series for the first time it seems to me reading The Magician's Nephew before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobeit would spoil huge chunks of the story and be confusing as heck to boot. In The Magician's Nephew Lewis assumes the reader knows all about Aslan, Narnia (neither gets much of a mention until the ninth or tenth chapter, I think), and it seems kind of depressing **plot spoiler follows** that the mystery of finding a lamppost in the middle of a forest is not a mystery but a given.

Apparently Lewis didn't give much guidance either way, as he thought each book could be read separately and their order wasn't all that important. He wrote a letter to a fan that did give approval to the chronological order, but he certainly never ruled out reading them in publication order.

Posted by: luna_sparkle Jun 27 2008, 05:36 AM

It really should be the publication order. As shopenhauerfan said, The Magician's Nephew assumes that you already know about Narnia and Aslan, while The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the introduction to all that. (And I may be a tiny bit biased anyway, because I don't like the other books in the Chronicles that much!).

Posted by: lily_luna Jun 27 2008, 09:25 AM

I think we should read them in story order, simply because that's the way I've always read them. Although I agree with schopenhauerfan and luna_sparkle, who said TLTWATW should be read before TMN. I also agree with WaggaWaggaWerewolf about how the books should be paired.