The Chronicles of Narnia
C. S. Lewis wrote the seven Narnia books between 1950 and 1956, at speed and with a deliberate mixing of mythologies that his friend J. R. R. Tolkien found objectionable — fauns and dryads from classical myth share a world with Father Christmas, talking beasts and an explicitly Christian redemption narrative. That magpie quality is exactly what makes the books work for children: the world is not systematically built, it is simply full of things.
About The Chronicles of Narnia
C. S. Lewis wrote the seven Narnia books between 1950 and 1956, at speed and with a deliberate mixing of mythologies that his friend J. R. R. Tolkien found objectionable — fauns and dryads from classical myth share a world with Father Christmas, talking beasts and an explicitly Christian redemption narrative. That magpie quality is exactly what makes the books work for children: the world is not systematically built, it is simply full of things. The series has sold in the hundreds of millions and its central image, a child stepping through a wardrobe into snow, is one of the most durable in English children's literature.
Tolkien disliked the books considerably, objecting to their mixed mythologies — a disagreement that is among the best-documented in twentieth-century literature.
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Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Publication | 1950–1956 | Seven books written in six years. |
| BBC adaptations | 1988–1990 | Four serials that shaped a generation's mental image of the books. |
| Feature films | 2005–2010 | Three films, with rights subsequently moving on. |