Revisiting the Narnian Books

Author: C S Lewis

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I have had some interesting discussions about C. S. Lewis’s Narnian books recently. One was with a Middle School girl this morning. She was borrowing “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” to read because her family was about to watch the video of the recently released film.


The seven Narnian stories were very important to me as a young reader. We were living in Kuala Lumpur at the time, and I discovered the series at a house my parents were visiting. The gentleman there kindly allowed me to borrow one book, and then for the next seven weeks I would finish the book by Monday evening and wait with anxiety for Sunday to come around, as he bought a new book each week to church to lend to me.


What is the correct order to read them? The series scans the whole existence of Narnia… “The Magician’s Nephew” deals with its creation, then comes “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. “The Horse and His Boy” occurs during the second book. “Prince Caspian” comes next, and then “Voyage”. “The Silver Chair” follows, and then “The Last Battle” includes the final end to Narnia.

I confess I no longer really enjoy reading “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. The language is dated in parts, and in some ways Lewis seems to grown more confident in his style in the books he wrote after this. I think “The Last Battle” contains the most radical and challenging ideas. There is some provocative thinking about faithfulness, humanism and heaven. My all time favourite however is “The Silver Chair”. It is (to me) the most “stand alone” of the stories, and has a wonderful dramatic arc. Some like it less because it does not feature the original four children. I just love Puddleglum the Marshwiggle! (You will have to read it to find out about Marshwiggles). His dialogue with the underground witch queen about knowing what is true and right by faith is very powerful.

As a set, definitely worth a revisit!

That Hideous Strength

That Hideous Strength

CS Lewis

You may wonder at a “new book” review of a book written in 1945. My excuse is that we have a new edition in the OLRC to replace a badly worn copy. My other excuse? This book is profoundly strange and a very telling critique of science divorced from ethics and religion. Set aside any memories you have of the Narnia stories, or even of the first two Sci Fi books in the series. The earlier books deal with trips to Mars and Venus, but the planet of concern to the universe is stranger than either of those two places... it is our own planet, the Earth. As angels watch and wonder, monstrous plans are hatched to re-awaken the head of an executed criminal, and to subvert every institution of civil society. Those who are called to face this obscenity are a seemingly ill equipped and ill fitting group of very ordinary souls.

This book defies classification. It is set in the “near future” relative to 1945, and concerns itself with politics and the philosophies of scientists. There is little effort to fill in the details of the science-run-amok, and if it is Science Fiction, why does it feature Merlin, returned in a way that shocks both sides in the conflict? The opening chapters give no warning of the increasingly bizarre events later in the book. We are introduced to Mark and Jane. Mark is an aspiring academic trying to find a way beyond the cloying culture of a small college. Jane, his wife, feels that their relationship has collapsed, and seeks help from an old friend.

This book would suit the younger philosopher (perhaps Year Nine onward), and is still in some ways a confronting book for older readers. Lewis insists that we deal with the question of what or who does direct “progress” if it is not God. If you have not met CS Lewis as a writer of fiction for adults you may be surprised at how gritty some sections are. This book does have a positive and hopeful message, and I have continued to re-read it and reflect on it for the last thirty years.