XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books.childrens, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:02:41 GMT, "Dick Chambers"   
    wrote:   
      
   >JF  wrote   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   >No need to go on, I think I've got it already!  Just to check, does all this   
   >mean that Volume 2 is followed by Volume 3?   
      
   The problem is that the books were originally published as stand-alone books,   
   without volume numbers. Then when all had been published, some new editions   
   were published as boxed sets, with volume numbers. Then, some time after Lewis   
   died, they were published with *different* volume numbers. And some time after   
   that, the publishers decided to issue a boxed set, which they called "The   
   chronicles of Narnia", and James Follett has decided that this title defines   
   the order in which the books ought to be read.   
      
   Actually there is a logical order and a chronological order. I recommend the   
   logical order for a first reading:   
      
   _The lion, the witch and the wardrobe_ should be read first.   
   _The last battle_ should be read last.   
      
   _The magicians nephew_ and _The horse and his boy_ can be read anywhere   
   between the first and last.   
      
   _Prince Caspian_   
   _The voyage of the Dawn Treader_   
   _The silver chair_   
      
   Should be read in that order.   
      
   After you've read them once and know the characters and plots, you can reread   
   them in any order. The books that were written later assume that you are   
   familiar with some of the characters and events in the ones that were written   
   earlier. If Lerwis had ever seriously intended _The magician's nephew_ to be   
   published as "Volume I", then he would have rewritten it to make the series   
   logically (rather than chronologically) consistent, but he never did.   
      
   Reading _The magician's nephew_ as Volume I makes Lewis look like a sloppy   
   author with an incompetent editor who failed to notice the logical   
   inconsistency   
      
      
   --   
   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)