This collection includes all seven novels in the series.
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podrÃa decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crÃtica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teologÃa popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.
Pauline Baynes has produced hundreds of wonderful illustrations for the seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia. In 1968 she was awarded the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for her outstanding contribution to children's literature.
Storytelling came naturally to Lewis, who spent the rainy days of his childhood in Ireland writing about an imaginary world he called Boxen. His first published novel, Out of the Silent Planet, tells the story of a journey to Mars; its hero was loosely modeled on his friend and fellow Cambridge scholar J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis enjoyed some popularity for his Space Trilogy (which continues in Perelandra and That Hideous Strength), but nothing compared to that which greeted his next imaginative journey, to an invented world of fauns, dwarfs, and talking animals -- a world now familiar to millions of readers as Narnia.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book of the seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia, began as "a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood," according to Lewis. Years after that image first formed in his mind, others bubbled up to join it, producing what Kate Jackson, writing in Salon, called "a fascinating attempt to compress an almost druidic reverence for wild nature, Arthurian romance, Germanic folklore, the courtly poetry of Renaissance England and the fantastic beasts of Greek and Norse mythology into an entirely reimagined version of what's tritely called 'the greatest story ever told.'"
The Chronicles of Narnia was for decades the world's bestselling fantasy series for children. Although it was eventually superseded by Harry Potter, the series still holds a firm place in children's literature and the culture at large. (Narnia even crops up as a motif in Jonathan Franzen's 2001 novel The Corrections). Its last volume appeared in 1955; in that same year, Lewis published a personal account of his religious conversion in Surprised by Joy. The autobiography joined his other nonfiction books, including Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce, as an exploration of faith, joy and the meaning of human existence.
Lewis's final work of fiction, Till We Have Faces, came out in 1956. Its chilly critical reception and poor early sales disappointed Lewis, but the book's reputation has slowly grown; Lionel Adey called it the "wisest and best" of Lewis's stories for adults. Lewis continued to write about Christianity, as well as literature and literary criticism, for several more years. After his death in 1963, The New Yorker opined, "If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels."
The 1994 movie, Shadowlands, based on the play of the same name, cast Anthony Hopkins as Lewis. It tells the story of his friendship with, and then marriage to, an American divorcee named Joy Davidman (played by Debra Winger), who died of cancer four years after their marriage. Lewis's own book about coping with that loss, A Grief Observed, was initially published under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk.
Several poems, stories, and a novel fragment published after Lewis's death have come under scrutiny as possible forgeries. On one side of the controversy is Walter Hooper, a trustee of Lewis's estate and editor of most of his posthumous works; on the other is Kathryn Lindskoog, a Lewis scholar who began publicizing her suspicions in 1988. Scandal or kooky conspiracy theory? The verdict's still out among readers.
This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began.
In those days Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road. In those days, if you were a boy you had to wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and schools were usually nastier than now. But meals were nicer; and as for sweets, I won't tell you how cheap and good they were, because it would only make your mouth water in vain. And in those days there lived in London a girl called Polly Plummer.
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs. Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him...
This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him.
In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father. The boy's name was Shasta. On most days Arsheesh went out in his boat to fish in the morning, and in the afternoon he harnessed his donkey to a cart and loaded the cart with fish and went a mile or so southward to the village to sell it. If it had sold well he would come home in a moderately...
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, and it has been told in another book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure. They had opened the door of a magic wardrobe and found themselves in a quite different world from ours, and in that different world they had become Kings and Queens in a country called Narnia. While they were in Narnia they seemed to reign for years and years; but when they came back through the door and found themselves in England again, it all seemed to have taken no time at all. At any rate, no one noticed that they had ever been away, and they never told anyone except one very wise grown-up.
That had all happened a year ago, and now all...
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and masters called him Scrubb. I can't tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none. He didn't call his Father and Mother "Father" and "Mother," but Harold and Alberta. They were very up-to-date and advanced people. They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotalers and wore a special kind of underclothes. In their house there was very little furniture and very few clothes on beds and the windows were always open.
Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card. He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.
It was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym.
She was crying because they had been bullying her. This is not going to be a school story, so I shall say as little as possible about Jill's school, which is not a pleasant subject. It was "Coeducational," a school for both boys and girls, what used to be called a "mixed" school; some said it was not nearly so mixed as the minds of the people who ran it. These people had the idea that boys and girls should be allowed to do what they liked. And unfortunately what ten or fifteen of the biggest boys and girls liked best was bullying the others. All sorts of things, horrid things, went on which at an ordinary school would have been found out and stopped in half...
In the last days of Narnia, far up to the west beyond Lantern Waste and close beside the great waterfall, there lived an Ape. He was so old that no one could remember when he had first come to live in those parts, and he was the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine. He had a little house, built of wood and thatched with leaves, up in the fork of a great tree, and his name was Shift. There were very few Talking Beasts or Men or Dwarfs, or people of any sort, in that part of the wood, but Shift had one friend and neighbor who was a donkey called Puzzle. At least they both said they were friends, but from the way things went on you might have thought Puzzle was more like Shift's servant than his friend. He did...
Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set. Copyright © by C. Lewis. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.Anonymous
Posted December 23, 2002
The "Narnia" stories themselves are wonderful, of course. The major problem with the set is that the books are numbered to correspond with the chronological order in which the stories are set -- rather than the chronological order in which Lewis wrote them. Narnia beginners will find this confusing. The excellent illustrations are the originals but have been more recently colored by the original artist.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 28, 2008
The Chronicles of Narnia set are what dreams are made of. The Witch, The Wardrobe, The Lion is a longing journey to our imagination. The writing of Narnia is fantastic. The characters and creatures are the best to be found. But the real magic comes when not only the time you find these books to be your inner fantasy world to bloom, but that of your children. From day one I have been enthralled by the magic of Narnia. But the real magic happened to me when I saw my son reading Narnia to himself in his room. Hours passed, he continued 'till he fell to sleep. The following day when he came home from school he resumed reading from which he left. For three days my son continued through the first book to it's end. My little boy never before showed any interest in reading before, especially since the time he suffered a serious illness when he was young. The magic of Narnia has done more than I could have dreamed for my little boy. Thank you.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 3, 2008
Nothing against the books themselves...they are wonderful stories, but be forewarned that each book in this set has a yellow seal in the corner that says 'By the author of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Now a major motion picture.' TACKY.
3 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I think this may just be the best value I've ever gotten for my money when it comes to a book/CD/DVD purchase. These audio dramas are magnificently done. This is much more than just a narration or reading of the book. It really comes alive. In fact, I much prefer these audio dramas to the recent movies! If you are a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia do not pass up the opportunity to own these magnificent dramas. I would also strongly recommend these to fans of the Adventures in Odyssey radio dramas.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 9, 2008
These books will shake your world and move you to the core of your being. Lewis' interpretation of heaven in 'The Last Battle' is truly inspired... you can feel God talking to you through Lewis. I'm not trying to turn anyone off by sounding like a religious nut, but these books have profoundly influenced my faith and given me hope and courage (of which I need all that I can get as a 19-year- old living in Southern California). If you aren't looking for a spiritual message (which I wasn't when I started reading them), these books are still full of action, adventure, and Lewis' great sense of humor. Recommended for all ages!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 18, 2000
Few books have really inspired me, but that would seem odd by the looks of me. I'm only 14, but I'm totally hooked on reading. Just 2 days ago I finished this series of books, and I have been wanting to write my own novel since I was 5 or 6, but absolutely nothing really made me think about it, and now I do. I read the first book, The Magician's Nephew, about a year ago but I never really took much interest in it. I think you have to be a bit older and more mature to fully appreciate the quality of these books. Like a good movie, only better, these books will make you laugh, cry, and altogether just wish you could be in Narnia too. Who could ask for more?
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.First off, this box set is much smaller than you think. I remember
reading a few books in the series when I was younger, so I decided to
get this. The books are great, and they look amazing. There's no 'yellow
seal' as the other reviewer said, and the box looks beautiful. The
series is excellent and leaves nothing to be said. You just have to read
it yourself to enjoy it. Each book is short, however, and can be
finished within a day. However that doesnt take away from how good the
series is.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I loved this boxed set. I have read these book many times over the years and I am a collector of books. I had purchased the leather bound edition of these book at a local Barnes and Noble store because on the webiste it had said full-color illustrations, but they were black and white. They also only had illustrations on the chapter pages. I believe they have since changed the description online. I was disappointed. This is the only full-color edition I could find. I always prefer hardcover when I can get them but there were no hardcover, full-color editions I could find. So for paperback these exeeded my expectations. The pages are thick and glossy and it includes all original illustrations in full color. It is amazing!! I love it. The kids won't be allowed to touch this one!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 2, 2010
This is the first set available with full color pictures. You should get this set instead of the black and white set. Each book is spellbinding fast and easy reading. This comes only from C. S. Lewis's superior writing skills. The books are for all age groups. One adventure leads to another and you cannot put the book down. There is a moral to each story with a parallel to the Bible. As an author myself, Charles P. Pierce The Time of Christ's Return Revealed--Revised Edition, I am envious of C. S. Lewis's writing ability.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 9, 2010
Timeless. These 7 books are so consistent with each other that you can read them as a whole. You can enjoy them at 14 or 84. It is a fairy tale for all ages. I have had my set for years and will pass them on to my children. When I was young the Chronicles of Narnia inspired me to read more books. They are easy to understand and entertain as well as teaching life lessons. Definitely one of my favorites.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 14, 2010
This is a series you can read over and over throughout life. I read these books to my daughters when they were little, enjoying it more than they did, I think! Now I have the set for my grandchildren and will read it to them. This wonderful story of good and evil never goes out of style.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I am currently listening to this with my family and it is a wonderful performance of a much loved series. In my childhood these stories were very dear to me and reread many times. Now they are brought to life in this wonderful dramatazation! I reccommend this to everyone to listen and enjoy with your children!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 15, 2008
C.S. Lewis is an amazing person. It takes a great mind to be able to creat books like these. They are wonderful, and get hooked easily. You can also learn a thing or two from these, and I love them. I read them over and ever, because they never get old. I LOVE THESE BOOKS.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 19, 2005
These classics will stand the test of time, but seem to be better read in the original order, with 'Lion, Witch, Wardrobe' coming first... I'm not sure why they changed it (or who changed it.)
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 20, 2002
The Chronicles of Narnia does always get the attention it deserves, yet these loveable stories have been a source of delight for millions. Whenever my students are looking for something to read (and they're interested in Harry Potter), I suggest they take a look at The Chronicles of Narnia. My all time favorite in the series is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Another new series that I've just discovered (and had the privilege of pre-reading) are Robert Stanek's Keeper Martin's Tales (The Kingdoms & The Elves Of The Reaches Book I, The Kingdoms & The Elves Of The Reaches Book II) and Ruin Mist Tales (The Elf Queen & The King Book I, The Elf Queen & The King Book II). I compare these books favorably to Narnia in every way! Keep reading, keeping learning, keep growing!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 10, 2013
These seven books in the set are suitable for both adults and children. I first read them while in college and owned them at that time. Realized later that I no longer had them and wanted to re-read all of them so I bought the series again. I have the DVD of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Love this series. Many lessons to be learned by both adults and children. It is fantasy at its very best.
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Posted March 2, 2013
great book!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 2, 2013
great book!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I had bought this original at border when it was going out of business. I've listen to the first book, so far so good.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.All the books in one volume.- the only thing hat would make it better would be the complete collection of original illustrations. This volume contains one illustration at the beginning of each chapter.
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Overview
This collection includes all seven novels in the series.