C. S. Lewis

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C. S. Lewis bibliography

Books

Abolition of Man

How 'The Abolition of Man' Destroys the Idols of the Postmodern Age by Bradley J. Birzer August 7, 2018 intellectualtakeout.org/article

Of these books, The Screwtape Letters probably sold the best, but the one that has lasted to this day—especially in terms of reputation and stature—is his short but vigorous Abolition of Man. As with Mere Christianity, published in 1952 but based on several of Lewis’s World War II addresses, The Abolition of Man began as a series of lectures, ostensibly to consider the state of the English language and the teaching of it. Owen Barfield, one of Lewis’ closest friends and a deeply important scholar in his own right, pronounced The Abolition of Man not only Lewis’s best non-fiction work, but also the best example of one of Lewis’s two best traits: his “atomic rationality.” (The other trait was his romantic mythmaking.) Since its initial publication seventy-five years ago, The Abolition of Man has served as one of the finest non-reactionary bulwarks against the faddish ideologies and various subjectivisms and other nihilistic nonsense of the political and cultural Left. No student can read it without calling into question the whole of his education.

Chronicles of Narnia

narniaweb.com In What Order Should the Narnia Books Be Read?

Publication Order

Below is the original order in which The Chronicles of Narnia first appeared on bookshelves:

  1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
  2. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (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)
Chronological Order

Sometime after the death of C. S. Lewis, British editions of the books began appearing that were numbered chronologically:

  1. The Magician’s Nephew
  2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  3. The Horse and His Boy
  4. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
  5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  6. The Silver Chair
  7. The Last Battle
What did C. S. Lewis actually say?

One year after the final Narnia book was published, an 11-year-old boy named Lawrence Krieg wrote to Lewis asking which order he should re-read the books in (he had already read them once in publication order). His mother felt he should stick with the original order, but Lawrence wondered if he should re-read chronologically. The author’s response:

“I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother’s. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn’t think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found as I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them.” – C. S. Lewis, 4/23/57