XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books.childrens, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: jf@NOSPAMmarage.demon.co.uk   
      
   X-No-Archive: yes   
      
   In message <6u47521ohutbmb25iu5japu328evo6ra3t@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes   
    writes   
      
   >I quote the opening paragraph"   
      
   I've already done that!   
   >   
   >"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.   
      
   Where on earth did you get that bizarre idea from? Look -- let me spell   
   it out for you. Volume 1 in any chronicles means the first book. It   
   doesn't matter when the volume was written. Volume 1 of The Narnia   
   Chronicles is 'The Magician's Nephew'. One means the first. Say it to   
   yourself over and over again. Sorry about the big words.   
      
   Right. Now for the second phase in the awesome task of spreading   
   enlightenment. Volume 2 in any chronicles mean the second book. In The   
   Narnia Chronicles it's 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. Just to   
   be helpful, in the boxed set Volume 2 is printed on the paperback's   
   spine just above the title: LWW. Not Volume 6 or 9, or even 69. But   
   Volume 2.   
      
   To recap: the first book is volume 1, the second book is volume 2. The   
   third book, A Horse and his Boy, is marked 3. Are you beginning to see a   
   pattern emerging?   
      
   Not yet? Okay -- here's more. On the first end paper of the boxed set's   
   first volume it says, that 'The Magician's Nephew', and I quote   
   verbatim: "This is the first adventure in the exciting 'Chronicles of   
   Narnia". Similar wordings are carried on the subsequent volumes. If you   
   stop and ponder this, it might dawn on you that it's a quite a simple   
   system that shouldn't be too difficult to follow.   
      
   Still not convinced? Very well, treat yourself to the boxed set of CDs   
   of the 22 hour production by the Focus on the Family radio theatre. It's   
   the definitive dramatization of the chronicles that I can't praise   
   highly enough. The music, FX, acting, direction are all superb. The   
   producer is Douglas Grisham, who introduces each chronicle with   
   reminiscences of his happy days with Jack Lewis. Guess which chronicle   
   kicks the series off? Yep -- 'The Magician's Nephew'!  Grisham relates   
   that Jack Lewis regarded it as the first and most important story in the   
   seven books because it tells the story of a child coming to terms with   
   his mother's terrible illness -- a theme that Jack Lewis was   
   particularly familiar with from his childhood in Ireland.   
      
   So there you have it. The author says that The Magician's Nephew was the   
   first story; his publishers say it was the first story and even make   
   this clear in the boxed set of paperbacks; the Focus on the Family say   
   it, and even the author's step son says it.   
      
   ISBN 0 00 7206127   
      
   I was going to remove the cross-posts because I avoid posting to groups   
   I don't subscribe to. I thought it would be a kindness to you, then I   
   saw that it looked to me as if you'd added them in the first place.   
      
   --   
   James Follett. Novelist. (G1LXP) http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk   
   The Silent Vulcan trilogy, starting with 'The Temple of the Winds', on BBC7   
   Sundays 1840.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)