The Reading Order for the Chronicles of Narnia

By Gerry Straker, 13 Feb 2025

You should read The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis. Why? Tom tells us in the confessions of a Narnia laggard by Tom Day aged 23.

You should read The Chronicles of Narnia in the original publication order and ignore the order of the series written inside your copy, or even numbered on the spine. This is the publication order and the order to read them in: 

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian (1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

Why you should read them in this order is covered pretty comprehensively in this excellent Gospel Coalition article.  It includes the important point that in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe you get to meet Aslan with the children,  Lewis actually refers to the fact that his readers don’t know who Aslan is, when Mr Beaver says:

“They say Aslan is on the move — perhaps has already landed.” And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different…

Lewis expects his readers not to know who Aslan is as this point, but if you’ve already read The Magician’s Nephew then you are not experiencing what the children experienced or what Lewis himself expected you to experience.

Let me add some further comments on internal consistency that are not included in the article referenced above. Prince Caspian, refers to ‘another book’ singular in its very first sentence. Then, in chapter two:

“We must take the gifts,” said Peter. For long ago at a Christmas in Narnia he and Susan and Lucy had been given certain presents which they valued more than their whole kingdom. Edmund had had no gift, because he was not with them at the time. (This was his own fault, and you can read about it in the other book.)

Within the Chronicles, you are supposed to be reading Prince Caspian as the second book. Meanwhile The Silver Chair (which should be read fourth) refers to The Horse and His Boy (which should be read fifth) as a story you have not yet heard of:

And when all the serious eating and drinking was over, a blind poet came forward and struck up the grand old tale of Prince Cor and Aravis and the horse Bree, which is called The Horse and his Boy and tells of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Cair Paravel. (I haven't time to tell it now, though it is well worth hearing.)

Internally, it only makes sense to read the books in the order they were published. Again, this is the order:

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian (1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

One additional point to make is that the second book Prince Caspian prepares for future books.  Lewis hints at The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third book in the series, when Dr Cornelius tells Caspian about his wicked usurping uncle removing all Caspian’s father’s friends:

And finally he persuaded the seven noble lords, who alone among all the Telmarines did not fear the sea, to sail away and look for new lands beyond the Eastern Ocean, and, as he intended, they never came back.

But also, in the second book, the reader is introduced to the broader landscape that will be explored in the fifth book in the series: The Horse and His Boy. In chapter two of Prince Caspian Edmund says:

Don’t you remember — it was the very day before the ambassadors came from the King of Calormen don’t you remember planting the orchard outside the north gate of Cair Paravel?

While, in chapter five, Caspian is urged by his tutor Dr Cornelius to escape:

You must go alone and at once. Try to get across the southern border to the court of King Nain of Archenland. He will be good to you.

Calormen and Archenland are introduced in book two to be explored later - in book five: The Horse and His Boy.

So, as you read the Chronicles of Narnia, follow the children and follow the author! I doubt many people would read the Harry Potter series in the wrong order, so please read the Chronicles of Narnia in the right order: the publication order.