XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books.childrens, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:55:55 GMT, "Alan Jones"  wrote:   
      
   >Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >> On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:23:17 +0100, JF    
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> X-No-Archive: yes   
   >>> In message , Steve Hayes   
   >>>  writes   
   >>>   
   >>>> I suggest, if you read the Narnia stories, that you start with "The   
   >>>> lion, the witch and the wardrobe", and go on reading them in   
   >>>> publication order,   
   >>>   
   >>> That is stupid advice! Read Jack Lewis's opening paragraphs in 'The   
   >>> Magician's Nephew' as to why it's important to read it first!   
   >>>   
   >>> Taking your advice, reading the LWW first, means that the wardrobe   
   >>> exists before its made from the wood of a tree from Narnia!   
   >>   
   >> I quote the opening paragraph"   
   >>   
   >> "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 world and the land   
   >> of Narnia first began."   
   >>   
   >> It assumes that the reader *already* knows about "all the comings and   
   >> goings between our world and the land of Narnia", and sets out to   
   >> explain the origin of a phenomenon already familiar to the reader.   
   >   
   >From the Harper Collins  website: "This [hardback]edition presents all seven   
   >books unabridged in one impressive volume. The books are presented here   
   >according to Lewis's preferred order, each chapter graced with an   
   >illustration byt the original artist, Pauline Baynes." Unfortunately it   
   >doesn't say what that "preferred order" is, but I will see whether the local   
   >Ottakars has a copy. At 25GBP it seems a good buy - cheaper than buying the   
   >seven paperbacks. The illustrations were originally line drawings, but   
   >Baynes later coloured them in (for a Folio Society boxed edition, IIRC). I   
   >suppose the new(ish) Harper Collins volume reproduces the coloured   
   >illustrations.   
      
   I have it, and indeed that was the one I used to quote the first paragraph of   
   "The magician's nephew", which, unfortunately, it had placed first. The   
   "preferred order" comes from a single letter that he wrote, and I doubt that   
   Lewis thought really seriously about the consequences of a casual remark..   
      
   If I had been his editor, and if the books had been published in this   
   "preferred order" while he was alive, I would have suggested numerous changes   
   for consistency with the new order, including changes to that first paragraph.   
   But the new order only came about after his death, and so it was too late to   
   make the consequential changes.   
      
   Most of the changes would affect "The lion the witch and the wardrobe" and   
   "The magician's nephew".   
      
   Lewis also tells us that the story started with a mental picture of a faun   
   loaded up with parcels passing under a lantern in a forest. He later explains   
   how some of the things get there in "The magician's nephew", that that was   
   later. And some things he never explained -- like where the faun did his   
   shopping in the snowbound wilderness, or how sewing machines got to Narnia.   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)